CHARACTERS: 4/5
WRITING STYLE: 4/5
CLIMAX: 4/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5
“The Girl on the Train” is a novel which has witnessed phenomenal success in the last few months, quickly rising to become one of the most talked-about books this year.
Its Goodreads page has over 3 lakh ratings and upwards of 38 thousand reviews and it has been rightly hailed as the next “Gone Girl” in the making, only much creepier and interesting.
The story is of a middle-aged Rachel who has almost lost all in life – her job, husband and her once decent social life.
Shattered and battered, she now finds solace in the company of alcohol and can usually be found drunk and wasted across the streets of London.
She is still obsessed with her ex-husband Tom and can’t accept the fact that he has moved on and now has a wife Anna and a baby girl Evvie to call as a family.
Rachel boards the 8.04 train daily which somehow halts at a lowly stretch of track which offers a glimpse of the suburban area of Blenheim Road.
There she daily observes a couple in love, Jess and Jason, as she likes to call them – having their morning cup of coffee, breakfasting, basking in the sun or simply doing nothing.
One fine day Megan Hipwell or Jess as she knows her goes missing, and Rachel had just the previous day, witnessed something which can alter the course of all investigations.
What Rachel saw that day, she believes that no one else knows and thus she offers to help in the investigations. But as the mystery starts unfolding Rachel discovers that maybe her involvement in the case was not such a good idea after all.
I haven’t read Gone Girl but I can safely vouch for the fact that this book is a potential Hollywood Blockbuster.
Paula Hawkins writes with style and intrigue and the way she writes makes the book an absolute un-put-down-able read.
For a long time, I couldn’t guess where the book was heading and when I did realize I was utterly surprised.
The climax was awesome and one could have never seen it coming. The plot too is very well-conceived and delivered.
Three women – Rachel, Anna and Megan who narrate the story from their point of views respectively are all intriguing and spice up the story in their very unique way.
The characters of Tom, Scott and Kamal are interesting too although you never understand them fully and thus can never know who is in the wrong.
I liked the way the stories of all these characters, so different from each other in setting, personality and characteristics come together to form such an engrossing read.
“The Girl on the Train” does become a little dull and slow in the middle and has an underlying feeling of melancholy which makes the reader somewhat sad but that is just one glitch in the otherwise awesome ride and I recommend it to all my readers.