Friday, March 27, 2015

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins



Publication: January 13, 2015
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Source: The Publisher

A debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives.
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?
A compulsively readable, emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller that draws comparisons to Gone Girl, The Silent Wife, or Before I Go to Sleep, this is an electrifying debut embraced by readers across markets and categories.

Rachel is a big time alcoholic…and a bit of a fraud. She pretends to go to work everyday in London. Everyday she passes the house she used to live in with her then husband Tom (who is now remarried and has a child). She also passes the house of a couple she names Jess and Jason. She re-imagines their life…what they do for a living…hobbies, etc.. It gives her something else to think about besides her own life. Since she has been watching them for several months, she feels as if she sort of knows them. One day Rachel witness something involving Jess that forever changes things. And it turns out Jess, whose name is actually Megan has gone missing.

Rachel drinks way too much and doesn’t care how that makes her look to other people or herself really. Because she drunk so much, she inevitably lost her job.
Megan used to run an art gallery..a job she loved, but the gallery didn’t survive and now she stays home. She is married, but her husband doesn’t trust her. For a possibly good reason...

The story is told mostly through the voice of Rachel. But Megan also has a good part of the story as well, which I liked. Her story begins like a flashback, a year prior to everything that has happened.

I liked getting glimpses into Megan’s life, it made the story that much more engaging instead of just seeing everything through Rachel’s eyes. Because of Rachel’s drinking and blackouts she turned out to be an unreliable narrator, which I enjoyed. It had me doubting what she said and even wondering if she had something to do with Megan’s disappearance.  The story was fun and easy to get into. Plus it had me guessing all the way. And the ending had me saying "Wow, I did not expect that." Thrillers are one of my favorite genres to read and The Girl on the Train did not disappoint.


RATING: 4 out of 5.


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2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Good to here. It was better than I thought it would be. I'm glad I gave it a try.

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