by Paula Hawkins
323 pages
Okay, now that I am finished with the second reading challenge, I will be posting here now (until I decide to take on a new challenge...haha). I had seen this book on the shelves at the bookstores for quite some time, but didn't really know much about it. Then, when we went to see Jason Bourne, there was a preview for the movie version of The Girl on the Train, and it definitely caught my attention.
I read the book during the first week back at school, but if I hadn't been working, I probably wouldn't have been able to put it down -- not because it was the best thing I have ever read, but because it was pretty suspenseful. I needed to know what happened next. This feeling was amplified by the way the book was formatted. Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. Let me start with a little plot.
The book begins with Rachel, aka "The girl on the train." Rachel is commuting to work, as she does every day. During her time on the train, Rachel likes to look out the windows and imagine the goings-on of the people she sees in the houses they pass. One such couple is Jess and Jason, the young couple who are madly in love and lead the perfect life. Rachel likes to imagine what it would be like to be Jess.
So, parts of the book are written from the point of view of Rachel and they take place in the present. We quickly learn that Rachel isn't a reliable narrator. She is a serious alcoholic and suffers blackouts. We also learn that she isn't actually going to work every day because she was fired for showing up at work drunk. One day, Rachel discovers that Jess is not really Jess (of course she already knew this, she simply made up the names for her fantasy world). Jess is Megan and Megan is missing.
So, parts of the book are also written from the point of view of Megan and they begin about a year earlier. Megan's story leads up to the night of her disappearance. This helped with the need to keep reading. There was a constant desire to find out how the two stories would come together. It took me a little while to get used to Megan being in the past, only because Rachel is the dominate character so I would get used to being in the present and forget to time travel back.
If that weren't enough, Rachel has a deep need to feel important. Because of this, she entwines herself into the investigation of Megan's disappearance. She contacts Jason (who is really named Scott) and tells the police about an affair Megan was having. In her meddling, Rachel also involves her ex-husband, who she is still in love with, and his new wife, Anna. Anna is yet another person whose point of view we get in the book. It takes place in the present, like Rachel, and allows us to see a perspective different from that of our unreliable narrator.
This book has been praised very highly, but, while I did enjoy it, it wasn't my favorite. I liked all of the suspense and the twists and turns. I'm not entirely sure what it was, but something about the book reminded me of Gone Girl. I am someone who really disliked the ending of Gone Girl, I won't ruin it for you, but it really made me mad (I really like Gillian Flynn, just hated that ending). There came a point near the end of The Girl on the Train when I thought I was going to get another Gone Girl ending, and that really upset me. You will be pleased to know that the ending actually ended up being satisfactory.
I'd recommend this book if you like suspense. There is a tangled web of lies and missing memories and many pieces of the puzzle that need to be put into place.
4 Stars