Journalist-turned-fiction writer Paula Hawkins’s
debut thriller, The Girl on the Train,
has been out for approximately sixteen months and has yet to be issued as a
paperback. That alone indicates how good the story is. It spent thirteen weeks
on the New York Times bestseller list
and was the list’s most popular book in 2015.
As with all great reads, the story lies with the
characters. But Hawkins has something else going for her: the format of the
story.
Rachel’s days are the same. She gets up, gets ready
for work, hops on the 8:04 commuter train to London, daydreams about the couple
she often sees when the train slows down. The couple happens to live two doors
down from the home she once shared with her ex-husband, Tom. At the end of the
day, she repeats her steps and heads back to the flat that she shares with her
friend Cathy. Rachel has a secret. In addition to the she carries, Rachel has a
drinking problem, which is no secret. It began long before her marriage to Tom
dissolved, but exacerbated significantly.
Her favorite pastime is daydreaming about the
couple, whom she calls Jason and Jess. Her world is shattered when she sees
“Jess” kissing another man as her train waits to move ahead. Rachel feels that
only has “Jess” been betrayed, but she, too, has been deceived.
Rachel suffers from alcohol-induced blackouts. What
happened last Saturday night is particularly blank. Meanwhile “Jess,” who is
really Megan is missing. It seems she has disappeared without a trace. Her
husband, Scott, or better known to Rachel as “Jason,” is a prime suspect.
Rachel feels that she knows something, or at the very least saw something. If
only she could remember.
To discuss the plot anymore would spoil it, and The Girl on the Train is
too good of a read to mess it up for other readers.
Earlier, I mentioned the story’s format. It’s told
in alternating point of view from Rachel, Megan, and as the story progresses,
Anna, Tom’s new wife. Each chapter, or point-of-view shift, centers on
different aspects of the day---morning, afternoon, or evening.
In the first few pages, I wasn’t sure that I would
be sucked in; in fact I wondered what so many people were talking about. But
the more I read, the deeper involved I felt. Much to Hawkins’ great skill,
every time I thought I had the plot figured out, it twisted in another
direction.
I give The
Girl on the Train 6 out of 5 stars.
