The Girl On The Train #bookreview

NAME: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

AUTHOR: PAULA HAWKINS

GENRE: THRILLER

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

NO OF PAGES: 325

ISBN:1594633665

MY RATING:  3.75  OUT OF 5

NOTE: THE BOOK WILL LITERALLY CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT OTHER PEOPLE'S LIFE'S.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

This review is about the overly praised book "THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN". It was compared "GONE GIRL", I haven't read the book "GONE GIRL" but I saw the movie.So I expected this book to be more sinister and super thrilling, but it wasn't like that it has the element of thrill and suspense at the right amount. let's move to the synopsis.

SYNOPSIS:

                 Rachel, an alcoholic in her late twenties lives in London, takes the 8.05 train to work every day, the train stops at Witney. where she once lived in the suburbs of Blenheim road with her ex-husband tom who is now with his new wife Anna.

                 Rachel could not bear a look at her old house whenever the train stops at witney, so she forced herself into the house no 15, where a beautiful "perfect" couple lives their "perfect" life. she named them Jess and Jason in her mind. soon she became obsessed with them.watching them from the train had became her routine.

                 One morning Rachel saw something weird happening at house 15, late at that night, she got super drunk, visited her ex-husband at no 23 and eventually blacked out. Next day Jess who turns out to be Megan gone missing and found murdered a few weeks later.

                 Rachel knew she did something terrible, but couldn't remember a single scene.All her memories are blurred and in bits.all she could remember was yelling, bleeding, a blue dress and a man with red hair.

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN:

                   The story was narrated from the perspective of three different women. Rachel, alcoholic jobless, self-grieving, vanquished mess. Anna, over-protective mother, and a loving paranoid wife.Megan, a former gallery worker, unfaithful wife.The story starts in the way that there is no connection between these women and turns out their lives are intertwined tragically.

                   The narration was completely non-linear with time lags and time jumps.with considering Rachel timeline as the reference, Megan timeline was set a year ago. Anna's timeline was mixed with Rachel to give a Rushmore effect.a super fast pace storyline although there were some places which would test your patience.

                   This is not a usual story where we always like the lead character, the lead character in this story was a drunk who goes snooping on others privacy.you can't expect like her. but there are some places where I felt bad for Rachel as well as Megan and Anna. each character has a tragic past which pushed them to do whatever they want to have a "perfect" lives.

                  The book conveys a strong message that we all have our depraved moments and during that time, we long for a perfect life.  by looking out of the window we assume someone is having a perfect life but we don't realize that their lives are as twisted as ours.

                   In short,"we always wanted to live someone Else's life without realizing the struggle they have been through".

OVERALL RATING:

                A good fast paced a suspense filled story, I completed it in around a month or so, I didn't read it in a full swing.As said I too have my "perfect" life to take care off. but if you sit down to read it in a full swing it would take you two nights max.

              I recommend it for people above 12, because of the depiction of gore, domestic violence, alcoholism and drug overdose.

             I would be giving 4 out of 5 if the book was not hyped too much.I started with high expectations. my rating would be 3.75 out of 5.

                                                                                        ---SIDHARTH