The Girl on the Train
A Novel
Book - 2015
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Searching for more content…New York : Penguin Group USA, 2015.
1594633665
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Age
Add Age Suitabilitysapphicatthedisco thinks this title is suitable for 16 years and over
Quotes
Add a Quote“I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts.”
“Hollowness: that I understand. I'm starting to believe that there isn't anything you can do to fix it. That's what I've taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps”
I had a teacher at school who told me once that I was a mistress of self-reinvention. I didn't know what he was on about at the time, I thought he was putting me on, but I've since come to like the idea. Runaway, lover, wife, waitress, gallery manager, nanny, and a few more in between. So who do I want to be tomorrow?
“Living like this, the way I’m living at the moment, is harder in the summer when there is so much daylight, so little cover of darkness, when everyone is out and about, being flagrantly, aggressively happy.”
“Sometimes I catch myself trying to remember the last time I had meaningful physical contact with another person, just a hug or a heartfelt squeeze of my hand.”
“It’s possible to miss what you’ve never had, to mourn for it.”
“There’s nothing so painful, so corrosive, as suspicion.”
Rachel's mindset:
I had a teacher at school who told me once that I was a mistress of self-reinvention. I didn’t know what he was on about at the time, I thought he was putting me on, but I’ve since come to like the idea. Runaway, lover, wife, waitress, gallery manager, nanny, and a few more in between. So who do I want to be tomorrow? I didn’t really mean to quit, the words just came
I might have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. I might be a barren, divorced, soon-to-be-homeless alcoholic.
Parents don’t care about anything but their children. They are the centre of the universe; they are all that really counts. Nobody else is important, no one else’s suffering or joy matters, none of it is real.
I lay there and I thought of what that teacher said, and of all the things I’d been: child, rebellious teenager, runaway, whore, lover, bad mother, bad wife. I’m not sure if I can remake myself as a good wife, but a good mother—that I have to try.
"Blackouts happen, and it isn't just a matter of being a but hazy about getting home from the club... Tom bought me a book about it. Not very romantic, but he was tired of listening to me tell him how sorry I was in the morning when I didn't even know what I was sorry for. I think he wanted me to see the damage I was doing, the kind of things I was capable of..." ~Rachel
Summary
Add a Summary"Rachel Watson, the principal narrator of Hawkins's psychologically astute debut, is obsessed with her ex-husband, Tom. She's having a hard time putting the past behind her, especially since she confronts it daily, during the hourlong commute to London from her rented room in Ashbury, Oxfordshire, when her train passes the Victorian house she once shared with Tom. She also frequently spies an attractive couple, four doors down from her former home, who she imagines to be enjoying the happily-ever-after that eluded her. Then, suddenly, the woman, pixie-ish blonde Megan Hipwell, vanishes—only to turn up on the front page of the tabloids as missing. The police want to question Rachel, after Anna, Tom's new wife, tells them that Rachel was in the area drunkenly out of control around the time of Megan's disappearance. Hawkins, formerly deputy personal finance editor of the Times of London, deftly shifts between the accounts of the addled Rachel, as she desperately tries to remember what happened, Megan, and, eventually, Anna, for maximum suspense. The surprise-packed narratives hurtle toward a stunning climax, horrifying as a train wreck and just as riveting." Agent: Lizzy Kremer, David Higham Associates (U.K.). (Jan.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2014 PWxyz
Notices
Add NoticesFrightening or Intense Scenes: The culmination of the book has a particularly gruesome scene.
Comment
Add a CommentDon't Miss This Train
February 10 2015
An absolute page turner. Once you pick up this novel you will not be able to put it down. It is a psychological thrill ride reminiscent of Hitchcock's "Rear Window." Is what we see through the window actually true? How reliable is the narrator who is a lonely alcoholic divorcee? Go along for the ride. You will not be disappointed. NC
After reading it, I couldn't understand why all the accolades. I found it slow moving and pretty boring. The characters were flat, not much description and never found any suspense.
I did not really like this story. Not much of a "suspenseful thriller." It seems to me that the author unfairly makes an unlikely character the murderer, after building interest in two other men, leaving their story unexplained.
I rated this higher than it probably deserved--just one of those books that hit me the right
way. A chronically relapsing, self-pitying alcoholic voyeur as sleuth way suspensefully appealing.
Down and out alcoholic, Rachel, can’t keep out of her ex husband’s entanglements and finds herself an unwitting witness. Character driven to a fault. Rachel’s the only one you feel for, but lacked fluidity of Gillian Flynn or Tana French. More like a low brow Sophie Hannah with perfect, simple vocabulary. Liked the train, but loved the weather - rain - mentioned very little, but played a big part.
This book caught my eye. I am a little intolerant of alcoholics...but this was a really good read.
I haven't seen the movie, so must watch it! I would have thought the story line would be difficult to portray and do justice to the book.
I checked out this book on a whim and had more or less forgotten about it. I was not particularly eager to read it but thought I had better given I needed to return it soon and hadn't yet cracked it.
This may be way I found the first half particularly difficult to get into. However, the second half of the book was absolutely enthralling and I could not put it down until I had finish.
I would file this under psychological thriller.
I would NOT recommend this book to anyone who is recovering or trying to recover from alcohol abuse, or domestic violence or abuse as it has strong imagery on these topics and I imagine could trigger someone quite easily.
A page turner for sure! For anyone who likes to read from the thriller genre, this book is excellent. I was coming up with different theories while reading through it right up to the final reveal.
This was adequate, not great storytelling or writing in my opinion. I would not re-read this one.
Before reading this, I actually had a teacher warn me that there was a lot of intense, mature content in here. As a teen reviewer/reader, I guess it may have been heavy at moments and not so much others due to my, as others call it, high level of maturity. I found the parts Rachel narrated a bit hard to read at times due to her constant struggles with her problems, and her attitude. However, the author kept the mystery wrapped up so well that I felt engaged enough to keep reading. I can see why this book has gained as much attention as it has. Overall, the language was okay, and plot was a good combination of revealing and interesting.
- @Siri of The Hamilton Public Library's Teen Review Board