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The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins

Start date: March 12, 2015

Finish date: April 30, 2015

Discussion: Group Book Discussion

Why we're reading this: Winner of the March/April Bookmarks Selection poll.
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What Members Thought

Mar 18, 2016 The Sassy Bookworm rated it liked it

Everyone and their brother seems to have read this one, so I thought it was time I gave into peer pressure and gave it a go.

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I enjoyed this one for the most part. I wasn't as blown away as I expected to be with all the hype surrounding it. It kept me guessing until the end though. There were a couple things that really didn't make any sense, and I didn't find a single character particularly likable. But overall I am glad I gave it a go.

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16 likes · Like · see review

Oct 09, 2014 Beth Knight rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own-it

As of right now, my actual rating for this book is 3.5 but that could go up or down after thinking about it for a few days. I don't know if it's just me, because I'm not much of a reader of thrillers, or if the book was "overhyped", but the book was kind of anticlimactic for me. The ending didn't come as much of a shock to me. I've heard this book being compared to Gone Girl and I can see somewhat of a similarity but I honestly liked Gone Girl better. if thrillers were my "thing" I may have give ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Jan 08, 2015 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, rec-ig-blogs-friends-other, _own-ebook, read-in-2015

This is a really good thriller - fast paced, interesting characters, solid story. It certainly didn't blow me away but I really liked it. I hate that it keeps getting compared to Gone Girl because I think that is an unfair comparison. This is a solid book on it's own and I think the Gone Girl comparison comes with expectations that are unnecessary.

I definitely think this one is worth reading but I suggest you don't read a lot about it before you start. This is one that is better enjoyed with no ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2015 Kathy rated it really liked it

Shelves: england, mystery, trains

I approach reading a book such as The Girl on the Train with all the hype surrounding it in a state of both excitement and trepidation. With promises that it’s going to be one of the year's best books, I read the book with this expectation hovering over me. I really wanted to love it, to be able to proclaim my agreement with the horn tooters and prophets. It was interesting to see if I would fall in with those who proclaim its genius or those who failed to be smitten.

This one had me lingering i I approach reading a book such as The Girl on the Train with all the hype surrounding it in a state of both excitement and trepidation. With promises that it’s going to be one of the year's best books, I read the book with this expectation hovering over me. I really wanted to love it, to be able to proclaim my agreement with the horn tooters and prophets. It was interesting to see if I would fall in with those who proclaim its genius or those who failed to be smitten.

This one had me lingering in the land of suspended opinion for pretty much the first half of the book. I genuinely disliked all the characters and found the three major women narrators either weak or bitchy. However, there is one measure of a novel’s effectiveness that cannot be denied. Did I need to keep reading to see what happens? Did I stay up late reading to fulfill that need as quickly as possible? The answers to both questions are “yes,” so I have to conclude that the story is a compelling one, and the deeply flawed characters are paramount to the success of the plot. The whole crazy setup works, and the characters do evolve. Of course, the fact that I have a fascination with trains and a long standing curiosity about what is going on in houses that I pass either on a train or car enhanced the method in which the story unfolds. My voyeurism was born watching Rear Window, where watching the daily routines of neighbors proved chillingly exciting and deadly. Not surprisingly, Hawkins’ book has been described as having Hitchcockian flair.

Rachel Watson is about as sad a sack as can be, and the only real interest she has in life is watching the lives of others out of the train window as she travels from a small suburb of London into the city itself. Alcoholism and obsession are the constants of her life, and moving on from a devastating divorce seems an elusive step for her. As a distraction from her pain and decline, Rachel has become fixated on one couple in particular during her daily commute and has named them Jason and Jess, the perfect couple. The train’s signal stop enables Rachel to witness Jason and Jess having coffee on their back terrace in the mornings, and she becomes emotionally invested in the scene playing out before her. And, then Rachel's image of her perfect couple gets slammed by reality, as interactions Rachael witnesses in her train watching spill over into a drama of a missing woman. The often incoherent state of black out in which Rachel finds herself proves to land her right in the middle of this suburban drama as she strives to remember vital information. The police consider her an unreliable witness when she reports on what she’s seen from her couple watching. As Rachel desperately searches for answers, the lines between lies and truth blur, and the tension of the story winds tighter and tighter.

Paula Hawkins uses three alternating narrators, three women at the heart of the story, with Rachel's voice being the prominent one. This approach allows the reader to understand how very little is as it seems. It works toward the climax of the different perspectives coming together in a chilling reveal. I started out stating that I didn't like the characters, meaning I wouldn't pick them as people to be in my life, but it doesn't mean that the characters didn't do their job well. While it won't be my favorite book of the year and isn't an "it" book for me, it was a good read that hit on my "Rear Window" sense of thrill.
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7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2015 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, audio, ohio-e-book-project, 2015

This book is delicious. A good mystery that had me questioning all the characters until very close to the end.

Rachel is an unreliable narrator due to her alcoholism and the subsequent black-outs. But in her Swiss cheese memory she has the keys and clues to what happened to Megan, a former neighbor who disappeared the last time Rachel was in her old neighborhood - where she returns to watch her ex-husband and his new wife, Anna.

Kept me involved and very interested. Three narrators - one for eac ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2015 Barbara rated it really liked it

I couldn't put this one down and read it in a day...which isn't typical for me since I don't have much free time for reading. While the three narrators were clearly flawed with a boat load of issues they were sympathetic and relatable. It was an engrossing and suspenseful read that left me far more satisfied than Gone Girl. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 13, 2015 Sera rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, library, thriller-suspense

This book played out well on audio for me.

I wish that book critics and marketers would stop comparing every thriller to Gone Girl. It's not really fair to the authors in this genre who are trying to tell their own stories in their own ways.

In Hawkins' debut novel, Hawkins weaves a tale about a lonely, jealous alcoholic woman and two happily married couples, when, oh, oh - one of the 3 women in this circle goes missing. How the lives of all 3 women intersect and what it means to the "who done it" ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 19, 2014 Lisa Roberts rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

An unreliable narrator, mostly because she's always drunk and drowning he sorrows, tells most of this thriller/mystery. Rachel, recently divorced and fired from her job, drinks to pass the day. She has seen something but because of her groggy and befuddled memory, she can't clear up what she might have seen or who she might have seen. She wants to be good, she wants to be sober, she wants love, but misery overtakes her day after day. This is a mystery but also a study on who we are and whether w ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 03, 2015 Laurie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Whoa, first, I don't typically read books focused on affairs, alcoholism, or murder. This one, though, grabbed me at 9:00 this morning and held me captive until I finished the novel tonight!

"Twice a day, I am offered a view into other lives, just for a moment. There’s something comforting about the sight of strangers safe at home."

"Life is not a paragraph, and death is no parenthesis."

"have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts. Who was i ...more

1 like · Like · see review