The Girl on the Train question

Nope not a book I enjoyed at all. Poor characters, dull story.

I didn't hate this book, but I didn't think it was good either. The characters were too unbelievable for me to really enjoy it and the twist at the end wasn't very surprising at all.
I admit it was an easy read, though, I read it almost in one sitting.

This book was ok. It got slow at times, but my curiosity about what Rachel would do next kept me going. I enjoyed that Rachel was kind of hard to like; it was different than most books I read. She didn't even like herself. None of the women in this book were portrayed in a very positive way. They were taken advantage of, manipulated, and tossed aside by the same man. The characters' inability to see past the false images presented by everyone was frustrating. I felt like they weren't realistic.

When I read books, I like to be in suspense, not knowing what the ending will hold, and motivated to continue reading because I have to know what comes next. This book didn't do that for me, and I had such high expectations. It didn't live up to its reputation. It was too slow paced, and I didn't think the characters were at all relatable or realistic.

I didn't think that this book was all that thrilling or captivating and at first I wasn't that impressed with the twist (I thought Anna was going to be the killer).

I've given it some thought though and I actually think that the twist was important. Rachel was a very vulnerable woman and the person that should have supported her and taken care of her instead chose to mentally abuse her and take advantage of her fragility. I thought that this book did a good job at showing how evil and manipulative people can be and how traumatizing and harmful domestic abuse is.

Unfortunately, I don't think that was the author's purpose in writing this book. I don't think she meant for it to have a deeper meaning or send an important message. I also want to be on the edge of my seat and up all night when I read a mystery/thriller and this book didn't do that for me. It was an easy read but it was bland and it wasn't until the end that the story really picked up. Overall, I thought it was kind of a let down and I didn't understand the hype. I also hope that every new thriller written by a female author doesn't continue to be marketed as the next Gone Girl.

I really liked it, but was a bit annoyed by the ending .. .thoughts?

Hated it! You should buy a coloring book instead!

Thrilling and putting the pieces together excited the nerves out of me. I will surely reread it again some time

Didn't hate it but didn't like it either. Very boring and very over-hyped. Knew what was going to happen half way through the book. Not a good read.

I loved that someone with little credibility turns the table. It made me scratch my head and say, "Go figure--"

Honestly, I loved it. I mean, there are some poorly written parts and areas that could have been better but overall, I think it was great.

This book was awful. I was almost half through it when I decided that I was not obligated to finish it. I couldn't see forcing my way to the end when there are so many good books to read.

Hm.. well first of all, I think it's a great story, with great character adaptations. I love the movie adaptation of the main character. The fact that she was an alcoholic who couldn't remember certain details obviously has me frustrated, but with each revelation, it was interesting to see where the story would take us. Personally, I knew the main character wasn't the killer and that she had just been caught into something terrible, which made her look guilty of something and the fact that she didn't have proper memories added to that. She's unstable, what can they do?
I also knew it wasn't the therapist, but he was obviously guilty of something.
Before even reaching the end, I had my predictions on the killer. The way that this person was acting made me point my finger at this person.
Other then that, I totally recommend this book to everyone and to read it first before watching the movie. The movie is great too!

I feel like the ending was EXTREMELY disappointing... I loved that I could NOT put the book down because it really kept me coming back for more. I listened to the audio book and finished in an extremely short period of time for someone like me who is chronic ADD... haha...

However, once I got to the end - the ending just... hit me. Like... "Really? What was the point of the weird guy on the train, honestly, since he was described in far too much detail for a supporting character- and WHAT THE HELL on the ending???? Really? This is just... What???"

The Girl on the Train was a disappointment for a 'best seller'. The ending was weak and unbelievable. A rush to finish and meet a deadline? How could an agent/publisher pass this... ?

I had high expectations for this book. Had to say that it wasn't as good as i hoped. Most likely won't read it again

This book moved so incredibly slow and I felt like it provided a lot of unnecessary character development. She’s an alcoholic, we get it......


I felt like it kept me coming back to figure out WTF was happening........ but the ending was so outlandish and not believable at all.

Terrible writing! Inconsistant character discriptions with a storyline that was off the rails.

I am quite surprised at the general opinion of this book. I thought it was excellent! I admit that a lot of the plot lines weren't perfect, and that characters could be unrealistic and flawed. But I think the way the story was sewn together gradually throughout the book was very clever. I found it particularly interesting how the author made it so you believe Rachel was a violent alcoholic and that she was exceptionally rude to her husband and even broke mirrors, but it was actually the husband using her blackouts to his own, sick advantage. A really gripping read, and even those of you who didn't enjoy it, you can't deny it was a real page turner!

Actually I hated it. I couldnt wait for it to end. It was boring and grey and ugly. I hated the characters and wanted to kill them all myself.

In Gone girl the characters were Horrible people you hated but it was real feeling with a spark like hating the Dallas Cowboys or George Bush. The Characters in this I hated like they made me ill at how pathetic they were, what boring, losers they were.

To me the Killer was obvious way before the end based on the fact to start with there were only what 5 characters in the whole book and the red herrings were so obvious. I mean they made you think it was four of the five at different times so of course it was the fifth one.

This was one of my 3 worst reads of the year and Im at 125 books so far...just over rated and boring reminds me of all the other bandwagon crap that has come along lately.

Gillian Flynn did it WAAYYY!!! better

It was interesting enough for me to carry on reading it. It's an easy book to follow, "a quick read".
I liked the fact that we could see the story through more than one person - I always tend to find that quite engaging because it reminds of how different people interpret things and how we see things as we are,rather than what they actually are, as Anain Nin said. If it hadn't been told from the point of view of the other women, Rachel would have started to really get on my nerves a bit. I enjoyed reading it but thriller moments kicked in a bit late and it lacked build up momentum.

Sorry thought it was poorly written didn't like it at all, though I preserved to the end. No suspense.

I would say, this book started off amazingly with the storm of thrill seemed to be hovering for a while along with the plot but later, it just got washed off.
I would not say this is an uninteresting book, because it is not, but it is predictably interesting, if i may say.
Though, i do not want to take the jewel away from Paula Hawkins, she has come up with this way of telling the incidents with diary entries, it always gives you mini fresh breaks whenever you slip on to the new chapter.

I feel this story although, could have been more twisted to let people think a bit more than they did, because trust me, it is not that difficult in this one!
If I divide the book into two halves, i would say, the first one is excellently thought of, but unfortunately the latter part does not keep you wonder about the mystery. Okay let's just say, not good as the first one. Period,

I was not a fan of this book. I read it during what seemed like the peak of books in its genre, recently after the hype of Gone Girl. However, unlike other books in the genre, this one was difficult for me to get through. I had trouble connecting to the characters and just following the plot in general. I genuinely hated the characters, not in a way where I still found them interesting but in the way where I found myself hoping they'd be replaced by other characters before the end. Would not recommend.

Do we need a spoiler notice? If so, this is it....

===========================

I haven't finished reading this yet, which I will, but I know how it ends from spoilers (not complaining, I read them on purpose). Do we have a physical description of Rachel? I don't remember seeing it yet. Maybe I missed it or it will come later. But I wish she would be a petite blue-eyed blonde like Anna and Megan. Then that would lead to us discovering that she and Megan and Anna are the same person, as are Scott, Tom and the other males. And we would find that Rachel has multiple personality disorder, and the book is the story of her sorting out the threads of those various personalities. I think that would be much more interesting than a straight murder mystery.

I really enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to reading more books by this author!

I didn't really enjoy this book. I found it slow and boring and couldn't finish it.

I thought the book was good. For awhile I didn't know who the mystery woman was but once I did I thought what a great twisr

I thought it was very slow at first, but I really couldn't put it down later. I was so disappointed in the film version. It had none of the suspense of the book.

Did not enjoy very much. The entire mystery was obvious by the middle of the book. It had a few quotes that stood out to me, besides that, wasn't very engaging. The trailer for the movie was even worse!

I really enjoyed this book. I found that the way that the story was structured is really interesting as the flashbacks help you to change your perspective from what you thought you already knew. It made me feel sympathy for the main character Rachel as most of the story she was drunk and disorderly and this helps to create tension in the story as we are unsure of what the truth actually is throughout the whole story, up until the end. It kept my attention throughout and the pace of the story was good.

This book started off weak and dull, even the writing feels a little immature but then it gets good, really good. What I like most about this book that every character had enough motive for committing the murder. So it keeps you guessing throughout. Unlike Agatha Christie's popular novel " then there were none'. I liked the book but the murders keep happening , we have no way of knowing who could have done it or why. In the end we are just kind of told , "hey there's the murderer and this is why he/she did it". I like mystery books where I've something on my own to work with, keeps me more engaged. So yeah, it's definitely worth a read.

Fue mi primer libro del año y la verdad es que la historia se me quedó bastante flojita tanto en historia como en personajes con caracteres algo flojos! Pero eso sí.. En ningun momento se me hizo pesado.. Solo que no me gusto mucho la verdad

Hated reading the book- surprisingly enough, the movie was way better at getting the story across. Between the characters being as dull as they were, having poor development on all ends, and adding unnecessary fillers to keep the story moving, I'm eh on it.

What I liked the most about this was the struggle with alcoholism. To me, this is what the book was about. This girl is in a life and death struggle with her drinking and it parallels what she is facing dealing with another life-threatening reality.
It was a good book to read and kept my attention but, there are just as many other good or better books of that genre. I did find myself feeling quite a bit of empathy for Rachel. It wasn't difficult to identify with her struggle of dealing with the past and drowning in a make belief world of where did it all go wrong. Seeing others who are happy and wondering why she can't quite get there and seems a way of life for her she will never attain. Not the greatest book I've ever read but, far from the worst.

I cannot say that I disliked “The Girl on the Train”. But I can’t say that I liked it either, mainly because I didn’t see its point.
Does this book want to keep me guessing about who killed Megan? Is it a wannabe Agatha Christie detective fiction but with the modern style of 21st century? The answer cannot be yes, because a challenging detective book should offer the readers small details to suggest the key, but not totally reveal it. It should tempt the readers to make up scenarios in their minds, but still be surprised by the end of the book. Although you could have figured out what was going on between Megan and Tom, you would have done so not by putting together subtle clues the author intentionally includes in her writing. It just had to be someone! The murderer couldn’t have been her husband or her therapist because it would have been conspicuous, and boring and not mysterious at all. But the author doesn’t reveal the affair of Megan and Tom until the very end, when everything happens like a boom! So, Hawkins fails to challenge her readers by letting them play the detective role. She actually ‘wastes’ a lot of time writing about Megan and Kamal, who turns out not to be involved in her disappearance after all.
This brings me to my second point. What if Megan is alive, safe and sound, and just decided to start her life over in a different place? But is this a novel of evolution, of psychological transformation? It is clear that all Paula Hawkins’ characters are miserable in a certain way. Rachel is a broken-hearted alcoholic who cannot move on with her life and stop harassing her ex-husband and his new family. Megan feels lost and is looking for a ‘meaning’ – but, unfortunately for her, she seems to search it in the arms of men, wanting to be saved, instead of focusing on her own growth, and Anna lives her ‘perfect motherhood life’ that eventually starts confining her freedom, leaving her with nothing but her baby. However, none of the characters seem to make any significant progress throughout the book. Megan has a terrible faith, and, even though the reader has access to her most painful memories, as well as her most intimate thoughts about her marriage, I can’t say that I know Megan. Rachel and Anna realize that their dream husband, Tom, is not so ‘dreamy’ at all. This can be relieving for Rachel, but again, I wanted to know how she manages to tackle her drinking problem and move on. After all, she’s just been through another traumatic experience. I feel sorry for Anna; her world is shattered to pieces, but I don’t know her either, I don’t know whether she just ends up like Rachel or whether she finds a new purpose in life apart from raising her child. So no, this cannot be a novel of character evolution.
The last thing I look for in a book is context – this can be the historic period the book envisages, the social issues it approaches or the message it sends. But this book just happens in London, where a woman goes missing, the mystery is eventually solved and the message is… don’t cheat on your husband and don’t develop a drinking problem?! I noticed that the ‘bad guys’, ‘the cheaters’ in this book get punished. But I don’t find this message inspiring- no, not at all.
The story was interesting, but in its desperate effort to be profound, it just ended up being shallow and nonsense.

It was nice how the author related the characters... The book was not so bad...I read it till the end....but yes it was not "wow"

I read the book quickly and mostly enjoyed it.

Same for the movie, though I love the quote from NYT reviewer who wrote "'The Girl on the Train' is a preposterous movie but not an unenjoyable one. . . 'Girl' doesn't falter in its absurdity or commitment to its own seriousness. It never winks . . ."

But one potential plot flaw that I saw, and I think most viewers of Law and Order (plain or SVU) would see is that the police didn't dump Megan's phone account and see that she had been making all the calls and texts to Tom, instead of Rachel doing it.

C'mon. That's modern investigation 101.

Anna was the sane one? Hmmm.

The revelation of the killer was somewhat underwhelming for me. i was like "what? thats it?" .It also didn't feel very convincing. However, i really like the book. I like all the crappy characters with all their self sabotaging behaviours and terrible lives. In one way or another, i could relate to them. I have gone through some pretty self sabotaging stages in my life so maybe thats why. I think i read the book in one or two sitting too. But this is not really a book that i would recommend to others. I think it requires a specific taste to like it. A lot of people would probably feel frustrated reading about these characters .

I battled through this book but it was hard slog.
The main character was a bit of a pain and I kind of hoped she'd be the Girl UNDER the Train half way through.
My partner on the other hand loved it.
I guess you can't win them all.

"Rachel" annoyed me to no end. Her inability to get out of her own way and "turtle on its back" helplessness were frustrating. None of the characters were particularly likeable, though. I went on more than one rant, while telling my husband about the story! Ha!

All that being said, I got sucked in and it was definitely one of those, "I can't stand to read it anymore! Oh, maybe just another chapter..." experiences and then I would read for several more chapters after that!

I saw the end coming but it was still a good, albeit frustrating, read.

I thought the book was very well written and I liked how it was structured a lot. More and more of the story was revealed to you through the flashbacks, which continuously changed your perspective on what you thought you already knew. That's what really made this book good.
But honest to God, I could NOT STAND Rachel. In the end with the plot twist and everything coming to light, I still couldn't feel that bad for her. She may have been the most pathetic, irritating character I've ever read. Her alcoholism was an unfortunate struggle and it was both sad and eye-opening to see her battle with it. I don't fault her for that. It was that whole woe is me, I'm a victim of life bit that was just abhorrent. She continuously made everyone miserable, lied repeatedly, and generally interfered where she had no place to, and still had the audacity to feel indignant when people called her out on it. While I did like this book quite a bit, her character ruined it for me.

I liked the book. I pretty much figured the ending by the halfway point. In addition, I found Rachel as a sad and pathetic person; yet, after seeing her life with Tom, I became more empathetic.

Sure it was slow at times, but never slow enough where I wished not to finish the book (I finished in five days). But, the pace quickened by the halfway point. The last thirty pages thrilled me.

Hated this book - badly written, plot that just really didn't go anywhere, predictable (like, honestly, how many of you didn't know who the killer was by the end of the first 1/3 of the book?), gaping plot holes, and far too much hype surrounding it (comparisons to Gone Girl were ridiculous). I so wanted to like it because I do like books about damaged people, and dark plots... but there wasn't anything redeeming about any of it.

I enjoyed the book, but actually found the ending somewhat unsatisfying and out of character.

(view spoiler)[Tom was secretly crazy, okay. But I don't think Rachel would have had it in her to kill him. They were divorced for two years and she so obviously still had feelings for him. I know it was a self defense type thing, but still. Anna too, even more so! She seemed to not have much of a reaction at the big reveal, but then suddenly she's not only helping Rachel (who she HATED, and was even kind of glad/relieved when Tom was going to kill her?), but MAKING CERTAIN that her husband was dead.

I guess part of me wishes that he got away with it - just to make the story a bit more interesting, ha! (hide spoiler)]

Just my opinion. Liked the book overall. Feel 'eh' about the ending.

The book is hyped

I read this book , really had a hard time finishing it . I think it was long and drawn out .No real depth to the story for me . But I saw where it was recommended . Definitely not a page turner for me .

Parts of the book were well written, other parts convoluted and bit contrived. As an author of the soon-to-be-published The End of Miracles, I was interested in the fact that the main character suffered infertility, and how that informed some of her actions, since the main character of TEOM has infertility, a miscarriage and a false pregnancy, which propel her into depression and unexpected behavior. I've been told by readers it is engrossing and intense all the way through, but the Girl on the Train has been an example of what in fiction works and what doesn't.

I did not like this book at all - the characters are shallow, dislikeable in the extreme, I felt as though the author moved backwards and forwards between the characters at a frenetic pace and imagined her throwing a dice to determine "Who dunnit". It was so bad, I have no interest in seeing the movie.

Overall, the book has a good pace, plot and I liked it - especially the flashback writing style and Rachel's character growing on me. I was expecting a thrilling end though but the plot unravelled itself a bit early and predictably. The killer got away too easy.