Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?
I've heard a lot of comparisons between his book and Gone Girl (GG) by Gillian Flynn and I have to say I don't see it. In GG I trusted no one and hated every character, except for Tanner, he was rather enjoyable. I also found GG to be incredibly slow for the first 150 pages, the only overly enjoyable part of it for me was the last line of the book. Now that that's over, I have to say that I felt absolutely none of my GG hate while reading The Girl on the Train (GotT).
I don't want to talk too much about the plot line because this is a really good book and I feel nice today, so I don't want to ruin it for anyone. I can tell you that with about 100 or so pages left I guessed the killer. It wasn't anything to do with the story, its one of those where you go back and forth a lot on suspects. It really clicked for me when Rachel (our protagonist) discusses the golf club incident in therapy. After that pieces just kind of fell into place and I started to doubt one character more than anyone else and that person ended up doing it, but I also read and watch a lot of mysteries/thrillers, so it is truly hard to stump me.
I enjoyed a lot of the little things in this book that makes up the big picture in GotT. I enjoyed the 3 narratives between Rachel (the girl on the train), Meghan (the missing), and Anna (the woman next door). The story is mostly told through Rachel and what she sees from the train, and her journey there after. Usually switching narrative too often or a chapter that has a lot of abrupt stops bothers me, but I felt that this added to the allure of the story. Even though the individual structures of the chapter was short, (you got multiple days in the life of 1 character at a time) the book as a whole has a nice flow to it.
This is probably my favorite book of the year, for reals one of the best that I read this summer! It also checked off 2 of the qualifications for the Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge, a mystery/thriller and a book that scares you. I absolutely had nightmares during and after reading this book. I know I'm supposed to be reading books for each individual category, but I came late to the game and I'm trying my best to catch up.
My final recommendation would be to absolutely read this book! No matter if you grab a hardcover or paperback copy or read it on your kindle, even the audio book would be good! Trust me you will not be disappointed. I hope everyone will enjoy this book as much as I did. I do think it is geared more towards women, but that doesn't mean men can't or shouldn't read/wouldn't enjoy. The Girl on the Train is the perfect book to start getting into thrillers if you haven't already. I can't wait to read more of Paula Hawkins, which means she better get a writing!
That's all for now!
<3's Laterz!
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