The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve been meaning to read this for a while, because it seems to be everywhere at the moment. Eventually, I picked up a copy in the supermarket.
It’s a well written thriller. The suspense relies on the fact that the main narrator can’t remember stuff because she has memory blackouts when she’s drunk. The descriptions of alcoholism is pretty good (If you want a proper visceral description of alcoholism, read Nina is Not Okay by Shappi Korsandi).
It took a while for me to get into the flow of the narrative. I had to keep going back and forth to work out which year we were in. I got the hang of it about a third of the way in.
Rachel is an interesting character. Weak and confused, most of the time. I did get very annoyed with her repeated visits to Scott’s house though. Just… because.
Anna was pretty bland until the end, at which point she was faintly terrifying. That poor kid to have two such sociopathic parents.
Megan was probably the most nuanced character. I liked her a lot. (yes, she’s not a likable person as such, but as a character she was well rounded).
I thought it a bit weird that there were two households in the same street that had the same power imbalance being played out – including the man having a propensity towards violence.
I’d be intrigued to see how they get across Rachel’s unreliable memory in a film.
Really enjoyed this book. A reliable thriller.
Rhoda Baxter 
Really enjoyed this book, too. Had guessed the main twist about halfway through but was still surprised and gripped by the second half of the book. The film looks decidedly scarier and I’m not sure I want to spoil the book by seeing it.
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I know what you mean about the film. I thought that too. I’m fine reading psychological thrillers – but don’t particularly like watching them. Mind you, I’d be interested to see how the conveyed Rachel’s unreliable memory in the film.
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