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The Girl on the Train Book Review
Paula Hawkins
Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon
Review: ★★★☆☆
OH MAN.
If you’re going to read this book and you’re no good with this genre, try not to finish it at 2AM, all alone in your house…
… Otherwise you’d be me, sitting here freaked out of your mind.
May as well write about it since it seems like I won’t be sleeping anytime soon 😦
First up – don’t compare this to Gone Girl – for some reason a lot of people on Goodreads seem to be doing this. Perhaps same genre, but it’s like trying to compare Harry Potter and [insert young adult fantasy title here].
The Girl on the Train is like being big brother, watching a group of people trying to detangle each other within four, very close walls. That is, if big brother only let in liars, alcoholics, and convicted murderers.
EVERY DAY THE SAME
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. 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.UNTIL TODAY
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 goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?
The Girl on the Train definitely feels very cramped – like a bottle episode of Law and Order. Like going back and forth from point A to point B with new information every time, but never being able to piece together the whole picture. As frustrating as this was, it held enough suspense to keep you going, with each tiny trickle of information leading to another, entirely different world of possibility.
I’m not going to say its absolutely gripping – but I will say, once you hit the second half, it’ll be pretty hard to put down. Overall, I do think it was a pretty good read! Though I’ll probably stick to stories that don’t give me heart attacks for a while now.
SEE BELOW FOR MY SPOILER-FULL THOUGHTS!
I think I was so engrossed during the end of the book that I failed to realise how much I didn’t like the conclusion.
Once they’d uncovered Megan’s body, it unravelled so quickly, and all the little hints came together to expose the whole picture… but by the time I realised, it was too late. I was maybe reading at double my usual speed in some kind of adrenaline explosion in my brain! I stopped for a second and told myself over and over that there’s no way they would kill off the main character! And despite my brain telling itself not to ruin anything, I did flip ahead a few chapters to check if her name was on the front of any chapters ha. No self-control whatsoever.
When Anna twisted the cork… I don’t know what came over me, but I sat here in my bed, quietly fist pumping while my cat snoozed blissfully on my lap. Vengeance is naaaasty.
Moments after watching some silly animal videos to try and still my beating heart, I had a good long think about the ending and just… I don’t know. Tom’s character is so weird. If you’re that crazy, why would you marry? On the flip side, why would you marry someone if you didn’t know anything about them?
But there’s also the fact that they were together for so long?
I don’t know!
I’m all fuzzy at the moment (its now 3am) and I’m just not satisfied with his character. I’m not saying that he shouldn’t have been the one, but up until the reveal, he was a fly on the wall. But I guess that’s just the nature of the genre.
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