The Girl on the Train (Movie Tie-In)

An intricately crafted glimpse of a character tethered loosely to life, a world shattered and skewed by odds normally conceived as surmountable, an everyday-type tragedy that ordinary people face and overcome daily, but 'The Girl On The Train' cannot, she cannot rise above the ache of her divorce, she cannot find courage, she cannot move on. This portrait of suffering is so richly developed in this tale, so poignantly embroidered that the raw pain of rejection etches the pages as if scalded by a hot needle drawn across tender skin. The protagonist is not even likable, but she is, nevertheless, irresistible because the author so cleverly yanks pieces of every reader and tosses them into the traits of this anti-heroine until she becomes utterly personal, we've all felt her angst, if not as keenly. Rachel is an ugly drunk, she sneaks canned gin-and-tonic onto the morning train, she abuses her best friend's hospitality and she is winding herself into the knot of homeless-vagrant at speed. She fumbles, falls and creates chaos wherever she goes, she also lives in a uniquely conjured imaginary world:- she devises a fantasy existence for a couple she often spies from the solitary window of her commuter train compartment. She names the couple, emotes unrealistic affection at them, and believes they fit her ideal of what love is meant to be. Cunningly, this couple lives only doors away from her ex and his new lady-love and cherub toddler. Ah what a setting, so filled with the possibility of destructive force. Yes, force, an entire vortex of swirling mayhem sprinkled to glitter the scene and tantalize the reader. The author not only masters the sense of intrigue brilliantly, but she peppers it with eloquent descriptions of location, environment and the protagonist's state of mind. This aspect is so subtly handled that the scene is lodged in the reader's mind as if by magic, the reader is pulled into the story with all senses tingling: aroma, hue, shade and drama are brushed in at ever layer. This is an accomplished dramatist, and the thrill of the technique will keep the reader flipping the pages well into the night. The story rotates around a sighting Rachel makes of her dream girl that shocks her and pushes her into the reality of her make-believe couple, she has information that could solve a crime, and suddenly she acquires a personality, she starts to shape up and 'fix' herself. This is the true fulcrum of the tale, the turning point that puts the reader on Rachel's side, prompts the reader to 'root' for her and 'like' her. Ultimately the thriller aspect, for me at least, takes a backseat to the character development and the emotional see-saw ride created by the shifting emotions in the story, the whodunit aspect becomes less important, there is a whole book to read rather than only a climax to tie up the story. I enjoyed reading it immensely even if I imagined it would end differently.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins 4 stars!! “Life is not a paragraph, and death is no parenthesis.” So, I had been on a run of emotional reads and needed something different to brush away those proverbial emotional cobwebs...nothing better than a suspense type read. This is one of those books that gets the old grey matter working as you try and become Sherlock Holmes, reading between the lines and putting two and two together and coming up with five. I have to admit I was pretty useless in trying to work out whodunit in this one, although I did work it out before it was revealed, but not long before. “One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told. I’ve got a few of those.” This is a book where I found it hard to like any of the characters, which actually amazes me considering I could not put the book down. I was sympathetic towards Rachel at times, but even her I wanted to throttle at various points. So how can a book full of characters that you hate be so all-consuming? This is the genius part, the plot was unique, the writing suspenseful and addictive and not one character in this book turns out who/what you perceive them to be. “The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps.” This book was like a charade party, at the beginning you knew who everyone was pretending to be and then when they took of their mask, bam, totally somebody else...you get my drift? Everyone in this book wears a mask, whether it be for good or evil. Who to trust? Who to believe? “Nobody warned me it would break us. But it did. Or rather, it broke me, and then I broke us.” We have all had that daily, monotonous commute whereby you sit down on the train and look aimlessly out the window as the scenery passes you by, the same s***, different day scenario. Rachel’s train stops at the same stop light every day and this stop light is right outside a little row of houses and Rachel has dreamt up who lives there, what they do, where they work etc. She has created this little fictional village in her head to pass the time. One day she sees something away from the norm, she knows she shouldn’t have seen it, but it just adds a bit more spice to the little story that she has going on in her head. When the woman later turns up missing is what Rachel saw pertinent to the investigation? “I want to drag knives over my skin, just to feel something other than shame, but I'm not even brave enough for that” I have to say, I did start out listening to this one but found that I had to jump back to actually reading it because the switches in POV and timeline jumps got really confusing at times when you are playing it by ear. This is a book that is continually moving, hurtling you around in the process, especially your brain as you struggle to keep a mental note of all the who, what’s, where’s and why’s. Rachel has had a tough few years, she has just lost her job, just got divorced from her husband who left her for another woman and she walks around in a permanent state of drunkenness...she is a wallower. She wallows in self-pity for the majority of this book but finally when she is sober you begin to see the real Rachel underneath. The trouble with being a drunk is you become an unreliable witness and when her past and present begin to collide the mess only gets messier. “I felt isolated in my misery. I became lonely, so I drank a bit, and then a bit more, and then I became lonelier, because no one likes being around a drunk. I lost and I drank and I drank and I lost.” For a debut novel this was a fantastic read, Paula Hawkins truly delivered a book that confused, befuddled and totally messed with your mind. With many a red herring thrown in to throw you off the scent you will find yourself constantly second guessing everything you read. It was like Cluedo...it was Mr Black, in the drawing room with a rope...oh no it was Mrs Red, in the garden with a hammer, oh no it wasn’t it was...and it goes on...and on...until finally EUREKA!! “They’re what I lost, they’re everything I want to be.” If you love suspense then this is a great read and if you can get past some irritating characters that make stupid choices then you will definitely love it. I can’t wait to see what else Paula Hawkins pens, because if this is anything to go by she has an extremely bright future ahead of her.

Catching from the first page, like a roller coaster, one cannot keep emotions bottled. Amazing writing and storytelling. Must read.

Very good book and interesting to read I recommend

Ce roman policier est complètement atypique : Rachel, une jeune femme divorcée, en coloc, à la dérive, alcoolique prend le train tous les jours pour se rendre à son travail. Son train marque l'arrêt tous les matins quelques minutes aux abords de l'arrière du pavillon où elle a vécu autrefois avec son mari. Sur la terrasse d'un autre pavillon tout proche, elle remarque un jeune couple "glamour" qui prend son petit déjeuner les matins. Elle leur invente des noms, Jess et Jason, une histoire romantique et ils comblent le vide abyssal de sa vie. Un matin, déception, Jess est sur la terrasse, embrassant un homme qui n'est pas Jason. Quelques jours plus tard, les journaux révèlent que Jess, dont le vrai nom s'avère être Megan, a disparu de manière inquiétante. Rachel décide de mener l'enquête...... Mais qui s'intéresse aux divagations d'une alcoolique désespérée et incohérente ? Elle détient pourtant dans un coin de sa mémoire la vérité sur cette disparition. Bien écrit et captivant de la 1ère à la dernière page, j'ai été fascinée par l'histoire qui sort de tous les classiques du genre. Amatrice de policiers anglo-saxons, c'est mon meilleur roman depuis longtemps, je crois que c'est le premier roman de cette ancienne journaliste, un "coup de maître" je suis déjà impatiente de lire le second.

“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.” ----Jodi Picoult Paula Hawkins, the British international best-selling author, has penned a mind-blowing unputdownable debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, which has shook up the whole world with its intensity of thrill, mystery and unpredictable and shocking turn of events. The climax simply nails the whole story. The story revolves around a mid-aged, divorced, loner, alcoholic, jobless woman who is a regular commuter on the morning train and just like every other day she overlooks her window and enjoys the normal human life on the other side of the tracks. Until one day, she sees something that changes her life forever. Synopsis: EVERYDAY THE SAME Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. 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. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train. Rachel, the protagonist, is the regular traveler on the morning train and on her way to the city, she spies and make up fictional stories about the lives on the other side of the tracks. Among them, she has a personal favorite house and is very keen about the lives of that family, she makes up stories and has given name to the people who reside in that house. Jess and Jason, are the happily married couple whom Rachel loves to spy on. Jess is like her alter ego. Jess has everything that Rachel can never have or has forever lost it. Once upon a time Rachel used to live in the same street and had a life like Jess, with a husband named, Tom. But one day, she sees her "Jess" with a different man and that is when Rachel decides to take things into her own hand and little did she knew that her life would become so threatening and challenging from that point. And who can blame her black-outs when she is point drunk! Before penning out my review, I would like to give a standing ovation to the author, Paula Hawkins, who as per me is a genius who knows how to play with her readers' mind. Her imagination knows no boundary or creativity or darkness that can engulf the readers with its intensity. The writing is A-class, eloquent, articulate and exceptional. The narrative felt like a drug, as the story spills out from Rachel's POV, which is, in short, sad to read about, due to her equally sad and pathetic lonely life, it felt like right from the beginning, Rachel pulled me into this story and kept me arrested to it till the very last page. Her tone is stimulating with gaps and holes due to her uncountable black outs, that kept me guessing and pulling out my hair till the major climax. There are also two other main characters, Megan and Anna, and the chapters shift from Rachel's POV to Anna's to Megan's, and the three women has an equal psychological grip on my mind with their life stories, problems and drama. The setting of Northwestern Home Counties in London is impeccable done as the author vividly captures the landscape, the lifestyle, the houses, the trees of suburban London. While reading, I felt like I was easily transported to such a landscape in my mind's eyes. The author even captures the condition inside a jam-packed train compartment and how the people adjust to stand under the steamy and sweaty conditions, and the demeanor of the people those travelling everyday to their work place on a train strikingly. The characters are excellent and thoroughly well-developed. The main three characters are depicted with end number of flaws and how their shortcomings become their own enemy. The characters are psychologically challenged and their life is not an ideal one. But the author has impressively captured the realism in their demeanor. All the three women are self-centered and selfish, whereas their boldness knows no limit. All the three characters are so evocative, interesting and sad that it eventually made my heart grow fonder for them. I'm not a feminist but still I loved reading this women centric book that depicts the women as the hero of the book, while trying to project a negative image on the male-dominated society. PS: Never read this book while travelling on a train , it might come to haunt you! The story is so psychologically twisted and so brilliant, that Dreamworks production has own film rights on this book, which is directed by Tate Taylor, featuring Emily Blunt as Rachel, Rebecca Ferguson as Anna, Haley Bennett as Megan, Justin Theroux as Tom, Luke Evans as Scott, Lisa Kudrow and many more. And the film is slated for an autumn release this year.

I truly enjoyed this novel! We've got a unreliable, a bit of a wreck of a narrator, and I love that! She was messy, had flaws and struggles, but of course also great qualities. I kept guessing until the end as far as the intrigue goes. Also, being told the story as well from the point of view of other characters through out was great as well, adding a lot more dimension, suspense and depth to the overall story and characters. Will be reading Hawkins' next book for sure!