Review: The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With everyone talking about how this book was the next Gone Girl, I decided to get it as part of my "books to read once the baby comes." Turns out, Micah was a great sleeper for the first two days of his life, so I got to start this in the hospital.

I liked it. It was about a woman named Rachel who daydreamed about a couple whole life she could see through the window of the train. When the woman goes missing, Rachel thinks she has information to help the case, and although she is not very credible, partially because she is an alcoholic, she inserts herself into the investigation. Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, this couple lives on the same street as her ex-husband and his new wife, and she continues to engage with them as well, despite their desire to stop being disturbed by her.

Soon, Rachel's drinking continues to get worse, and she finds herself waking up drunk one night in their neighborhood. Then the woman is found dead, and Rachel becomes driven to connect those two events and solve the crime.

She is a great character - and her development, as well as that of the other characters who alternate narration, make it a great book. It was a thriller/mystery that masqueraded as a novel, and one that I enjoyed very much.

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