The Girl on the Train is a quintessential psychological thriller. The vast majority of the story is told from three different perspectives. This could've been a total disaster, but Paula Hawkins did a terrific job with character development that helps you understand why the characters did what they did.
Rachel Watson is a divorced, miserable alcoholic who has lost everything, her husband, her job, and absolutely all control over her life. To make matters worse, she is still desperately in love with her ex-husband, Tom, who is now married to Anna, and they have a child of their own. Rachel cannot give birth and believes this was the reason for the beginning of the downfall of her relationship with Tom. Before she lost her dead-end job, owing to one too many drunken outbursts, Rachel used to take the same train, every day, into London. She continues her daily commute to keep the news of being fired, from her roommate. Rachel always pays special attention to a couple, whom she calls “Jess and Jason”, who live a seemingly perfect life in a house near her own former home. When she sees Jess kissing a man who isn't Jason, followed soon after, by the news that Jess, whose real name is Megan Hipwell, has disappeared, Rachel is compelled to share her secret knowledge, becoming enmeshed in the police investigation, the prime suspect of which, is Megan’s husband, Scott. Further complicating matters is the fact that the night Megan vanished, Rachel has a hazy memory of drunkenly stumbling past the Hipwell home and seeing something she can’t quite recall. Hawkins seamlessly moves between Rachel’s present-day story as the investigation into Megan’s disappearance widens, Megan’s own life leading up to her disappearance, and snippets about Anna, the woman for whom Tom left Rachel.
What I really liked was the edginess of the read. Right from the start, the atmosphere was eerily foreboding. You just know something bad is going to happen, but you don’t know what and you don’t know when. Hawkins took her time with the story, slowly building up the tension, giving the reader just enough information to yearn for more. Even the most astute readers will be in for a shock as Hawkins slowly unspools the facts, exposing the harsh realities of love and obsession’s inescapable links to violence.
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