From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins

Finish date: September 13, 2015

Why we're reading this: An audiobook
Published in 2015 and lots of good reviews.
The author was born and raised in Zimbabwe, though…more
[close] An audiobook
Published in 2015 and lots of good reviews.
The author was born and raised in Zimbabwe, though she lives in London now.

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What Members Thought

Jan 26, 2015 Melissa rated it it was amazing

Such a compelling read. I had a hard time putting it down and didn't know what to expect. I kept having all these theories about what happened and was blown away by the answer. All three narrators were easy to sympathize with...even the one I thought I wouldn't like. I felt like the very end was a bit anti-climactic after all that happened. Like I was waiting for yet another twist or more closure for some of the other characters. However, that didn't take away from my enjoyment and I can't stop ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Dec 26, 2014 Julianne Dunn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm still uncertain how I feel about this book. Told through the POV of three women involved in vastly different ways to a disappearance, the overall tone is just depressing. Primarily, we read through the lens of Rachel, a woman who has devolved into a drunk, who thinks she saw something important in relation to the disappearance. She comes off so broken that it is difficult to continuing reading. She is obsessed with her ex husband and we frequently start her sections off with her trying to pi ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2015 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, lotsa-buzz, unreliable-narrator, suspense-thriller, broken, psych-psych-psych, r2015-in-2015, 100-best-of-21st-c

Wow. Just wow. On the one hand, I don't want to give this too good of a review, because I don't want to make others' expectations too high. That might ruin it. This book need to sneak inside and wow you when you don't expect it. On the other hand, this was exquisite.

It's a bit like a roller coaster: steady yet fun at the start, the tension builds slowly but surely thought the first half - you're intrigued, not quite certain if this is going to be amazing or just fun, and it's okay if you need to Wow. Just wow. On the one hand, I don't want to give this too good of a review, because I don't want to make others' expectations too high. That might ruin it. This book need to sneak inside and wow you when you don't expect it. On the other hand, this was exquisite.

It's a bit like a roller coaster: steady yet fun at the start, the tension builds slowly but surely thought the first half - you're intrigued, not quite certain if this is going to be amazing or just fun, and it's okay if you need to set the book down now and then. The tension crests at the midway point, and there is no setting this book down, it is a breathless ride to the end.

The story is told from three points of view: Rachel, Anna, and Megan. If I have one quibble with this book, it's that the three voices are not sufficiently distinct - there were a few times I would lose sight of who was speaking, and I'd get "you" and "I" confused, and have to go back and check. That said, I definitely identified best with Rachel. She is the one I think of as the main character, the one who has the most depth, the one I understood the best. Rachel is fucked up, but I could easily see myself slipping into the mess she's in.

Through the first half, I found myself comparing this to other recent thrillers: Before I Go To Sleep and Gone Girl. This story is the one that might be told if the main character of Before I Go to Sleep was investigating the disappearance in Gone Girl, but both of those books were a bit too over the top to feel real (a mistake this book does not make).

Hawkins' writing is exquisite in its spareness. The character's musings appeal to my Inner Bitch.

Beautiful sunshine, cloudless skies, no one to play with, nothing to do. Living like this, the way I'm living at the moment, is harder in the summer when there is so much daylight, so little cover of darkness, when everyone is out and about, being flagrantly, aggressively happy. It's exhausting, and it makes you feel bad if you're not joining in.

*

She must be very secure in herself, I suppose, in them, for it not to bother her, to walk where another woman has walked before. She obviously doesn't think of me as a threat. I think about Ted Hughes, moving Assia Wevill into the home he'd shared with Plath, of her wearing Sylvias' clothes, brushing her hair with the same brush. I want to ring Anna up and remind her that Assia ended up with her head in the oven, just like Sylvia did.

*

Cathy is waiting for me when I get home. She's standing in the kitchen, aggressively drinking a glass of water.

That simple image, of "aggressively" drinking a glass of water ... it communicates so much in so few words: Cathy, normally ridiculously nice and accommodating, is angry, justifiably angry, she's stewing, she's simmering with all the things she wants to say, but she is also passive aggressive in her anger, she withholds the words and lets it out in small gestures. I would never think to describe it that way, but it is perfect.

Things I liked:
1. The characters are complex, with both good and bad qualities (except for the villain, in the end).
2. I did not guess who the villain was.
3. I LOVE the Unreliable Narrator trope, it makes the puzzle that much more fun to solve. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 16, 2015 Kim Marques rated it liked it

This book takes the idea of the flawed character to the extreme. There's not a single person to even really empathize with here, and it left me feeling vaguely uncomfortable the entire time I was reading. It's definitely a page turner, and I was engaged enough to read it in just a few days, but some of the writing was pretty flat and the end seemed to wrap up very quickly. I'd stick with Gillian Flynn. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2015 Nicole Adrienne rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, suspense, read-in-2015

Excellent psychological thriller. I have to say, I really dig unreliable narrators.

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 14, 2015 Stephanie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

Don't buy the Gone Girl comparisons. Good airport or beach read, maybe. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 01, 2015 Heather Griffitts Clark rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: bookies

Just okay

It took me a bit to get into the story. It too too long to go from plain depressing to interesting. It had a nice plot twist, but had it not been for book club, I'd have given up on it a quarter of the way through. ...more

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Jan 07, 2015 Nadine rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

This was reminiscent of Gone Girl in that it involves multiple unreliable (and mostly unlikeable) narrators telling the story of a crime. It definitely sucked me in and had me turning the pages quickly, but I can't say I enjoyed it since the characters were all so miserable. ...more

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Jan 01, 2015 Kerry rated it liked it

Twisted and sad. I have such a difficult time reading books where people's live unravel and they keep making bad decisions! Ahh! It makes me want to scream!

This divorcee, alcoholic loses her job and obsesses about her old neighborhood and her ideas of perfection. She is an observer from the train who then becomes more involved in the lives of the individuals whose houses face the train tracks. There is quite a murder mystery that she is drawn in to which kept up some of my intrigue. However, mu ...more

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Mar 03, 2015 Mia rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2015-books

Maybe I just heard too many rave reviews about this one, but it was not as good as everyone said.

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Dec 31, 2014 Stacey rated it really liked it

Throughout the first two thirds of the book I was underwhelmed and, quite frankly, tired of reading about Rachel and her bad decisions. Then the author threw in a nod to Gaslight and I was hooked. Very creepy but good.

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Feb 24, 2015 Eunice rated it liked it

Sometimes you just need a bit of brain candy and this fit the bill perfectly. No, it's not a literary standout but it definitely was a page turner that I couldn't put down. ...more

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