The Girl on the Train

By Paula Hawkins

Four out of Five Stars

Paula Hawkins has taken commuting to work and made it a lot more interesting and exciting than it ever should be. The Girl on the Train is a fast, engaging read that very quickly draws the reader into its world of flawed characters, specifically Rachel, a woman whose life is quickly unravelling due to alcoholism.

Rachel rides the train every day to work. This train passes by her old neighborhood, the one in which she lived happily with her husband, Tom. He still lives there with Anna and their daughter – Anna being the woman he had the affair with when they were married. Unable to let go of Tom and what once was, Rachel is still in his life, tormenting him and his wife with her neediness, but on most days doesn’t look to their house, instead observing another married couple, on their back porch or in their back yard when the train passes, and has developed a story of who and what they are. This all changes when that woman goes missing, and for reasons I can’t relay here, Rachel has to insert herself into the police investigation.

Hawkins tale is told in the first person, namely Rachel relaying her thoughts, feelings and actions, along with Megan, the woman who has gone missing, and Anna, the woman who stole Rachel’s husband. While The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller, with a crime involved, its true strength for me was as a character study. While Rachel’s battle with alcohol could have become tedious, Hawkins was able to find the right balance and maintain it throughout the novel, while also making the other characters and their flaws equally as entertaining.

I don’t want to say too much about the book, as its joy lies in the story slowly unfolding; and while I eventually had an idea of where it was going, and wasn’t too surprised, that didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment of delving into these characters lives for the time I did spend with them. As such, The Girl on the Train is definitely worth adding to any reading list – you shouldn’t be disappointed.