Trainspotting in the Suburbs

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
 

To everyone else in this carriage I must look normal; I'm doing exactly what they do: commuting to work, making appointments, ticking things off lists. Just goes to show. 

For a long time I had heard nothing but good reviews for this book. Touted as the thriller of the year I had fairly high expectations and on the whole I was not disappointed with the story of the girl on the train.

The story is presented to us from the perspectives of three different women. The main character and the first perspective we are introduced to is that of Rachel, a divorced alcoholic who watches other people's lives from the window of the train she takes to and from London Euston each and everyday. She has a favourite couple that she watches from the train, a couple she believes to have the perfect life. She has named this couple Jason and Jess and has imagined their whole lives just from brief glances of them as her train stops outside their back garden everyday.

The second perspective from which we are told this story is that of Megan. Megan is one half of Rachel's imaginary couple, Jason and Jess. We soon find out, however, that Megan's life is far from the imagined fairy tale that Rachel believes it to be.

The third and final perspective is that of Anna, the new wife of Rachel's ex husband Tom. All three women's perspectives are presented in a diary style format with the main part of the story being set between July and September 2013. There are several entries from outside of this time period and I quite often found myself flicking backwards and forwards to keep track of dates and times (Not something which is particularly necessary but my Sherlock Holmes instincts kicked in and I became convinced that the dates would become pertinent to unravelling the mysteries of this tale).

The plot revolves around the sudden and unexpected disappearance of Megan. With our flawed protagonist Rachel believing she may be able to help to unravel the mystery, we begin a journey with her as she attempts to fill in the gaps of her blackout drunk evening when Megan went missing. I will say that I guessed the ending fairly early on but this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the story and there were many times throughout when I doubted whether or not I was even right.

The story starts slower than I was expecting but picks up pace fairly quickly and from that point onwards never slows down as we are treated to all the usual twists, turns, clues and red herrings that we have come to expect from the modern thriller. Rachel's struggles will have you cringing and trying to reason with her as you watch her make the same mistakes again and again. I found it hard to read her constant struggles and just wanted to help her sort her life out, desperately hoping that things come good for her in the end. There are many unlikable characters within this story and you will be frustrated with many of the decisions that characters make but you will be enthralled by their tales and ultimately race to the end, eager to figure out what has caused Megan to disappear.

I would rate this book 4 out of 5, not as good as Renee Knight's 'Disclaimer' but a fairly decent read nonetheless. I wasn't a huge fan of the diary style delivery of the story with its morning and evening entries but that would be my only gripe. When compared to the likes of Sharon Bolton's 'Little Black Lies' and Renee Knight's 'Disclaimer' it feels like i'm being generous with my rating; however I believe this is more due to just how good they are rather than 'The Girl on the Train' being a bad novel. It's hard to pinpoint anything particularly wrong with this book, I just found the other titles more enjoyable with more to sink your teeth into. I was looking for a fairly quick read with a mystery to unravel and this ticked all the boxes of what in was looking for in this type of book. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of thrillers or mystery novels and is looking for something quick. I will be interested to see the big screen adaptation of this one when it comes out towards the end of 2016. Done right, it definitely has the potential to become a great movie.