The Girl on the Train Review

‘The Girl on the Train’ was written by Paula Hawkins, and is one of those books which everybody seems to demand that you read. The story revolves mainly around the character of Rachel, a divorced alcoholic, who is suffering an alcohol-induced sense of amnesia in regard to the night when a girl went missing.
To begin with, the stories layout is somewhat complicated. Not only is the story told in three different perspectives, but the dates of accounts also jumps around, meaning it can be complicated if you don’t take note of the date at the start of each passage. The chapter sizes are also longer than I usually prefer, but there are easy places to stop.
Perspective wise, I found two of the characters very irritating; Rachel and Anna. Anna I found to be self-absorbed, naive and nasty, and Rachel I found to be heavily infuriating and irritating. Although these characters were realistic, it did mean I had to put the book down for a few hours sometimes, just to stop me wanting to punch things. With that said, however, Rachel’s actions and behaviour does become somewhat justified towards the end of the novel. Even so, I found it difficult to care about both characters, and felt that this took something away from the book.
I found the concept of this book to be very intelligent, and genuinely made me feel excited to read more of it each day. From an engaging start to every dark twist that unfolds, it leaves the reader wanting more. Even now, after knowing all the twists, I would happily reread this novel.
The author’s writing style is easily readable, and I loved the way in which some small details are cleverly referred to throughout. The ending ensures that all loose ends are tied up, something which I do enjoy, and doesn’t overly disappoint, although I personally would’ve preferred something a little deeper.

As a whole, I did deeply enjoy this thriller. I haven’t read enough books of this genre to compare to, but I do definitely recommend it to others. Although I know that there are probably better novels out there, The Girl on the Train is still thoroughly intriguing, interesting and worth a read. 

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