Book Review | The Girl On The Train

Friday, September 18, 2015

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins tells the story of 30 something Rachel Watson who takes the same train into London every single day, passing the same rows of houses along the tracks time and time again. Rachel herself somewhat struggles with her life. She's an alcoholic and let's just say her career and family plans didn't quite work out as she had envisioned them once. So while she is on that train she keeps seeing that seemingly perfect couple in their seemingly happy family home and she starts calling them Jess and Jason and in her head Rachel imagines them to have the perfect loving relationship and basically everything Rachel herself always aspired to have. But one day Rachel sees something that doesn't fit in the picture, something that becomes increasingly important when Jess suddenly goes missing.

As the story goes on and we learn more about Rachel, we also find out that she used to live in one of the houses she keeps looking at every day, just a couple of houses down the road from where Jess and Jason, who are actually called Megan and Scott, live. She used to live there with her husband Tom who Rachel is still in love with and sends drunken texts to which she later won't remember.

The story is being told from different perspectives. Mainly we hear Rachel telling her story but then the perspective switches and Megan begins to tell her story and later Anna, Tom's new wife and mother of his infant daughter.

As I really don't wanna spoil the book for anyone I won't go into much more detail than that on the story and just leave it here.

So what I thought about the book.. I BLOODY LOVED IT! While I don't think I've ever come across a character less likeable then Rachel it still fascinated me from chapter one. All the little gaps in her memories and what secrets they might hold! I also quite liked reading the story from different perspectives, especially when Rachel and Anna were concerned! Also the vast difference between Rachel's vision of 'Jess and Jason's' life and the actual reality of it as told by Megan. I think this isn't something only Rachel does, we're all way too often blinded by superficial things and Instagrams and Pinterests and all too easily forget that behind that happy photo things might not be that great at all.

The story twists and turns and still manages to completely catch you by surprise in the end! And that's what a good book should do! I said it before and I'll say it again, I loved reading it! I often hear it being compared to 'Gone Girl' by Gilian Flynn and even the ads advertised it as 'The New Gone Girl'. I don't quite see why though? Is it because of the twist in the story? The end that couldn't really have been predicted? I don't know but I have to say while I also really really REALLY enjoyed Gone Girl I found 'The Girl On The Train' to be more catching, seriously unputdownable and just a perfectly constructed crime story. If you still haven't got what I want to tell you it's this: Go and buy it if you like you're crime stories, you will not regret it!

Lots of Love,

Jess x