I don't get the comparison to Gone Girl. It wasn't anything like it.

[Mila]

People kept saying what a terrible person Rachel was, so I was expecting her to be evil. Instead, she was just depressed and self-medicating her depression with alcohol. She was annoying, pathetic, and unable to function but not anything like Amy Dunne. She was only unreliable because she would drink so much that she'd black out. Anna was a heartless bitch. Megan was a mess. There's no twist in this book. It's obvious who the killer is. It's just that the narrator hasn't caught up because she's such a mess. I thought the female characters were fairly typical and that Rachel was an accurate portrayal of depression.

Amy Dunne was some cartoonish evil genius character.

I just don't see the comparisons between the books other than having an unreliable narrator and being crime books.

[Cindy]

Everything these days is being compared to Gone Girl. Probably just to stir up interest. Luckiest Girl Alive was also compared to GG & I thought that comparison was a stretch too. (loved LGA btw). I guess that any book that doesn;t have your typical lovable heroine gets a GG comparison.

[A]

Yeah I've read a lot of books compared to Gone Girl that are nothing like Gone Girl, other than that they have a twist - like many novels. That being said I really enjoyed Gone Girl AND Girl on the Train (although I too guessed the murderer very early on). I thought it captured alcoholism really well, and hopefully it'll raise some awareness on the matter.

[Campbell]

They were alike in terms of the over-hype. There the comparison ends, I feel.

[Anita]

Since I thought "Gone Girl" was one of the worst books I've ever read, I've stayed away from any book compared to it. Over-hype definitely discourages me from reading a book!

[Mila]

Anita wrote: "Since I thought "Gone Girl" was one of the worst books I've ever read, I've stayed away from any book compared to it. Over-hype definitely discourages me from reading a book!"

I hated Gone Girl, if only for the misogyny that permeated it. The Girl on the Train irritated me less, if only because I found Rachel to be a realistic portrayal of a woman simultaneously suffering from depression and alcoholism. As someone who has battled depression, I can empathize with Rachel to a certain extent. Yes, she was pathetic, living vicariously through a couple in order to make her life somehow meaningful again, but it was believable how she got there.

I was not impressed by Amy Dunne and do not understand why people think this character is subversive.

[Laurel]

I thought the similarities were mostly in the writing style: how we see the story through different points of view, not quite knowing what the truth is right away, or who to even believe.

I jokingly thought "Oh I bet HE did it haha" right away, just because it was funny to me (almost like a Scooby Doo episode), but I didn't realize I was right until (view spoiler)[ she told the therapist about the golf club story. The it was like a thunderclap and I KNEW. (hide spoiler)] I didn't hate Gone Girl, but I definitely enjoyed this book far more. I thought it was more realistic maybe? More likely to be something that could really happen.

[Mila]

Laurel wrote: "I thought the similarities were mostly in the writing style: how we see the story through different points of view, not quite knowing what the truth is right away, or who to even believe.

I jokin..."

I definitely agree that it was more realistic than Gone Girl. I actually appreciate the character Rachel more so than Amy Dunne. As Amelia said, she was an accurate depiction of alcoholism and hopefully it brings more awareness to a problem that impacts so many people.

[Jim]

I think it is because of the multiple narrators.

[Simone]

I agree 1000000000000%!!

So sick of every book being compared to GG.

[Pearl]

The only comparison is that they both got more hype then they deserved, were disappointing books and had girl in the title. I have personally sworn off reading any book with girl in the title.

[Sage]

Glad to hear this because I didn't read The Girl on the Train because it was compared to Gone Girl and I didn't like GG at all. Now I might give Girl on the Train a try.

[Greg]

Sage wrote: "Glad to hear this because I didn't read The Girl on the Train because it was compared to Gone Girl and I didn't like GG at all. Now I might give Girl on the Train a try."
Sage, everyone, Gone Girl was a fun read with a good twist. Nothing "literary" about it, just a fun page-turning read. Same with "Girl on a Train", a fun read with no particular style at all. Arguably, there are three types of books: 1) The 'literary' books, the ones which win prizes, such as "The Goldfinch" and
"All the Light We Cannot See" and in this group we'll find the 'classics' like "War and Peace". 2) The really good, page-turning reads which we simply enjoy, like "Gone Girl" and "Girl on a Train", and Steig Larson's trilogy. 3) And then everything else. It's like Hollywood films: they give awards to "Birdman" and "Boyhood" but what we really want is fun at the movies, like "Avengers" or "The Kingsman". So, Gone Girl simply set the standard for very good, but non-literary, books for this decade.

[Calvina]

Girl on a Train was okay. it was a bit to slow for me and Rachel was just annoying and weak like her ex husband described. Every character was a bit mentally unstable. they did't really give enough explanation as to why Tom was the way he was. I would have liked to hear more explanation for the abuse Tom inflicted on Rachel and how he made her believe it was the other way around.

[Lindsay]

I think the *main* reason it's compared to Gone Girl is just because it has a similar writing style and accessibility and if you have anything even slightly similar to Gone Girl it's worth trying to ride the coat-tails of it's success.

However, I do think it has similarities. Both stories have unreliable narrators (for whatever reason), and in both books you have a sense of not knowing who to trust or who the "bad" people might be.

I think a better match would be The Girl on the Train and Before I Go to Sleep. Both books have memory gaps and mysterious partners.

[Sheila]

I agree, plus I really didn't care for the story line. It didn't seem realistic to me.

[sublimosa]

Lindsay wrote: "I think the *main* reason it's compared to Gone Girl is just because it has a similar writing style and accessibility and if you have anything even slightly similar to Gone Girl it's worth trying t..."

Ah! Before I Go To Sleep is indeed probably a better comparison! I jusst don't see Gone Girl as "accessible" as TGOTT. I had to pay attention to Gone Girl, not so much TGOTT.

[Read On!]

TGOTT was your average murder mystery to me. Why it's stayed on the bestseller lists for so long boggles my mind.
The second half of Gone Girl was truly excellent!

[Jood]

I no longer pay any attention at all to any books likened to Gone Girl. I recently read a piece of drivel called "Little Girl Gone" which was compared to GG - the only similarity being the two words Gone and Girl, nut not necessarily in that order.

These endless comparisons are pure hype, an attempt to get more copies off the shelves.

[Karina]

I think it is compared to Gone Girl a lot because it has a plot twist like in the middle close to the end of the book. Other then that, there is no comparison, they are different storylines and are headed different ways.

It is definitely an attempt to sell more books.

[Chris]

I agree, it's not like Gone Girl at all. It's much better. The main character is so much more real amoung other things. I honestly think it's because they are both in the same genre and happen to be very popular at the same time.

[Bonnie]

I was so dissapointed in this book. Gone Girl was so much better! The level of writing of Gillian Flynn cannot be even close to compared to Paula Hawkins. There was very little to no character development and the writing was choppy. :(

[TJ]

The comparison is a simple one: Girl goes missing, husband comes under suspicion.

[Mayor]

It seems like current trend in TV, film, and literature aside from unreliable narrator and "crime-isn" overtones, is to sequence the story through different narrators' POV and different time segmenting. A TV example of this is show "Damages" starring Glenn Close where the actual content of any season or episode is fairly small but they replay certain scenes over and over and add a bit more each time until you finally see the whole picture (and get very sad indeed because of how much time you have wasted). But I agree these books have nothing in common other than both being contemporary fiction written by women with main character being female in crime-isn genre. GG I thought was somewhat a satirical look at dating and marriage and reality TV and such. The characters there are two-dimensional caricatures and the fun there is not in the characters but in the sense of fun the author is having especially when Amy is narrating and how Amy foresees nearly everything her hubby will do. Agree with others here that strongest part of Girl on Train was Rachel's alcoholism/depression and how accurate that portrayal seemed to be. I think Girl on Train is more a story of vindication for Rachel than a crime story.

[Ymke]

I first read Girl on the train and then Gone Girl. I found Girl on the train not a good novel. For me there was no depth in the characters. The personalities of the characters did not came trough. For a thriller it was a bit boring and the ending a bit absurd.
I read Gone Girl straight after that. Had more depth and was fare more exited.
I don't see the comparison between the two books.
I found Girl on the Train more like Before I go to sleep. Both looking for clues in the past, both trusting people they shouldn't trust. Both shallow in raison d'être.

[Abhijeet]

*** spoilers ***

I've not read Gone Girl but have seen the movie. Based on that movie and my reading of this book, I can see some similarity in the plot.

In Gone Girl, the wife is initially portrayed as the long suffering spouse and in this book, it is the husband. Then there is twist in both the plots, and these characters actually turn out to be the villains of the piece instead of being the victims.

[Jeanine]

I compared the style of the book to Gone Girl because of the back and forth of time and characters