Girl on the Train Book Review

Book: Girl on the Train 
Author: Paula Hawkins
Publish Date: January 2015
Start Reading Date: January 27th 2020
End Reading Date: February 5th 2020

First Thoughts

That I want to actually read the book fully this time. When I tried to read it in the summer I found it difficult to do so. 

Also I’m shocked at just how ‘new’ the book is. What I mean by that is when it was published is sooner than I thought it was.  

While Reading

Right now I really don’t like the book, I’m about 80 pages in, I can’t see the hype of the book just yet. 

Rachel
- I don’t know how to feel about Rachel, she is clearing struggling with alcoholism and the people around her just seem not to care. 
- But on the other hand she really needs help.  
- I don’t like her roommate, housemate, basically I don’t like the woman who she rents the room from or her boyfriend. I think she’s in a controlling relationship 

Megan
- Ok so Megan is the woman who goes missing. At the moment she’s only missing so I didn’t know if she actually truly is mossing 
- I don’t think Megan is a bad person. With how the media wants to portray people is always horrible, especially when something bad has happened to them in their past. Though she didn’t want a child, loosing one is still going to way heavily on that person for the rest of their lives. 

Anna
- I don’t like how Anna is this high almighty person. Sure so she had an affair with Tom who was married to Rachel and had his kid, but I feel like she’s kinda rubbing it in Rachel’s face. Don’t get me wrong, Rachel needs obvious help with her drinking but it’s completely unfair what Anna did.  
- I don’t like how judgemental Anna is. Sure Rachel was hanging around her house, but it was for something simple, yet Anna thinks it’s way more than it actually is, just because of Rachel’s past. When Anna has done worse to Rachel by sleeping with her husband who is now Anna’s husband. 
- It doesn’t mean I’m justifying Rachel in anyway but Anna is one of those women I would purposely stay away from.  


Rachel, Megan and Anna are so far all linked together in some way. 

I don’t think any of the main characters are stable in anyway. I’m not quite 200 pages in and find everyone so far beyond annoying. The main three women so far (Rachel, Megan and Anna) are those kinds of women who would make any house party or social event about them  

Ok so I’m not just over 300 pages. Even though I’m getting through the book pretty quickly there have been parts where I’m like “what the bleep is going on”, and not for a good reason. There have been time’s over the course of the book when people have said things and it’s a contusion of what they’ve said before and it feels like I’ve missed something. 

When it comes to who the killers in books, I am normally really dumb, and never catch any of the clues on who it could be. And for a while it was like that in the book, I won’t lie, Paula Hawkins did put you off thinking who it was, but honestly it wasn’t long until I realized who it was that had killed Megan. 

Conclusion 

I really wanted to like the book but feel that it fell short in so many ways. Sure it was interesting concept, but I’ve read better thriller books by other people.  

I really wanted to find good things about the book but I just couldn’t. I find that the women are weaker than they should be. I find the men arrogant and condescending. Can you really find these women and men and think they’d be good together.  

I think the book could’ve been so much better than it was. I think that the red herrings of who killed Megan were stupid, and that it would’ve been to obvious to be anyone other than who it was. 

If I was Tom’s second wife Anna I wouldn’t trust him in the slightest. If he truly loved her and their child he would’ve done anything to protect them, but he’s such a narcissistic person that everyone has to suffer to make him happy. 

I think in someway all the female characters, Rachel, Anna, Megan, Cathy are all being controlled in some way or another.