Book Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Genre:	Murder Mystery, Thriller
Book Name:	The Girl on the Train
Author:	Paula Hawkins
Pages:	336
Publication Year:	2015
Publisher:	Riverhead Books
Notable points:	Made into a movie by same name in 2016

The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller, well written by Paula Hawkins. Dark, humorless, with part story telling by the three females, the book kept on going back and forth between different time periods. But it’s not a female oriented book. It’s just dealing with the psyche of different people, alcoholism and jealousy. And it just gives an underlying message that too much of anything is bad – be it alcohol, trust or blind faith, love, adventure, obsession or narcissism.

While reading, the book made such an impact on me that I got bad dreams for two days with me walking around in Rachel’s shoes in dark labyrinth in search of something never attainable.

If the self introspection could have been cut a little and some things disassociated (hate that forcefully induced red haired man having useless relevance), it would have been a perfect Hitchcock movie, that I had once dared to watch.

Read it for a long trail into darkness, to discover the opposite of social media sponsored happiness. Of what you see portrayed is not exactly what it seems!

Excerpt from the back cover of the book: EVERY DAY THE SAME Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. UNTIL TODAY And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

About the author: Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before turning her hand to fiction. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, Paula moved to London in 1989 and has lived there ever since. The Girl on the Train is her first thriller. Twitter: @PaulaHWrites

Rating: 8/10