Name: Jessica Koch's review of The Girl On the Train
Item: The Girl On the Train
Rating: 5
Author: Jessica Koch

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train...

The Girl On the Train

tuna

Paula Hawkins

THE RUNAWAY SUNDAY TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLER AND THRILLER OF THE YEAR, NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING EMILY BLUNT 'Really great suspense novel. Kept me up most of the night. The alcoholic narrator is dead perfect' STEPHEN KING Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Now everything's changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar. Now they'll see; she's much more than just the girl on the train...

The Girl on the Train

alana schouppe 

Jessica Koch

Gripping storytelling save for the last part where it felt like the characters became caricatures of themselves to keep the plot moving

Alberto

Great story. I did guess the ending but still really good

Lauren Piper

suspense and plot twist was crazyyyyy - noice!

this book is the first one that made me enter to this sort of reading world. also was my first book in english, which is not my first language. i really enjoyed it, i felt so immersed in the story, which is so entertaining. it’s a book you just can’t put down. 

Jana

Svetlana 

Author took her time to escalate the story. I like these kind of books when you sort of feel the ending but you aren’t sure and then it hits you that your feelings were real. Curious about the movie, hopefully it will be as good as the book was.

Sajiya Chaudhary

Read it 3 years back and couldn't put it down until I finished it. Loved the writing style.

Ryan Mateyk

I enjoyed it, but there was too much hype around this one for me. I had really high expectations and it didn't quite reach them.

Hanna Rybchynska

A minha sincera opinião: 3/5! Não me surpreendeu nem fiz um "uau" no final. É suposto ser um mistério, mas o único mistério que eu conseguia ver era como é que a personagem consegue beber tanto e meter-se naquela sutuação!

Caroline

Awesome book! The suspense keeps you hook on till the last chapter.

Oliver Magnanimous

I enjoyed the mystery, and reading from the perspective of Rachel was very interesting. Megan was interesting too, but Anna seemed utterly flat whenever we got things from her perspective.
Where the book really came up short though was the ending, the big reveal. It's not the plot itself I take issue with, but the way in which it was done. Very much like a Poirot novel, unconvincing in any other setting. Still, enjoyable read.

muskaan bal

I hated Rachel with a passion. This book really romanticises her stalker-ish personality and plays into her desire to fulfil the male gaze. She should've just moved on and stayed away from the drinks tbh.

Annalissa Powner 

Talk about a book that pulls you in and keeps you hooked till the very end! I was a little upset with Rachael inability to realize her drinking needed to stop but then again it did help the story from time to time. The ending was a huge shock but a great twist all the same. Great read and though it's in the same group as gone girls it's no where near the same books; it stands on its own and was so much more captivating!

★☆☆☆☆
1.00 STAR 

DNF @48%

I can definitely describe Rachel in one word. Tiring.I tried to understand where she was coming from. She was divorced. Her husband cheated on her, left her. She was practically alone and pitiful, too heartbroken. And unstable. She was already too far away from having a normal life that it was really hard for her to get herself together.

Eventually, I just got too tired of everything about her. Too tired of her attitude. Her way of acting and thinking--or rather, NOT thinking. Given that she was unstable and being an emotional wreck, she got too impulsive. Making hasty decisions, even under the influence of alchohol or not, then come to regret making that kind of decision.  "Shoudn't have done this, shouldn't have done that.."  Over and over again. It was like her mind was on a loop. Not thinking, acting, regretting. Not thinking, acting, regretting. It was really frustrating and unbearable to read. I didn't even remember if there was even a part where she decided something and lived through it without regretting. Maybe,just maybe, in the last part of the book. But unfortunately, I am not willing to spend more time going through all of that anymore. 

Rachel was all things but honest, as well. She'd lied just as easily as drinking water. Smooth and easily, until she choked and regret doing it at all. I don't know if I've ever grown any sympathy for her and if I ever did, I'm not exactly sure if even a tiny amount of sympathy stayed. 

I can no longer let myself finish this. Sure, it did made me a bit curious about the swirling 'mystery' going around the story. That was actually the only thing that kept me going and made me this far, when I should have dropped it a long time ago. But it was not thrilling and intriguing enough to make me stay and finish the whole thing. 

Aside from Rachel, there were no likeable characters, either, that can maybe make this atleast survivable, if not good. But all of them were exasperating. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!

I have yet to watch the movie adaptation and I am not quite sure if I'd wanted to watch it ever. Reading the book somehow affected my decision about it. It's just so bad and I actually hated myself for not liking this because I really do love mysteries and suspense and I thought this could lived up to my expectation. Boy was I so wrong!

The #1"New York Times"Bestseller, "USA Today"Book of the Year, soon to be a major motion picture starring Emily Blunt. The debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives. Nothing is more addicting than"The Girl on the Train." "Vanity Fair " "The Girl on the Train"has more fun with unreliable narration than any chiller since"Gone Girl." . . . [It] is liable to draw a large, bedazzled readership. "The New York Times" Marries movie noir with novelistic trickery. . . hang on tight. You'll be surprised by what horrors lurk around the bend. "USA Today" Like its train, the story blasts through the stagnation of these lives in suburban London and the reader cannot help but turn pages. "The Boston Globe " "Gone Girl"fans will devour this psychological thriller. "People" EVERY DAY THE SAME Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life as she sees it is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. UNTIL TODAY And then she sees something shocking. It s only a minute until the train moves on, but it s enough. Now everything s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?"

The Girl on the Train (Movie Tie-In)

Heather

Re read this after few years. Now see it different. Very good.

THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER. YOU DON'T KNOW HER. BUT SHE KNOWS YOU. Rear Window meets Gone Girl, in this exceptional and startling psychological thriller 'Gripping, enthralling - a top-notch thriller and a compulsive read' S J WATSON, bestselling author of Before I Go To Sleep Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Now everything's changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar. Now they'll see; she's much more than just the girl on the train...

Ned Summers 

Last 50 pages exciting, first 250 incredibly slow and with very little to think about.

Cody Degen

I read through the night and I was so scared lol.

I finished the book around 4:30 in the morning and when damn I felt so terrified. Thriller books are the best you know. 

About the characters, I hated Anna at first because ya girl was overreacting. But throughout the novel I know where she's coming from. I also find myself rooting for Rachel, our protagonist. 

SPOILER!!!
Throughout the novel when it seems that the therapist was not Megan's lover, I automatically assumed it was Tom and hell I was right!! I feel sorry for every characters and their own issues but that's life. I recommend this book for whoever wants to read thriller books.

There will be a movie right? Amazing!!

Kath

Rating up from a 3.5
An incredibly fast read and a very entertaining one! I still haven't seen the movie adaptation but while reading it all I can think about is that the screens would be a more perfect medium for this story.
Gaslighting and alcoholism are two of its main themes and I do think that Hawkins was successful in showing us the dangers of being a victim of liquor and coercive men. 

[spoilers]
The ending wasn't that satisfying for me. Did they report to the police that Tom was in fact Meg's killer or was the ending only about the night that they killed Tom? -- wherein Anna and Rachel told them that it was only self defense and the crime was only just that?

Brandy

Sercan Y.

Yazarın ilk romanıymış, gayet başarılı buldum..Kitabın kadın karakterleri iç dünyaları, duyguları, bağlılıkları ve hayal kırıklıkları ile mükemmel anlatılmış. Yazar kadın olmasının avantajını sonuna kadar kullanmış; ancak kitabındaki kadın karakterler ne kadar kusursuzsa erkek karakterler o kadar yüzeysel kalmış..Kitaptaki mekanlar aslında hikayeyi güçlendirmesi gerekirken karakterlerin mekanla ilişkisi biraz havada kalmış. Mekan ile karakter ve hikaye birlikteliği sorunlu olunca, hikayeye derinlik katacak güçlü bir mekan algısı oluşmadı bende..Yine de son derece iyi bir kurgusu var kitabın; belki de bu yüzden Hollywood'un gözünden kaçmadı hemen filmini çektiler. Edebi yönden çok güçlü bir kitap değil ancak başarılı bir ilk kitap..Yazarını takip etmekte fayda var..

Laura Mauler

Geetika 

Sometimes a bit too dragging, confusing and painful yet a very good book with a very justified ending although not very logical one.

Duncan Abel

Rachel Wagstaff

Adapted from Paula Hawkins' novel - an international phenomenon selling over twenty million copies worldwide - this gripping new play will keep you guessing until the final moment. Rachel Watson longs for a different life. Her only escape is the perfect couple she watches through the train window every day, happy and in love. Or so it appears. When Rachel learns that the woman she's been secretly watching has suddenly disappeared, she finds herself as a witness and even a suspect in a thrilling mystery in which she will face bigger revelations than she could ever have anticipated.

Stephen Campbell

The climax of these things is never as good as the build up but who doesn't enjoy trashy suburban thrillers.

jess larry

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH, IT WAS SO FUCKING CAPTIVATING 

the characters ? INFURIATING, STUPID, DEEPLY MENTALLY ILL ( rachel, scott, anna, i beg seek help)

the plot ? AMAZING

the writing ? PERFECT, not once did I feel bored nor sleepy while reading this, which is quite rare

I felt so many emotions, rage, sadness, FEAR. 

Sssssuch a good read !!!

(btw the cover is so clever lol)

Jessica Koch &
The Girl On the Train

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