Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life-as she sees it-is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?
Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.
The Gillian Flynn comparisons are utterly accurate. This was a premise to which I couldn’t say no. From the window of her train, troubled, alcoholic commuter Rachel Watson watches the world –including a couple who are frequently out on their terrace at the very point her train stops every day. She names them Jason and Jess and decides their lives are the perfect happy-ever-after that hers has never been. But then Jess, whose name is really Megan, goes missing; and Rachel’s memory of the night Megan disappeared is a yawning black hole. Did she…
ALCOHOLIC AMNESIA THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN is a dark, haunting and depressing psychological thriller, but it’s incredibly effective thanks to the writing skills of author Paula Hawkins. Rachel is a divorced woman who would do anything for a drink, and like a lot of folks consumed by a love affair with the bottle, one might call her a victim of circumstances. Her husband Tom had an affair that resulted in a pregnancy. He divorced Rachel, married the “other woman” and now all three (husband, wife and child) are…
Best Hitchcock style mystery of voyeuristic observation since Rear Window. Rachel is a woman who considers herself worthless. She feels that women are only valued for two things: their looks and their role as a mother. She is barren and rather plain looking. Unbeknownst to her landlady she has lost her job but continues to ride the commuter train twice a day. Unfortunately she must pass the home of her ex-husband Tom and his new wife Anna. They’ve recently had a child which is something Rachel was unable to produce when she was married to him. He’s moved his new…