Life By Kristen

Book Review: The Girl on the Train

I’m usually late to the bandwagon on most ‘trendy’ or bestselling things, especially when it comes to books, as I rely almost exclusively on the library as my source of reading material. I was on the wait list for The Girl on the Train for quite some time, and as always happens in library land, I ended up getting a handful of books I was on hold for at the same time. #BookWorm problems. Knowing that I waited a long time for this particular book, I figured I would attack it first so I could pass it along to whoever else was waiting for it too.

Many people have compared this book to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and while it involves suspense and the perspective of multiple characters developing and presenting the story throughout the book, I didn’t find it anywhere near as disturbing as Gone Girl, though the main character Rachel did bother me, though nowhere near as much as Amy in GG.

I gave this four stars, not so much because I was on board with the plot or some of the characters, but because I could.not.put.it.down, which is funny because I almost didn’t read it at all. I picked it up on a Saturday when we had Little Man, so barely had a moment to open it during the week. I read a few pages during the first week, but it was also the week before my brother’s wedding, where most nights were spent doing various errands or chores to prepare for a weekend away. I didn’t open it once during our long weekend as we were busy with family and activities. When I finally sat down on the Tuesday after Memorial Day, I stayed up far too late past my bedtime to finish the book.

It did not disappoint in it’s urgent page-turning suspense nor in decent character development. I found the plot to be logical and dramatic, with enough realistic events and details that added to the suspense. I thought the ending was a bit rushed and I would have liked more about the main character Rachel than was presented, but that’s mostly because so much of the book deals with her mental state that it felt like a bit of a letdown at the end. I’m trying to be vague enough to not give away any clues to the book, but informative enough about my thoughts!

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good, quick-ish read, and definitely for suspense fans. I’ve heard it will be made into a movie ( as all good books are these days, it seems), and will likely see it, but this book won’t be making its way to my top ten best ever book list.