Book review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins...

The Girl On The Train is one of many dark thrillers released since Gone Girl that bears the inevitable tag of "the new Gone Girl!" Don't get me wrong, I love that book, but stop with the comparisons!

The Girl On The Train is full of horrible people. There's not a single character in this book who has any redeeming features, which made it, at times a frustrating read. But at the same time I found it strangely fascinating, seeing just how low the characters would stoop.

The book centres on Rachel, an alcoholic and unhappily divorced woman who becomes obsessed with a couple she sees every morning as she passes on the train. Then the news reveals the woman has gone missing, and Rachel decides she must find out what's happened. 

The book is written in first person, but through three different characters viewpoints- Rachel, the missing woman, and Anna the wife of Rachel's ex-husband. The story is fairly slow paced, at least for the first half. Usually I'm not a fan of slow moving thrillers, but with this one I got a strange enjoyment out of reading these characters descents.  

I saw the final twist coming a mile off, but I felt Hawkins still captured the suspense well enough that I wasn't groaning when it was revealed. I also really enjoyed Hawkins writing style, there was an honest edge to it that gave particularly Rachel's character depth, that I found myself shocked but also compelled. As well as being a murder mystery it was also about these characters lives spiralling out of control.

"The sense of shame I feel about an incident is proportionate not just to the gravity of the situation, but also to the number of people who have witnessed it."

Overall I enjoyed this book, and would recommend if you like a good dark thriller. If, like me you are partial to appalling characters then I'd particularly recommend picking this up!

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