Author: Paula Hawkins
Release date: January 13, 2015
Genre: Psychological thriller
Publisher: Riverhead Books
The boy who cried wolf is now an alcoholic woman filled with hate
The subject of amnesia in thrillers often have the a harder tale to portray- not only must they tell well thought out plots, but make it convincible to the point where we as readers feel just as much in the dark as the characters in the novel do. Which brings to the interesting tale of The Girl on the Train; a truly gripping tale involving three women, death, and of course a train?
The flow of the novel is, to quite simple put, beautiful woven between the three main ladies- Rachel, Megan and Anna. Rachel is first encountered is this narrative commuting from home to the streets of London, When we meet her she is exhausted from your typical working day and eager to be back home to relax. Having atleast four cans of alcohol in her bag certainly helps. The journey home takes her through the street where she use to live, and where her ex-husband Tom now lives with his new wife Anna. Seeing how Rachel can’t handle to looking at that home now, it safe to say the relationship did not end on the best of terms. It is in this area she notices a young couple every day, who she called Jess and Jason. One day however, she is thrown in shock after reading in the paper that Jess (who is actually named Megan) has apparently disappeared. After continuing to read, she sees that the main suspect is actually Jason (real name Scoot).
Rachel in her heart knows Scoot would never do that to his wife, so she decides to get involved, and solve this intricate mystery. With that however, they are a few problems. For starters Rachel is a known alcoholic, known to experience blackouts and unstable with her behaviour. Rachel in this novel is not sexy, in actuality she is probably one of these most unlikeable main characters I have seen in a while. A brave move by the author, and a move of which I have full respect for.
“There’s nothing so painful, so corrosive, as suspicion.”
It’s even more accurate to say most of the characters in this novel are flawed- these flaws lead to downfalls and shocking moments throughout that helps us readers invest deeply into turning each page and finding out more. Is Scoot truly innocent? What role does Tom play in this mess? Anna for the most part certainly earns the hate toward her, but what else does she have to reveal?
The Girl on the Train is written expertly by Paula Hawkins; which the constant balancing between time and different perspectives, the suspense grows and grows. The twists are never obvious and make you question all logic in a good and fascinating way.
