The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

It’s been a very long time since I last read a crime novel, so picking up The Girl on the Train I was pretty excited. This novel had so much hype around it in 2015, claiming it was the ‘new Gone Girl’ and I really wanted to find out for myself how great it actually was.

Title: The Girl On The Train

Author: Paula Hawkins

Genre: Crime, Contemporary, Thriller, Mystery

Publisher: Doubleday

Publication Date: 15th January 2015

Pages: 320

Summery : 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…

The Girl on the Train follows Rachel, a drunk who travels in to London every day on the train. From her train she can see the perfect couple who she names Jess and Jason – and also her ex-husbands home with his new wife. You wouldn’t think of all these different lives somehow being intertwined, but they really are.

On the lead up to reading this novel I heard quite a few mixed reviews. Most people said it was incredible story and well told, however a few parts of it just were not what they were expecting. I absolutely adored it. It was my first full read of 2016 and I cannot stress enough how glad I am it was.

At first I struggled to connect with Rachel. She’s a drunk, a bit whiney and a bit of an absolute prick to be completely honest. It isn’t until later on when you really start to connect with the characters. By the end I fully invested in each and every character in the story, each one had their own purpose and excitement to them that literally leaved you gasping.

One of the best things about this novel is the style of writing. To begin with I was very unsure of the monologue-style writing and figured it might get a little boring. However The Girl on the Train is told from three perspectives – Rachel, Megan and Anna. It was interesting to hear from just the women’s side of the story and it kept the very disjointed timeline somewhat together. I actually really enjoyed the way it was written by the end.

As I said, it’s been a long time since I’ve read a crime novel and I was never a huge reader in the genre anyway, so I’m not really sure how similar this is to other storylines out there at the moment. From other crime novels I’ve read it was a change from the constant police interaction and the monotonous viewpoints. It was a very welcome change. I found the storyline to be enticing and exciting and it definitely constantly left you thinking (although I was particularly proud of myself when I managed to figure out the ending half way through!)

My one little off point about The Girl on the Train was the ending. It wasn’t a bad ending, it was okay. But it was just okay. I was expecting something much more exciting and bigger to happen at the end. Whereas it left you with a nice feeling, it wasn’t particularly thrilling and didn’t seem to fit the rest of the book.

Overall I’m more than happy with this novel. It was quite frankly thrilling and that’s what you want from a thriller novel I assume. It was a little bit creepy and often made my stomach turn. I’ve recommended this novel to so many people just because the plot is fantastic. If you haven’t already picked up The Girl on the Train I urge you to do so RIGHT NOW!