The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

You don't know her. But she knows you.

Rear Window meets Gone Girl, in this exceptional and startling psychological thriller.

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train...

'Achieves a sinister poetry... Hawkins keeps the nastiest twist for last.'

'The thriller scene will have to up its game if it's to match Hawkins this year.'

Review by Paul Lappen (310515) Rating (8/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 8/10
Rachel is having a hard time of it. Her marriage has broken down, and her husband Tom has moved on to Anna. They have started the family that Rachel and Tom never could have.

Rachel travels on the same train every day to a job that she lost nine months earlier, due to her problems with Alcohol. She wants to keep the pretence of a job and a good income to her land lady, but she drinks on the train, has moments of blacking out, and is soon shown to be both unreliable and deceitful.

She looks into the houses she passes and fixes on the seemingly perfect lives of ‘Jess and Jason’. However, their lives are not perfect, and when ‘Jess’ or Megan in reality goes missing, Rachel has to make a life changing decision about what she has seen, and what she thinks she knows.

The Girl on the Train is Paula Hawkins debut novel, and has spent many weeks at the top of best-seller lists. Her background is in Journalism means that she can write in a way that is both literary, but also deals with the small details and grubby little faults that exist within all of our lives. Rachel is show to be an unreliable narrator, and the story is also told by Anna, who dislikes Rachel for the past she has with Tom, and it is also told in flashback, from the perspective of Megan.

When the Police arrive their investigation is hampered by Rachel, who the police dismiss, but as the story unfolds, we realise that the murderer is a lot closer to home and that the main characters are all in danger.

The Girl on the Train is both a thriller, but it is also a novel about humanity, about the problems that we all face, and the issues that colour our everyday lives. Hawkins is a name and a talent to watch.
Paul Lappen (31st May 2015)