Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train is as eerie and unsettling as the blackouts we experience with Rachel, the main character. Hawkins’ novel plays with unreliable narratives, shifting POVs, and time skips to amplify the book’s building suspense. A true crime novel has a red herring or two and The Girl on the Train has several.

I wasn’t a huge fan of how Rachel would often describe events in the passive tense. Granted, it was a clever little way to express Rachel’s passivity and sadly pathetic state–i just didn’t love reading it all the time. Especially when it popped up in stressful, action-packed moments of the novel.

Like Red Queen I didn’t see the ending coming. Unlike Red Queen I was pleasantly surprised after the reveal. The clues were all there but carefully couched in trivial details, unsuspecting, waiting to come to the forefront like those optical illusions where the image is revealed only after you’re told what you should be seeing.

And the very last few pages of the book…HAUNTING.

I’d give it a solid 4 stars. Gone Girl was better. 😉

“She’s missing. Jess is missing. Megan is missing. Since Saturday… I grabbed my bag and got to my feet and ran out of the library, into the road, right into the path of a black cab.” -The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins

“I scan the carriage, I wipe the steamy window with my elbow and stare out. He’s standing on the edge of the platform in the rain, the man from Saturday, watching me as I go past.” -The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins

“I stopped dead as I looked into the darkness… I could see myself a few meters in [the underpass], slumped against the wall, my head on my hands, and both hands smeared with blood.” -The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins

“I run to the bottom of the garden, down towards the tracks. Dead end…I can feel the vibrations from the tracks in the fence behind me–the train is almost upon us, it sounds like a scream.” -The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins