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Book Review: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

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The Girl on the Trail Paula Hawkins Book Review

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was a fast-paced murder mystery with unreliable characters. I’d recommend this for a quick and easy summer read, as the storyline was intriguing and kept me on my toes throughout. However, if I’m being completely honest, I had a lot of issues with this story.

The timeline, which flashed forward and backward not just between characters, but also within the monologues of each character, was a bit awkward and confusing at times. I kept finding myself looking back to see the dates when something had happened. It was hard to keep straight. Then there were often shifts from past to present while a particular character was talking as well. It’s morning on July 13, but Anna is talking about what happened last night… And because it’s a murder mystery, the timeline is quite important.

But perhaps Hawkins intended for it to be murky just as Rachel’s mind was often murky with alcohol.

As far as characters, I really didn’t like any of them. No one seemed to have any redeeming qualities. It made me a bit disappointed with humanity. Not to mention all the depravity and lying and psychotic qualities of most of the characters! Is this really a cross section of people in my generation? Bleh! I really hope not!

On a brighter note, as mentioned above, the story was intriguing. I was never really sure who had done what until near the end. Hawkins kept us guessing all along, I definitely wanted to finish the book to find out what happened, but only really was pulled in about halfway through. So as for an easy, light read, this one was pretty good.

I haven’t seen the movie, but I imagine this would actually make a better movie than a book, which is rare. Any opinions on that for those who have seen/read both movie and book of The Girl on the Train?

Buy The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins: Amazon | Book Depository

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