What I'm Reading… The Girl on the Train

The Girl On The Train by Paula HawkinsGirlonTrain

If you’re looking for your next great read, check out The Girl on the Train.  Part drama/part mystery, Hawkins tells this tale with three alternating points of view.  The narrators don’t seem connected at first, but as the story unfolds we find out just how much their lives overlap.

Each of the three speakers, all female, is flawed in her own tragic way and completely relatable.  The main character, Rachel, has suffered through a failed marriage and has yet to bring herself out of the dark hole of self-sabotage.  She assumes everyone around her is leading the most perfect version of life and that she just does not belong.  In particular, she begins to romanticize the life of a sweet young couple whose back deck she views from the window of her daily train.  When one of the married pair goes missing, Rachel finds herself sucked into the reality of their world, only to be forced to come to terms with her own.

The book has an excellent rhythm with each character telling their story from a slightly different points on the timeline, adding even more complexity to the novel.  Ending with a movie-scene twist of a finish, this book provides equal amounts of suspense and substance, making it quite hard to put down once you start.

 

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