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So a few weeks ago i asked you which three books i should read from my reading list for this year, and while there was a debate about nr. 1 and nr. 2, i actually chose nr. 2. The reason being it's a smaller book by page numbers and I was quite interested by the description and reviews it had before. Also the fact it was made into a movie also pushed me a bit to this decision. XD So i read Paula Hawkins The Girl on the Train in the last two weeks. 
First i will give a spoiler free review of the book for anyone who is interested in it, and then i will talk about the plot and characters more in-depthly in spoilers.
WARNING
I do rant a lot
So plot wise i really liked the book. As a quick retelling the story, Rachel, a divorcee travels everyday by train into London while watching the houses nearby and the people living in it. Including his ex Tom and his new wife Anna living with their newborn, also watching a neighbour couple she doesnt know but daydreams how their life would be like. Tom and Rachel divorced after she began drinking and being violent after they couldn't conceive, also cause Tom cheated on her with Anna. Rachel became an alcoholic after the split, lives with her uni friend and lost her job. Now she pretends to go to work to hide her unemployment from her flatmate, but one day she sees the neighbour, Megan, kissing another man, who isn't her husband. A few days later Megan dissapears!
I read in some negative reviews that the pacing was slow for the first half of the book, but i personally don't mind it that much. I'm used to a slow start in mystery and crime novels, especially after reading a fair amount of Agatha Christie. Some people mentioned it's predictability, which i kinda agree... I did know who the killer was by the last 100 pages, but you still wanna see them face the truth! I really loved that we had an unreliable main narrator, it really shows the reader how one could fall in the situation she obviously did. I also really loved how the the novel was structured. Having three points of view, and one of them being from the victim AND from the past? MWUAHJUST PERFECT! The story having a style of a diary was really up my alley too. I also liked how easy the language was. I did read books from authors that deliberately fuck over with their readers by using words that i'd need a dictionary for. Don't get me wrong, i'm not a native speaker but by the 3rd archaism in one pharagrap i just give up understanding your book. But it wasn't the case here, THANKFULLY! I also really like how it talks in a way about stalkerish behaviour. It's interesting how much it speaks to me as a kpop fan, how we look at people we dont know personally and think we are close to them, like Rachel did. In the end, we have to realize we didn't actually know these people!
So all in all I would give it a 3.8 out of 5! A little slow at the beginning, but good characters and amazing ending!
First i will give a spoiler free review of the book for anyone who is interested in it, and then i will talk about the plot and characters more in-depthly in spoilers.
WARNING
I do rant a lot
So plot wise i really liked the book. As a quick retelling the story, Rachel, a divorcee travels everyday by train into London while watching the houses nearby and the people living in it. Including his ex Tom and his new wife Anna living with their newborn, also watching a neighbour couple she doesnt know but daydreams how their life would be like. Tom and Rachel divorced after she began drinking and being violent after they couldn't conceive, also cause Tom cheated on her with Anna. Rachel became an alcoholic after the split, lives with her uni friend and lost her job. Now she pretends to go to work to hide her unemployment from her flatmate, but one day she sees the neighbour, Megan, kissing another man, who isn't her husband. A few days later Megan dissapears!
I read in some negative reviews that the pacing was slow for the first half of the book, but i personally don't mind it that much. I'm used to a slow start in mystery and crime novels, especially after reading a fair amount of Agatha Christie. Some people mentioned it's predictability, which i kinda agree... I did know who the killer was by the last 100 pages, but you still wanna see them face the truth! I really loved that we had an unreliable main narrator, it really shows the reader how one could fall in the situation she obviously did. I also really loved how the the novel was structured. Having three points of view, and one of them being from the victim AND from the past? MWUAH
JUST PERFECT! The story having a style of a diary was really up my alley too. I also liked how easy the language was. I did read books from authors that deliberately fuck over with their readers by using words that i'd need a dictionary for. Don't get me wrong, i'm not a native speaker but by the 3rd archaism in one pharagrap i just give up understanding your book. But it wasn't the case here, THANKFULLY! I also really like how it talks in a way about stalkerish behaviour. It's interesting how much it speaks to me as a kpop fan, how we look at people we dont know personally and think we are close to them, like Rachel did. In the end, we have to realize we didn't actually know these people!So all in all I would give it a 3.8 out of 5! A little slow at the beginning, but good characters and amazing ending!
Okay, so every man in this book is an asshole!
OKay, maybe not EVERYONE. But most of them leave such a bad taste in my mouth... But i'm gonna talk about each character a bit, come some of the women too.. YeahTried my patience. Also i gotta say this isn't a negative, i think it's really good character writing if i feel so many conflicting feelings about mere fictional characters. The only good male characters were: Andy, the red haired drunkard, who also barely appears but is the only one who clarifies things to Rachel and doesn't shit on her day in and day out. ALso Dr. Kamal Abdic, who is discriminated instantly because of his ethnicity, and also because of his "involvement" with Megan. Him sleeping with a patient who admitted to having problems with staying faithful? Problematic and probs would've costed him his career. However he was the only one who actually listened to Megan and encouraged her to take a step in the right direction.
Scott, Megan's husband is an ass and a psychopath with anger issues. I legit would've believed he is the killer, just by the fact that he so easily dragged Rachel by the hair, as if she was a ragdoll. Not even mentioning what he did to a pregnant Megan, altho he didnt know then that she was pregnant.
Tom....oh dear, stupid, narcissistic, over confident, megalomaniac, liar, cheater, killer ...Tom. I doubt he ever could've loved his then family, Anna and Evie. He always chased something new to forget his problems. When Rachel got depressed he ran to Anna, when Anna gave birth and gained weight he ran to Megan. The darkest part for me was that he beat up Rachel, and gaslighted her into thinking she was the aggressive and unstable one. Practically ruining her life.
Megan in my eyes is wrong for being unfaithful and cheating on his husband with another married man. BUT i can't fault her for the negligent murder of little Libby. She was a mentally unstable teenager, running away from home and impregnated by a much older man. What she did was wrong, but i do believe she regretted it deeply.
Anna is that bitch. Of course she was lied to all along by Tom, and hated Rachel for good reasons (a.k.a. almost kidnapping her baby). Still this scene makes me hate her sometimes. At the end when Tom reveals everything in front of both of them, and Anna is more concerned to not being compared to Rachel, than being married to a cheating husband who murdered a pregnant woman... Wow... her priorities are FUCKED UP.
Rachel isn't perfect. She drinks, she lashes out at people, lies to them to get closer to them and instead of facing reality or take responsibility (ex. take a job and not lose it) she just pretends as if she had one, so she doesnt have to confess it to her flatmate or mother. The people she really doesn't wanna dissapoint. However i do understand that she was left to fend for herself against abuse, while thinking she is the abuser. She was made fun of by everyone and also gaslighted so much, that by the beginning of the book she doesn't recognize herself at all. Thankfully all this changes when she puts the pieces together, but i wish she had a bigger redemption. I wish police, Anna, her flatmate, Scott and everyone that cried wolf when they saw her would actually acknowledge that she stopped a killer, that she fought for the truth!
The end. Sorry for being this long, i really enjoyed this book :)
OKay, maybe not EVERYONE. But most of them leave such a bad taste in my mouth... But i'm gonna talk about each character a bit, come some of the women too.. Yeah
Tried my patience. Also i gotta say this isn't a negative, i think it's really good character writing if i feel so many conflicting feelings about mere fictional characters. The only good male characters were: Andy, the red haired drunkard, who also barely appears but is the only one who clarifies things to Rachel and doesn't shit on her day in and day out. ALso Dr. Kamal Abdic, who is discriminated instantly because of his ethnicity, and also because of his "involvement" with Megan. Him sleeping with a patient who admitted to having problems with staying faithful? Problematic and probs would've costed him his career. However he was the only one who actually listened to Megan and encouraged her to take a step in the right direction.Scott, Megan's husband is an ass and a psychopath with anger issues. I legit would've believed he is the killer, just by the fact that he so easily dragged Rachel by the hair, as if she was a ragdoll. Not even mentioning what he did to a pregnant Megan, altho he didnt know then that she was pregnant.
Tom....oh dear, stupid, narcissistic, over confident, megalomaniac, liar, cheater, killer ...Tom. I doubt he ever could've loved his then family, Anna and Evie. He always chased something new to forget his problems. When Rachel got depressed he ran to Anna, when Anna gave birth and gained weight he ran to Megan. The darkest part for me was that he beat up Rachel, and gaslighted her into thinking she was the aggressive and unstable one. Practically ruining her life.
Megan in my eyes is wrong for being unfaithful and cheating on his husband with another married man. BUT i can't fault her for the negligent murder of little Libby. She was a mentally unstable teenager, running away from home and impregnated by a much older man. What she did was wrong, but i do believe she regretted it deeply.
Anna is that bitch. Of course she was lied to all along by Tom, and hated Rachel for good reasons (a.k.a. almost kidnapping her baby). Still this scene makes me hate her sometimes. At the end when Tom reveals everything in front of both of them, and Anna is more concerned to not being compared to Rachel, than being married to a cheating husband who murdered a pregnant woman... Wow... her priorities are FUCKED UP.
Rachel isn't perfect. She drinks, she lashes out at people, lies to them to get closer to them and instead of facing reality or take responsibility (ex. take a job and not lose it) she just pretends as if she had one, so she doesnt have to confess it to her flatmate or mother. The people she really doesn't wanna dissapoint. However i do understand that she was left to fend for herself against abuse, while thinking she is the abuser. She was made fun of by everyone and also gaslighted so much, that by the beginning of the book she doesn't recognize herself at all. Thankfully all this changes when she puts the pieces together, but i wish she had a bigger redemption. I wish police, Anna, her flatmate, Scott and everyone that cried wolf when they saw her would actually acknowledge that she stopped a killer, that she fought for the truth!
The end. Sorry for being this long, i really enjoyed this book :)