The Girl on the Train Book Review

By Rosa Schmidt, Oakland Public Library Director

Paula Hawkins’ debut novel “The Girl on the Train” is a suspenseful thriller filled with a complex plot, shocking twists at every turn, and an ending that will both stun and leave you wanting more.

Published in January of 2015, “Girl on a Train” has been touted as the next “Gone Girl” (a novel by Gillian Flynn/movie starring Ben Affleck). I myself see no real similarity between the two, other than the fact that they are both exciting page-turners and refreshingly different.

Hawkins’ novel tells the story of Rachel Watson, who has spent the last few years stumbling through life in a booze-filled depression ever since her husband left her for another woman. Now she spends her days riding the commuter train to and from London, even though she was fired from her job months ago, so that no one will know was a mess her life has become. The train stops for a few minutes every day near her old neighborhood, where she begins spying on an unknown couple, (think Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”) until the one day she sees something that changes everything. Of course with her unreliable history, no one believes her story and she is compelled to solve the mystery on her own.

“The Girl on the Train” will change how you see other people’s lives….the real and the imaginary.

Paula Hawkins’ debut novel “The Girl on the Train” is a suspenseful thriller filled with a complex plot, shocking twists at every turn, and an ending that will both stun and leave you wanting more.

Published in January of 2015, “Girl on a Train” has been touted as the next “Gone Girl” (a novel by Gillian Flynn/movie starring Ben Affleck). I myself see no real similarity between the two, other than the fact that they are both exciting page-turners and refreshingly different.

Hawkins’ novel tells the story of Rachel Watson, who has spent the last few years stumbling through life in a booze-filled depression ever since her husband left her for another woman. Now she spends her days riding the commuter train to and from London, even though she was fired from her job months ago, so that no one will know was a mess her life has become. The train stops for a few minutes every day near her old neighborhood, where she begins spying on an unknown couple, (think Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”) until the one day she sees something that changes everything. Of course with her unreliable history, no one believes her story and she is compelled to solve the mystery on her own.

“The Girl on the Train” will change how you see other people’s lives….the real and the imaginary.