The Girl on the Train

I loved this taut, gripping who-dun-it mystery genre of book because the setting and characters are scenes right out of life—real, everyday people. I can relate to this because it’s reality and could really happen!

Love triangles, suspicion, and told in a unique way—this story was a masterful exploration into the human psyche. I love books where the predicament or dream of the character makes me squirm. Whether to be admired or pitied, the characters’ flaws are no less real than our own. They could be our very own neighbors. Or they could be us. 

A multiple POV thriller that kept me up all night. This book awed me with its multiple POVs combined with unreliability and timeline jumps.

As the book shifted from one POV to the other and from one timeline to another, I loved how the author weaved in the backstories of the characters by showing the impact it had on the present timeline.

The writing. The style, the words used, and the way the sentences spun the story is something I still think about, years after I first read this book. It drew me in, lulled me into a false sense… show more.

This book is addictive!

We are introduced to an unreliable narrator who has you mesmerized from the moment you first meet her. It taught me how fragile we all are as human beings and that the line between stable and unstable is a questionable one. I love the voyeuristic nature of the narrative; we are literally looking through someone else’s window.

A book that spawned a hundred copycats (well, several at least), I immediately fell in love with the hero of the story, Rachel, and her descent into alcoholism and depression following a traumatic divorce.

It’s told through multiple perspectives to cleverly unveil the truth. You never really know quite what’s going on throughout, especially as Rachel’s memory is invariably impaired by her heavy drinking.

It’s dark, disturbing, and brilliantly written with a twisty plot that will you scratching your head until the shocking final scenes.  

I really enjoyed this novel, or maybe “enjoy” isn’t the word. I was captivated by the novel. The main characters are three women: the ex-wife narrator, the wife, and the lover. The narrator, who is the helpless victim of such brutal gaslighting by her horrific ex-husband that she’s driven to drink and is on the verge of ruining her life, when certain events regarding the other two women offer her a path to redemption and rescue. The story speaks to any woman who’s suffered from psychological abuse from a man in her life, which probably accounts for its massive success… show more.

I know this book has taken some criticism but I love everything about it – from the jiggling letters on the cover to the alcoholic narrator. The way it unfolds so methodically, so inexorably, is a treasure. Surprises are sprinkled throughout the narrative, as well as in the blockbuster finale. And who isn’t intrigued by the idea of a voyeur peering into our lives, from a moving train no less?