The Girl on the Train: Paula Hawkins

“THERE SHE SITS, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN.  WHAT SHE SEES, GAZING OUT THE WINDOW, WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING.

“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 looks forward to it.  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?

“Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.”

Here’s another delayed review (sorry!).  I’d been meaning to read this book for a while now, especially after I’d been told by people who weren’t avid readers that this was worth the read.  I still have not seen the film adaptation, but I’m now definitely looking forward to watching it.

I think what really makes this book the Rachel’s unreliability as a narrator.  A majority of the book is told from her perspective with interjections from other characters – most of which take place prior to Rachel’s experiences.  At first, Rachel seems stable, employed, and – though she’s upset about her divorce – she seems to have tried her best to move on.  As the story progresses, however, we learn the depth of Rachel’s inability to cope, the lengths to which she goes to hide her life from her flat-mate, and how she simply cannot let go of her ex-husband and former life.  She paints a relatively rosy picture of her former married life; one with a loving husband, a home she adored, and the possibility of a future.  As she opens up more to the readers, we learn how much her own dysfunctionality played a part in the downfall of her marriage and her husband’s affair and subsequent marriage to his mistress.  I was torn between feeling sorry for Rachel and getting the sense that she was more than a little to blame for all of it.  Her drinking began during her marriage and only intensified afterwards.  We learn that she cannot wait for her drinks on the train ride home – that she practically lives for them.  Her other obsession is watching a beautiful couple with their (she believes) idyllic life on her train ride into the city.

Each morning, Rachel spies the couple breakfasting in the sunshine.  She imagines lives and hobbies and romance for them.  She pictures the perfection of their life in their trackside home and feels as if she truly knows them.  Surely they must be the epitome of happiness?

Rachel lives for the little ray of sunshine spying on them brings to her miserable existence.  It isn’t until she sees something very unexpected in their back garden that the story seems to spiral out of control.  What shows up on the news shortly thereafter convinces Rachel of the importance of what she witnessed…

Who do we believe?  Rachel, the woman who drinks and cannot recall what happens during her all-too-common blackouts?  The snippets of information we are given from the points of view of the other characters in the months leading up to the incident?  When she cannot take it anymore, Rachel goes to the police with her suspicions and her information.  They largely appear to dismiss her – especially when they learn of her volatile history and habits of contacting and harassing her ex-husband and his new family where they live several doors down from her idyllic fantasy couple.  Could Rachel have had something to do with what happened?  How can anyone trust her – how can she trust herself – when her memory is filled with a large black void during with absolutely anything could have happened?  Frustrated, Rachel takes some drastic measures and entangles herself in a web of lies as she tries to do what she believes is right.  As the story unfolds, however, she wonders if she’s done the right thing – and whether or not she’d just jumped head-first into dangerous waters.

The dark twists and turns of this intense story will keep you on the edge of your seat.  The unreliable narrator makes you second guess your own opinions and assumptions.  The surprise ending will leave you breathless.

I definitely recommend this book for any fan of suspenseful fiction.  The characters are raw and real; that reality is very slowly unveiled, making you question what you thought you knew about them.  Hawkins is a talented author with a knack for keeping her readers in the dark until just the right time (even though I did end up guessing the surprise ending, I still give her props for disguising it so well).