The Girl On The Train
By Paula Hawkins
Sophie (Grade 9)
3/5
The Girl On The Train is about a young woman named Rachel, who takes the same train to work every day. There's this one couple she usually sees eating their breakfast on their deck as the train rolls past in the mornings. Rachel calls them Jess and Jason. One day, she witnesses something shocking in Jess and Jason's backyard. It catapults her into an investigation with the police, where she learns that Jess and Jason's lives aren't as perfect as she had imagined, and she starts to question everything she remembers.
I only rated this book a three out of five because I was too young when I read this novel. I feel like it would have been a much better fit had I been fifteen or older. I didn't get to the end of the story, so this review is about the third I read.
The first thing that was hard to understand was the way the story was told. Sometimes I would zone out while reading, which got me lost in all the plot twists. It might have just been hard to read because I wasn't old enough to understand, but I must warn you that this novel requires a ton of concentration to make sure you can follow along with the fast-paced story.
Another thing that was hard to understand was the characters. I didn't have enough patience to commit each name to memory, so I often would forget who they were and would have to skip back a couple of pages. I felt like their names were all similar, and the characters didn't have any prominent defining personalities.
My favourite part of this book was how the story starts with little mention of Rachel's past. Her history with the other characters is revealed throughout the novel. I also liked Rachel's character development. She started as an alcoholic but eventually learned to suppress her urge to drink in the chaos of the investigation.
Based on the bits of the book I understood, it was kind of intriguing. I plan on finishing this book in the future. I'm also curious to see where the investigation will take the characters!
Happy reading!