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Book Review: The Girl On The Train




If you follow  top book lists, you've more than likely heard of


If you still have a book hangover from Gone Girl like I do, you'll be happy about this twisted story. It's gritty, mean, obsessive and dark, just like Amy Dunn. Although it didn't get my heart racing, (a little too vague at some points) it did have twists that left me stunned.  

Rachel is an alcoholic. A sad, lonely woman who tortures herself by riding a train everyday and looking out the window at her ex-husband's house. The house that used to be theirs together, only now it's him inside with his new wife, and their baby. And she's just a girl on a train. 

She watches them, knows they had a baby girl because of the new pink curtains in the window. She can see them laughing and playing on the patio. And even though it kills her, she still watches them every day. She even starts daydreaming about the lives of their neighbors, a happy looking couple a few patios down. 

I think it's about 4 train rides in when I start to realize how many screws loose Rachel actually has. She doesn't really have a job in the city. That's just what she tells her roommate so she won't get kicked out of her apartment. She really walks around, drinks gin and tonics from a can and obsesses about her ex husband. When Rachel drinks, she awakens this sad monster that's an even worse off version of her sober self. Her marriage failed, she thinks, because of her drinking and the rage that her husband said ruined their life, lost their friends and killed their chances of having children. Everything wrong with her life is Rachel's own fault. 

Rachel's drinking gets so out of control that she can't tell if her memories of her past actually happened, or were just drunken nightmares. Which is just fine to her, until the neighbor girl on the patio, Megan, disappears. Just days after Rachel sees her hugging a man that is not the same man that's been living in the house with her. Rachel starts seeing news about her on tv. As Megan's disappearance grows into an obsession for her,  Rachel becomes even more obsessed with her ex-husband as well. To her, to two neighbors are very tangled and it's as if Rachel thinks she can force herself into existence in their lives. At one point, she even walks into her ex's house and takes the newborn  baby, walking out the door and down the street before the wife chases her down. She starts going to the same shrink that Megan went to, and begins a twisted relationship with the rebreaved husband. 

Because Rachel has clearly lost her mind, it's hard to trust her a narrator. There were some points of the book I literally felt lost, but I think that's one of the smartest things an author can do. I was just as lost as the characters in the book. But then piece by piece, her memories of her past become a little more clear and she realizes that the nightmares may have actually been reality. 

There's a twisted reason why Rachel is so confused, why she is obsessed with these two families and the houses she sees as she goes by on the train.

Read it to find out and enjoy the ride. 


Comments

  1. This sounds so interesting! It definitely isn't my usual genre but it has me intrigued!

    Great review!

    - Gillian x
    http://theselittlelights.com

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  2. I had a hard rime with Gone hirl but I may give this one a try.
    Thanks

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  3. Wow! This book seems interesting and your review really got me intrigued.

    Salha | Abuhayar

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  4. This book sounds fascinating. I will look for it.

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  5. I just started this last night! And read it on the train this morning, which was weird. I was a girl on the train reading The Girl on the Train. LOL

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  6. I loved this book! Finished it in 24 hours. Absolutely agree about not sure about trusting Rachel. Really loved the twists!

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  7. I have this book on my to-read list, it looks really great!! :D

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  8. Thanks! This sounds like an awesome read. :)

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  9. I want to read this book! It's totally up my weird, twisted alley! I added it to my Goodreads list a few days ago and have been holding off requesting it from the library but now I don't think I can.

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  10. I got caught up in the hype and bought this the other day, but I'm not really sure about it. I think I am the one person on earth who didn't enjoy Gone Girl (my only dnf of 2014, actually), so I'm worried it will have the same unlikeable characters... Here goes!
    Beth x
    www.thequietpeople.com

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  11. I haven't read many thrillers up I like the sound of this one. I'm more of a classics girl, but I think Northanger Abbey has some of the thriller characteristics. I wrote a review of it on my blog, I'd love it you could check it out!

    I'm new to writing about books so let me know how I've done: http://shehlagrr.blogspot.com/2015/01/book-review-northanger-abbey-by-jane.html

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  12. Can't wait to check this one out!

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  13. Got this as an Audiobook, can't wait to start it!

    Meme xx

    Latest Post out now
    '100 Questions With Meme//Tag'
    http://thedayinthelifeofmexoxo.blogspot.co.uk/

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  14. I really want to read this! I have been seeing a lot of buzz around this book. I love the instability of an untrustworthy narrator! Great review!!

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  15. That sounds like a really interesting book I will have to add it to my list of books to read!

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