The Girl On The Train is just as advertised - a mystery with a new twist, suspenseful, and with the bonus that I didn't figure it out before the end.
Rachel is sliding to a personal low, covering all her problems with alcohol. Out of shape and run down, she was fired for drinking at work - and it caused her divorce from Tom. He now lives in their old house with Anna, and their new baby girl. Every day, Rachel takes the same train into London (pretending to others she goes to work) which stops in front of her old house. She doesn't look there - she watches a few doors down at a lovely couple that Rachel constructs a fantasy life about, where they are perfect and in love. It's a nice escape until she witnesses something shocking - and then the lovely wife disappears. Already on edge, she starts to investigate on her own, getting involved with the police, befriending the lovely husband at home, and even stalking her ex and his new wife. Does she want to help, or just desperate for attention? She can't stop herself. Unable to stop drinking, she tries to reconstruct what happened during her blackouts, and wonders about her own sanity.
Alternating between the three main women (Rachel, Anna, and the lovely wife Megan), and crossing timelines, this was a suspenseful and well written thriller. The story of a woman pulled into a mystery while mentally unstable casts doubt on everyone, including herself. When she encounters danger she is either too delusional or inebriated to get away, finding herself constantly trapped where she shouldn't be. Rachel's flaws and tired appearance made for a great heroine.
Though I liked it, I'm left wondering what the underlying issues of the characters say to the reader; the main male characters appear stable and 'happily' married, but both are prone to violent rages and misogyny beneath the surface. The women's narration is filled with insecurity, desperation, and contempt for each other. When the 'lovely wife' turns out to have a hidden past, the others figure she deserved what she got; when Rachel is attacked and left for dead, Anna sits by and watches, thinking it's best if Rachel finally left her and Tom alone. Written in thriller that should appeal women, it was a strange aftertaste: self absorbed women turning on each other rather than their abusive man. Or was that just me?
That said, it was a new take on suspense, and engaging to the end. I've heard others say they figured it out right away, but to me the villain was well hidden. (That is, until they sat down and fully explained their actions before, during, and after, the event - they just can't help taking a chapter to tell you all about it in the end.)
2014 / Tradeback / 316 pages
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