Friday, November 13, 2015

Friday Books: Girl on the Train

Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was an interesting book, another one that is a genre I don't usually read (mystery). It was engaging and hard to put down. A young woman rides a train into London and back home every day. She enjoys looking at the houses along the route and imagines lives for the people she sees. She is particularly interested in one house at which she gets more time to stare, thanks to a train stop being right there. The story starts to unfold, and the reader begins to understand why that particular house is so fascinating to the woman on the train. Stories begin to twist in and around each other, and you will keep reading to see what will happen next.

I liked it at first; I can imagine looking at houses from a train and dreaming of what the people's lives might be like. That's a fun mental game. By the end of the book I thought it was all rather exaggerated. I enjoyed reading it; it definitely kept my attention and was oddly interesting. I can't give it more than 3.5 stars out of five, due to the conglomeration of odd characters. Not many of them were likeable, though the story was an interesting one.

Would it have been too hard to entitle this book Woman on the Train?

2 comments:

Jan said...

When I first picked up Girl on the Train, my first thought was, Oh, no, not a Girl Gone wanta be. But Hawkins had her own voice and I enjoyed it. Yes, some of it was weird and contrived but overall it was a good read.

dianneo said...

The book has many twists. I enjoyed it also because it didn't go as I expected it to go at all. I enjoy your reviews!