The Girl on the Train is Paula Hawkins' first thriller novel. Before I bought a copy, I debated whether to buy it or not. I was unsure of getting it because I felt that this book wasn't really my type. But after a few customers at work asked me if I had read it, I decided to give it a go. Just a research so I would be prepared next time someone ask me. So here I am, done reading it and writing my review.
The Blurb:
Every day the same. Until today.
Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens.
She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.
And then she sees something shocking, and in one moment everything changes.
Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar.
Now they'll see: she's much more than just the girl on the train...
My Thoughts:
Wow... what a ride...(no pun intended). That was a lot of drama going on between the characters. While reading this book, I started to think, How am I going to write this review without giving anything away? So here I sit, bit clueless on how to do this, but luckily the ending gave me something to write about. Because, as always, there's usually a twist when it comes to thrillers and (luckily for me) this was no exception.
This is going to be a completely different kind of review from me, because this is just how I have to to it. I will try my best to not spoil anything. I will not tell what happened, just about the characters you're going to meet in this book. So I guess I'm going to give you "information" on what to expect from this book.
The story is about three women's point of view. Rachel - The "main character", Megan - The missing person and Anna - Rachel's ex-husband's wife.
The majority of the story is surrounded round Rachel's life as an alcoholic who lives with a "friend" in an apartment. She takes the train back and forth from London almost every day. While on the train, she's seated near the windows and likes to make up stories about the life of the couple living in one of the houses near the railway whenever it pulls to a stop near their home. She calls them Jess and Jason. A perfect couple with a perfect life. So when Megan goes missing, she wants to know what happened. Rachel was near their street that night Megan disappeared and can't remember anything because of the blackout from too much alcohol. She feels she's a part of their life after watching them from the train almost every day for over a year. She also saw something the day before Megan went missing and wants to tell Scott about it and try to help him.
Unfortunately, Rachel's ex-husband, Tom, and his new wife, Anna, lives on the same street as Megan and Scott. Anna is terrified of Rachel because of all the bad things she's done to Anna and her new family. She wants Tom to get rid of Rachel, but he tells her over and over again that he's going to talk with her, which he does every time. So when Rachel's starts to show up on their street more frequently, Anna gets scared, thinking she's there only to cause trouble for them. So Anna's entries are more or less surrounded round Rachel and the hate towards her. When things starts to uncover about Megan's past, Anna becomes uneasy and scared because Megan has been in their house few times in the beginning. So there's a lot of drama surrounding the characters...
Megan's entries is surrounded about her life from few years earlier and up to the day she disappears. She is completely different from what Rachel imagines to say the least. She's seeing a therapist about her trouble sleeping and other problems that she's been through. Learning what she's been going through is sad. I also got frustrated about the things she did (the same with Anna). Seriously! But, you know, it's not easy to love just one person sometimes when another one shows up I guess. Like I said.. a lot of drama.
Back to Rachel before I starts spoiling the whole thing!
I know it's not easy to be an alcoholic, but sometimes.. just sometimes... I was like, Mate... you know you get blackouts and do bad things when you're drunk...WHY ARE YOU STILL DRINKING?? Seriously! If I was you, I would have stopped ages ago! I know it's bad thinking this, but sometimes...When you're not dealing with this yourself it's difficult to look at it from their perspective. It's like telling someone with anxiety to get over it. It doesn't work that way. Trust me, I know! I know so perfectly well, dealing with anxiety myself. I'm better now though, finally. Still got some degree of Socially Anxiety, but I manage thanks to my job for making me socialize even when my heart beats faster, my face turns slightly red and feeling bit shaky.
So, Rachel and her drinking problem. Poor girl. I do feel bad for her, because she too went through not so good things. I think she was strong when she decided to try and drink less (and maybe stop drinking altogether) when the whole Megan thing started. Of course, it wasn't easy for her but she tried.
All in all. It was bit of a slow start. I didn't know what to expect from this book, but when I started reading, I felt that nothing bad would really happen but I wanted to continue just to see where this whole plot were going. And I also continued because this was a "research" for work. Not that I wanted to stop reading after a few chapters! When things started to happen, I wanted to know more. I got more or less hocked because I had questions and wanted the answers. The ending was a huge twist, that's for sure. I wasn't sure who had done this and had a few suspects in mind, but none of them were this person. It's like the Strike series by "Robert Galbraith" were you have no idea who the killer is. Or, you think you know, but the ending blows your mind. Same thing here.
I think The Girl on the Train was a great book. Thrilling and suspenseful and, also, drama (maybe a tad much but still good). I also found out today that this book is turning into a movie! I watched the trailer before writing and I'm glad I read the book first. It looks interesting and I will see it when it comes out, but there where few things that annoyed me about the trailer. First of all, the story in the book takes place in England, but in the movie, it somehow takes place in America. Second, some (or most) of the scenes they showed on the trailer could more or less be a part of a fifty shades trailer. Like I wrote further up, majority of the plot is surrounded around Rachel and her drinking problems, harassing Tom and Anna by turning up drunk on their doorstep and calling Tom in the middle of the night. And the last thing that annoyed me was that they didn't show that much of what was actually the story in this book. Which, more or less it Rachel and the other things I wrote about further up.
At least now I might know some of the reasons why this book is popular here in Norway. One, the book has finally been translated to Norwegian (started selling the Norwegian copies few month ago) and there's a movie adaption coming up next year.
Phew... that was a long review. I hope I didn't give that much away. You will find out about the things I wrote about almost from the beginning so don't worry about that :P
There's a lot more to the story so if you want to read it but not sure, then I hope I helped you with your decision. It is a great book. Well, at least I thought it was great :P
And that's all for now! I might do another review pretty soon, because I'm going to read Paris For One after this and it got round 100 pages so I think I will finish fast.
Bye x
4/5
Next book to read: Paris For One - Jojo Moyes
