(Negative) Book Review: The Girl On The Train

Title: The Girl On The Train
Author: Paula Hawkins
Publication date: January 2015
Publisher: Transworld
Source: Borrowed

Description: Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.

Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…

My thoughts: I did not like this book. At all. I will go so far as to say I hated it.

It's not the writing. It is a well written book. My complaint is with the characters. The book is narrated primarily by Rachel, who it quickly becomes clear is an unreliable narrator. Within the first few pages readers realise she's an alcoholic and as the story goes on there are other reveals here and there that show other things that have been omitted, which paint her in a more and more unflattering light. The other two women who narrate are Anna, who is married to Rachel's ex-husband and 'Jess' (actually Megan), the woman Rachel watches from the train.

Primarily the narrators annoyed me for their idiocy. The three of them make silly choice after silly choice. In particular I had no sympathy for Rachel, who doesn't seem to be doing anything to help herself. I couldn't care about the characters or what happened to them because they were too idiotic. Rachel drinks and does silly things; Megan makes stupid choices and can't seem to grow up, and Anna sees everything as revolving around her.

I forced myself to keep going and I'll admit that I didn't guess how the book was going to end but the characters drove me up the wall. They made it irredeemable in my opinion. I will give this 2/10, based on the fact the writing was actually fine.

Have you read this one? What did you think?

-Ailsa

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to talk about the books you've received recently. 

I've got four books to talk about today, and only one of them I actually bought, the rest I'm borrowing from my boyfriend and Dad. I love being able to share books with people! :)

I've recently started doing Youtube videos again, after watching some 'book tube' videos & seeing how happy and enthusiastic everyone is, so here is my latest 'book haul' video that I made for there. It covers some books I've talked about here in a previous StS post, and misses out my most recent purchase. My written thoughts are below the video if you prefer that :)



First book I borrowed from Dad is 'The Girl On The Train' by Paula Hawkins. I've seen a lot of fuss about this one and it's a strong bestseller so I'm interested to check it out.

Next, also borrowed from Dad, is 'All The Light We Cannot See' by Anthony Doerr. It's about a young blind girl living in Paris who then evacuates to the coast with her father when the German army moves on Paris during the Second World War. I'm looking forward to reading this one soon.

Then there's 'Ancillary Justice' by Ann Leckie. This is a science fiction story that has won a whole load of awards. I've read the first couple of chapters and I'm hoping to finish it this week and post a review.

Finally I bought 'A Darker Shade Of Magic' by V. E. Schwab the other day. I've seen reviews on loads of blogs this spring and my friend was kind enough to tell me Amazon had it on sale, so I've got that waiting on my Kindle app for when I have time. Too many print books to read just now but I'll hopefully get to it later in the summer.


Which books did you get this week?

~Ailsa