The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Narrator: Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey, India Fisher
Published by Riverhead Books
Publication Date January 13th 2015
Source: Bought
Genres: Thriller
Goodreads
The debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives.
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?
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. The plot was so enticing and appeared to be a thriller with a twist. Sadly, the characters were one-dimensional. Truthfully, I did not care for any of them. This was to the point where I didn’t care about the outcome. The plot was so far-fetched and came off as forced with a conclusion I saw 100 pages earlier. I so wanted to like this book but with each promising twist, a wrong turn was made that only led to the dissatisfaction of a lost opportunity. The Unfortunate thing about The Girl on the Train was that it had the potential to be a good thriller. However, it missed the mark by a long shot and felt cheated of time lost.
I felt much the same. In fact I got bogged down in the middle and had to make myself finish. And I didn’t like ANY of the characters. I am going to see the movie but the book was a little flat for me.
The characters were all despicable! After reading the book I’m a little hesitant to see the movie (plus the reviews haven’t been great). However, I’m still a little curious, it will probably be a DVD rental for me.
The marketing was so overbearing for this book when it came out, I vowed not to read it. I was thinking of changing my mind now that the movie is coming out, but it sounds like it’s not a very good book. Maybe it was written with a view to making it a movie?
Our book club chose it some time back when it first came out and we summed it up in one word, “confusing.”