Review: Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

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…

Review: Now this isn't normally my genre but there was so much hype surrounding this book that I couldn't not read it and I'm really glad that I did because this book certainly made an impression on me! The suspense and the action in this book is a slow build but boy when it really kicks in, I was shouting at the characters, shouting at the plot, having to tell other people around it just to release some of the built up suspense!

The book is written in the first person but it jumps around as to which person is talking. Rachel, the girl on the train tends to do the majority of the narrative and so you really feel like you get to know her, get under her skin and by the end of the book you are living the storyline through her, you can't help but get involved. The other characters who provide narrative also add to the storyline and their chapters are written perfectly so you alliance doesn't necessarily switch from Rachel over to them but you can sympathise with them and you are desperate for one of them to give you some more information as to what is going on in the storyline!

This book deals with some pretty big issues, murder, man slaughter, alcoholism, depression, unemployment, infidelity, but none of these are the main part of the book, the book isn't about any one of these things but they are all contributing factors and that is what makes the book so well written, because it weaves all these things together so wonderfully and keeps you guessing right up until the last moment!

For the last 30% of this book you will find yourself racing through it. The book is told thorough various days/dates and two of the characters are written at slightly different times, however, towards the end one character's times catches up with the other and this left me breathless. I was literally shouting warnings to the characters. In terms of gore factor, although this is a thriller and so we know there is going to be some sort of incident but there really wasn't too much blood and violence in this. This was definitely a psychological thriller with characters sitting together having a cup of tea and chatting building up tension that way rather than outright fight scenes!

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would love to see something else from this author in the future. The tension was amazing and the story as a whole was really clever. It will keep you guessing right up until the end and the ending will leave you satisfied but still thinking. I guarantee you will be paranoid for a couple of days after reading this but all for good cause! This book would appeal to those of you who are not thriller fans but also die hard fans of a bit of suspense. This was a really meaty read with everything you could want in a good book.