Finished reading this book this morning on the subway. Seems...

Finished reading this book this morning on the subway. Seems like an ideal place to read a book with a title like this, but my subway line is underground, so I never see anything cool to obsess over like the character in the book does. A little kid, though, couldn’t stop herself reading over my shoulder, which put me in a bad mood, and I had to put the book away until she left.

The Girl on the Train has been compared to Gone Girl, but really only in the sense that it’s a thriller/mystery involving a missing woman. Thankfully, the remainder of the story is different, because I hate it when people copy each other. Be inspired, but make it yours. Paula Hawkins made it hers.

One thing that this book pushes is the dangers of alcohol. Not a little bit. Not a social drinker. But when your life gets effed up enough that you need to dull that pain and you have ten drinks a day and end up blacking out hours of your life. That kind of drinking.

This story involves a big chunk of missing time. But thankfully, she didn’t start the story there. A big, “Chapter One: there’s blood on my hands. What the hell happened last night?” nothing like that. The story begins with the introduction of the character, a little who she is and what she does, how she behaves, and then when she drinks enough to lose an entire evening, you nod to yourself and think, “yup. She’d totally do that.”

This isn’t your typical police procedural or amateur detective mystery. Rachel is no Nancy Drew. She’s a damaged woman who can’t let her ex-husband go, and her best intentions to “help” when a woman she’s been watching from the train goes missing are a total shit show. But the author makes sure you can see her good intentions and her screw ups are consistent with her personality. This is probably accurate to how being an amateur detective would really be: creepy meddling.

Nicely written. Took me all of 3 sessions to read the whole thing.