The Girl on the Train

Book Review-The Girl On The Train

I give “The Girl On The Train” a high rating because it engages you in a classic “whodunit” with skill. I found it hard to put the book down on that basis. I desperately wanted to finish this book, but only to find out who the murderer turned out to be.

However, I found the story and characters to be a disappoinment.

The story is confusing at first (and even at some points later in the book) as it is structured in a sort of flip/flop narrative going backward in time with the characters and their accounts of events. Even with the chapters clearly labeled as to character's point of view and time in which the event(s) occurred, I found myself constantly resetting my mind and sometimes having to flip back to a previous chapter in order to coordinate my view of the timeline. I thought there might be a reason revealed for that type of structure later in the story or at least by the conclusion, but there never was one that I could see.

The characters are a problem because EVERYONE is a suspect. There's never, other than the 1 year-old baby, anyone who is ruled out until you're three quarters of the way through the story. Part of the reason for this is that every one in this story, again, other than the 1 year-old baby, is a pathological liar. One character just lies for the hell of it, even if there's no “reason” to, but all of them lie and cheat. All of these people are broken or badly cracked and have few, if any, redeeming qualities.

I get that people are like that; all of us probably are at some points in our lives, but to have every character be like that through an entire months-long event and story is just damn depressing. There's no character who has much in the way of redeeming qualities, not even the protagonist. The one small bit of inspirational behavior only takes place in the last 8 pages of the story. All I could think throughout the story was, “I hope to Hell I never have everyone in my life be like this.”

To end on a positive note, I will say that the author seemed to nail the alcoholic behavior of the protagonist right on the head. Growing up with an alcoholic father until the age of 13 and having been in a relationship with an alcoholic woman for about 2 years, I felt like I was reliving some of those less than pleasant memories because Ms. Hawkins was spot on in writing that character.

Since “The Girl On The Train” has now held the number one spot on the U.S. bestsellers list for the eleventh consecutive week, my feelings are obviously not those of the general public, so if you've been wanting to read this book, don't let my review put you off. As I wrote at the beginning, it IS a classic “whodunit” and if you can see it differently than I did you may find it to be an enjoyable read.