Book Review: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

“You don’t know her. But she knows you.”

Rachel is having a tough time, she’s lost her marriage and her job and is a very heavy drinker. Her ex-husband Tom now lives in their old marital home with his new wife, Anna and their daughter. Rachel is living with an old friend from university, but has not told her she is unemployed and keeps up the ruse of commuting to work. Her commute is where this story starts as Rachel passes her old home every day on the train she becomes a voyeur and feels she knows something, buried in her memory when a local woman goes missing.

I cannot fault the way this story was told the narrative and characterisation were exemplary, I did find it somewhat predictable and so the conclusion lacked the wow-factor for me. The story is told, very cleverly, from the point of view of three female characters, Anna, Rachel and Megan, I loved how the story slotted together when told from these three different points of view. However, there was one thing that kept bothering me about the story and it was simply this: Rachel’s inebriated memory “blackouts” leave her clueless, however after an extended period of time those memories become more prominent and real to her? This simple premise made no sense to me. None of us remember better later, memories do not work that way.

A good thriller, but predictable and spoilt, for me personally, due to a big plot hole.

Links to Book:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Goodreads