The Girl on the Train Book Review




The Girl on the Train movie will be coming out soon.  For those of you who have yet to read the book, I encourage you to do so.  I prefer fantasy, science fiction and classic mysteries, but this book does have mysterious aspects and twists that you may never see coming.  I'll begin from the beginning.


**In case you didn’t see it the first time: Spoilers Ahead (and the Culprit is Revealed)!

 The Girl on the Train has three women narrating: Rachel, Megan and Anna.




  • Rachel - The main narrator and the girl on the train. She rides the train into town on her way to work everyday and passes her old house and street. Rachel notices a man and a woman a couple of doors down from her old house and imagines their perfect life together. Later, Rachel finds out about the woman’s disappearance and because of the fiction she created in her head, she feels obligated to figure out what happened. She was also in the neighborhood the day the woman disappeared and Rachel suspects the man she saw is responsible.
  • Megan - The woman who disappears. We find out that she is married to Scott, but she isn’t happy. Her past haunts her and she has affairs behind Scott’s back. Additionally, she is hired by Rachel’s ex-husband, Tom, to be a babysitter.
  • Anna - “The other woman”. Rachel and Tom lived together on the same street as Megan until Tom cheated on Rachel with Anna. He then kicked Rachel out of their house and married Anna. They live happily with a baby. Because Rachel keeps showing up on their doorstep, Anna becomes a nervous wreck and fears Rachel will harm her and her baby.

Between Rachel’s memory loss, Anna’s fear and paranoia and Megan’s flashbacks, there are quite a few links to connect and confusion to sift through. Rachel showed her Nancy Drew skills when she researched the suspects and interviewed them. That certainly took guts, especially since Rachel thought at one point that Scott was responsible for Megan’s disappearance.

I enjoyed the use of the “unreliable narrator” and how we see things from different points of view. Rachel isn’t even sure of herself of what happens at times because of her blackouts from her excessive drinking. Throughout the book, I wondered why Hawkins didn’t include Tom as a narrator because he played a significant role in the three women’s lives. Of course, I only realized the reason at the end. On the other hand, Hawkins could have had fun with Tom’s narrative by using it as a red herring with double meanings.

It was only halfway through the book when I began suspecting Tom as a liar since he was the common element among the three women in addition to Rachel repeatedly recounting her experiences with Tom when she was drunk and how she never remembered the things he said she had said and done while in her stupor. Authors use repetition intentionally.

The ending to the book was quite frightening because of its realism. Tom tries to kill Rachel when she tries to convince Anna that Tom was having an affair with Megan (and killed her) just as he was having an affair with her (Anna) when he was with Rachel. Anna is in a state of shock and wants to protect her child, so she doesn’t help Rachel fight Tom until the last moment. Tom dies and both Rachel and Anna are questioned by the police, but neither one of them mention that Anna helped Tom die faster.

I think the element that attracted most people to the book was the Hitchcockian beginning reminiscent of Rear Window along with the romance and mystery of being on a train which is reminiscent of films like North by Northwest and The Tourist.

What made me pick up the book was to see why it was so popular. For several weeks, Indigo proudly displayed shelves of The Girl on the Train at the front of the store, so I saw it many times. Then, one day, I had forgotten to bring a book with me, so I immediately went to Indigo with the book in mind. The cover also appealed to me with its doubled letters and simplicity.

I recommend this book and am planning to see the movie.


For more book reviews, check out my library.

Services

Need an editor, beta reader or book reviewer for your novel or short story? Check out my website to learn more about my services or email me about your project at smurphy.writer1@gmail.com!
Image source: https://dynamic.indigoimages.ca/books/038568231x.jpg?altimages=true&scaleup=true&maxheight=515&width=380&quality=85&sale=12&lang=en

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Still Scratching My Head After Reading The Clockmaker's Daughter

Image
  I've read two other books by Kate Morton: The Distant Hours and The Secret Keeper . Both books were poetically written, atmospheric, mysterious and tragic. And I was satisfied with both. Therefore, I did go into this book with expectations because I am familiar with her style, and my expectations were met in the first-half. This book started off in true Morton style, but the second half crashed and burned for me because it feels rushed and has holes in.  Summary The Clockmaker's Daughter  by Kate Morton is a mix of historical fiction and mystery. Readers are taken on a journey across time to put the pieces together about what happened at Birchwood Manor during the summer of 1862 where a robbery, a murder and a disappearance occurred.  Members of the Magenta Brotherhood gathered for a summer at renowned painter Edward Radcliffe's home, Birchwood Manor. Edward, his sister, his favorite model and some friends worked on their artistic projects and enjoyed their time t...
Read more

The Enchanting Tale of the House of Salt and Sorrows

Image
You 're probably aware of the trend nowadays where stories are told and retold in new ways; now is the age of story recycling. Look at the super hero films, like Spiderman and Batman. The same thing is happening in the book industry: fairy tales are constantly rewritten from a new perspective, like that of the villain. House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig is a fairy tale retelling, but it's one that focuses on a lesser-known tale: Grimm's The Twelve Dancing Princesses . I read this story when I was young; it was part of a book that was paired with a more original telling of Hans Christen Andersen's The Little Mermaid . The Original Story of The Twelve Princesses The King of twelve princesses finds that his daughters' shoes are constantly in tatters and they are always tired, yet he knows they do not venture out of the castle. Even when he locks their doors at night, nothing changes, so the King makes a Royal announcement for any man to spend three ...
Read more

Take a Road Trip through Ireland with Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch

Image
Cliffs of Moher - Photo by  Sarah Donisi  on  Unsplash If I were writing a travel brochure for Ireland, I start with what it smells like. It's a combination of just-fallen rain mixed with earth and something else, something secret. For me,  Love & Luck  by Jenna Evans Welch is reminiscent of the movie Leap Year because it follows the protagonist on a road trip across Ireland and she encounters many ups and downs along the way. But the plot of Love & Luck is quite different as it's a coming-of-age story. Its genre is YA fiction. I picked up this novel because I'm part Irish and would love to explore the country one day. I am fascinated by Irish lore and love getting swept up in the magic of the tales.  Love & Luck seems to be the unofficial second book since Welch's previous novel, Love & Gelato , follows Lina, Addie's best friend, and explains why she's in Italy. But readers, like myself, who have not read Lina' story are given enoug...
Read more