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a_mae13 's review for:
The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins
“It's impossible to resist the kindness of strangers.”
Okay, so I did read these books out of order of popularity. The Girl on the Train was significantly better that The Woman in the Window and The Woman in Cabin 10. While much of it was still predictable with a drunken, unreliable narrator, the twists were much better than the other novels mentioned. Rachel, an alcoholic and recently divorced woman, takes the same commuter train every day. She becomes obsessed with a seemingly perfect couple she observes from the train window—Megan and her husband Scott—who live near her ex-husband Tom and his new wife Anna. One day, Rachel sees Megan get into a fight with a man, and later Megan is deemed missing. The story bounces between Rachel, Megan, and Anna as narrators.
Favorite Character: this is tough because no one is really likable but if I had to choose, I'd pick Anna SOLELY due to the ending of this book. Everyone in this story is horribly flawed and self-righteous, which makes for a great thriller, but not for memorable characters.
The Good: the ending and some of Rachel's flashbacks. Neither Tom, Scott, nor the women in this story have many redeeming qualities. Rachel determines who the killer is through her flashbacks, Tom was taking advantage of her alcoholism and beating her, yet gaslighting her into saying she beat him and confronted him towards the end of the novel. What I loved about the ending was that Anna, who despises Rachel, finally came to a mutual agreement with her. Rachel confronts Tom as being the murderer in Megan's case, because they were having an affair. Tom tries to kill Rachel while Anna and her baby were watching. Anna distracts Tom and Rachel lunges at him and kills him. When the police show up, Anna covers for her and basically tells Rachel to never speak to her again.
The Bad: Tom's entire personality was based around cheating and having affairs, which almost glorified his relationship with Anna. They had the "perfect" life and family. Rachel having a one-night stand with Scott, after Megan was found dead, was certainly a choice and the hatred that Anna had for Rachel, knowing that she was the other woman and that Tom could very well be having another affair...since she was the affair when he was married to Rachel. Just messy characters with literally no personality outside of serving the plot.
Okay, so I did read these books out of order of popularity. The Girl on the Train was significantly better that The Woman in the Window and The Woman in Cabin 10. While much of it was still predictable with a drunken, unreliable narrator, the twists were much better than the other novels mentioned. Rachel, an alcoholic and recently divorced woman, takes the same commuter train every day. She becomes obsessed with a seemingly perfect couple she observes from the train window—Megan and her husband Scott—who live near her ex-husband Tom and his new wife Anna. One day, Rachel sees Megan get into a fight with a man, and later Megan is deemed missing. The story bounces between Rachel, Megan, and Anna as narrators.
Favorite Character: this is tough because no one is really likable but if I had to choose, I'd pick Anna SOLELY due to the ending of this book. Everyone in this story is horribly flawed and self-righteous, which makes for a great thriller, but not for memorable characters.
The Good: the ending and some of Rachel's flashbacks. Neither Tom, Scott, nor the women in this story have many redeeming qualities. Rachel determines who the killer is through her flashbacks,
The Bad: Tom's entire personality was based around cheating and having affairs, which almost glorified his relationship with Anna. They had the "perfect" life and family.