REVIEW (#2) : THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by PAULA HAWKINS

"There’s something comforting about the sight of strangers safe at home."

"I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head."

★★★★★

4.75/5

What the fuckidity fuck is this book? Jesus Christ, everybody is just goddamn horrifying...

Even the people that you think, only for a second, that aren't "that bad", in one moment or another of the book crap all over your hope.

And it's pretty great, honestly. People aren't always perfect, or remotely civiliced. People make awful choices, hurt people that they're supposed to love and are hateful and fucked up.

Reading this book was an experience. Not exactly a good one, because I don't take peasure in other people's pain, but it was an experience.

These characters are messep up, unstable and pretty horrible, but they're still realistic. You aren't going to find villanous laughs and twisted plans to dominate the world in this book. You are going to read about selfish and damaged people who mainly care about themselves and their pain.

"I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts."

In The girl on the train we have three points of view: Rachel, Ana and Megan. Three totally different women that find themselves mixed up in each other's lives.

Rachel it's our main character. She's divorced, depressed and almost always drunk, which sometimes results in blackouts. The only thing that makes her relatively happy is when from the train she catches everyday, she can watch obssessively the, according to her,  "perfect couple", Jess and Jason, as she calls them.

Ana is the other woman. One of the many reasons why Rachel and her husband had a divorce. But she doesn't care that much, she deserves to be happy with her perfect husband and their perfect daughter in their not that perfect house. The constant stalking from Rachel's part is not going to destroy that.

And Megan? Does anybody really know Megan?

"Sadness gets boring after a while, for the sad person and for everyone around them."

(The following part contains MAJOR SPOILERS)


So, let's get to the meaty part of the book.

WTF? I suspected everyone to be the killer. I even thought that Ana and Megan were Rachel's alternate personalities. I was exploring all the options, you know?

At some point I guessed that Tom, Rachel's ex-husband, was the killer and that he was a little bit too psychotic. But that didn't take away from the reading experience.

But I don't think that killing Megan is the worst thing he did, I don't know, maybe I'm weird. The thing that affected me the most, for some reason, was that he could lie so easily all these years to Rachel. He made her believe that what she was remembering after the blackouts wasn't what really had happened, that she was a terrible person, making her go crazier every day. That was shocking and awful to read about, but it makes the story more interesting.

The only thing that I dind't really love was the revelation. I thought it was a little too rushed. One minute Tom is the nicest ex-husband, all pacience and helpfulness, the next one he's kicking Rachel and acting all creepy around his daughter.

I understand he was manipulative all these years he was with Rachel, but I still think it was too much of a change in a couple pages.


(END of SPOILERS)


So, in conclusion, it was a pretty great book, it wasn't perfect, but what is? It has made me even more interested in reading thrillers and that's cool.

It's a page turner, especially the last chapters. I went to sleep at 4 am because I couldn't put it down without knowing the ending. Damn you, book! You made me look like a crazy zombie next morning! Damn you, I say!

"The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps."