Synopsis from goodreads:
To everyone else in this carriage I must look normal; I’m doing exactly what they do: commuting to work, making appointments, ticking things off lists.
Just goes to show.
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and every evening. Every day she passes the same Victorian terraces, stops at the same signal, and sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof terrace. Jason and Jess seem so happy together.
Then one day Rachel sees something she shouldn't have seen, and soon after, Jess disappears. Suddenly Rachel is chasing the truth and unable to trust anyone. Not even herself.
Tense, taut, twisty and surprising . . . The Girl on the Train creeps right under your skin and stays there.
~~~~~
This is my first review on the blog in quite a long time, it feels a bit like starting over again and it's not a very detailed one - I haven't gone over the plot much, I've added the synopsis above instead - but I did really enjoy the book so thought I would share the brief thoughts I had about it.
The Girl on the Train is Paula Hawkins' debut novel, and it's a cracker of a read. She's delivered one of those stories that you don't want to stop reading until you reach the end, because it becomes so tense and the chain of events and revelations keep you hooked; the fast-paced storytelling reins you in and just doesn't let go. This is a gripping psychological crime thriller, a genuine page-turner of a novel.
The opening premise is a great idea, and so easy to identify with - how, whilst travelling by train, we might look out of the window and observe the lives of others playing out in those gardens backing on to the tracks, and we imagine what those other lives might be like.
Three young women narrate the story in turn, and each one of them had me questioning what was true, what was really happening, what I could believe; Rachel in particular I thought was very compelling in the way her character was drawn and fleshed out.
A couple of quibbles with the plot aside, which I can't really mention because they would be spoilers, I found this to be an addictive, twisty read and certainly a cleverly told debut novel which I think will be massively popular with readers when published early in 2015.
I received an advance review copy of this novel from the amazon vine program and these are my honest thoughts. On there I gave the novel 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.
