336 pages
Published Jan. 8, 2015 by Penguin Books.
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.
I picked this up because it was an available audiobook at my library and I wanted a thriller.
Greedy narcissists, violent cavemen. Nothing clever, interesting, or insightful. Incredibly tedious to watch these characters plod through their lives until the predictable climax. By the end, all of the characters blurred together in my head into one blob because of their similar boring, sad behavior.
I'm not sure how I feel about this novel. Mostly, I just hated all of the main characters; I didn't like any of them, and there was almost nothing that was redeeming about any of them. The writing is interesting, but it suffers from one issue: All of the characters are written in the same voice. None of them feel different; it was sometimes hard to remember whose chapter I was in without going back to the beginning of it to remind myself.
The twist is less obvious but still easy to pick up on when you figure out what to look for. Better than most, in that respect.
Good mystery with a bunch of unlikable characters.
The story itself is good enough. The mystery around the murder is tight and in no way predictable. Although it is branded as a thriller novel, the existence of thrill here is almost next to nothing. However, the biggest let down of this is its characters. All of them lack personality. The main protagonist spends a good part of the story just drinking and whining about her ex. The characters are portrayed in an absurd manner. The behavior of the characters is far off from that of any normal human being. For example, Megan, one minute she is talking about her dead child, next minute she is cheating on her husband with her counselor! Characters have no motivation except for sex! The characters are like, this happened, let's have sex! Ow, that happened, let's have sex! And these happen in very inappropriate …
Good mystery with a bunch of unlikable characters.
The story itself is good enough. The mystery around the murder is tight and in no way predictable. Although it is branded as a thriller novel, the existence of thrill here is almost next to nothing. However, the biggest let down of this is its characters. All of them lack personality. The main protagonist spends a good part of the story just drinking and whining about her ex. The characters are portrayed in an absurd manner. The behavior of the characters is far off from that of any normal human being. For example, Megan, one minute she is talking about her dead child, next minute she is cheating on her husband with her counselor! Characters have no motivation except for sex! The characters are like, this happened, let's have sex! Ow, that happened, let's have sex! And these happen in very inappropriate situations which made me feel really disgusted. In a nutshell, the characters are uninteresting, boring, and even irritating to some extent. The plot was good but the characters just threw me off the story.
Well-written, and fast and easy reading. I admit I had to stop and think who was who a bit as the viewpoint switched among the three women (and back and forth a bit across time), but then I'm very bad at names. Both an interesting whodunit, and a sadly probably quite accurate picture of a certain kind of very bad person.
Good train reading. Even involves trains! And the things one might see out the window. And think about.
Enjoyable, fast-paced mystery with a satisfying ending and dark, complex characters. Nobody in this book is good, which I personally enjoy in a mystery.
One of the most popular books of 2016, quickly made into a movie in Hollywood. I haven't watched the movie, because I wanted to get through the book first. It is a fun, fast paced, well-written thriller with all you would expect from a proper mystery book. There is a flawed hero, a mysterious disappearance, a bunch of shifty suspects, slow police officers and yeah, it keeps you guessing most of the way through. I thought I had it solved a couple of times but the ending did surprise me anyway.
I would say it is the kind of book you want to be reading over the summer, next to the beach just for the fun of it. It will not teach you anything new, it will not change your perception of the world. It is just a good old fashioned mystery story, written in a fun and engaging way.
Masala fare. I thought the story was pretty predictable.
Saw this on the WHSmith bestseller shelves while passing through Heathrow and picked up the audio book once I got home. Is it great literature? No, but it's entertaining and more-ish and I had a hard time pausing without trying to figure out what was going to happen next. Good holiday reading, and the Audible narration is particularly well done.
The book's main character is Rachel, the titular character, whose train pauses at a signal in a particular neighbourhood almost every day, and who daydreams up an ideal life for the beautiful couple she often sees in one of the houses there. But one day the woman goes missing, and Rachel thinks she may have seen something relevant. The book switches between Rachel and two other narrators, the woman who's gone missing, and the new wife of Rachel's ex-husband. As the story switches between the three women with different perspectives, …
Saw this on the WHSmith bestseller shelves while passing through Heathrow and picked up the audio book once I got home. Is it great literature? No, but it's entertaining and more-ish and I had a hard time pausing without trying to figure out what was going to happen next. Good holiday reading, and the Audible narration is particularly well done.
The book's main character is Rachel, the titular character, whose train pauses at a signal in a particular neighbourhood almost every day, and who daydreams up an ideal life for the beautiful couple she often sees in one of the houses there. But one day the woman goes missing, and Rachel thinks she may have seen something relevant. The book switches between Rachel and two other narrators, the woman who's gone missing, and the new wife of Rachel's ex-husband. As the story switches between the three women with different perspectives, and between the present and the past, the reader slowly puts together a picture of what is really happening.
Reading these reviews I see the book has been compared to "Gone, Girl" and to some extent I can understand that, but really I think the book is just about how many illusions and assumptions we have about other people and how everyone has a very different reality from what others see. There is no one single and clear "truth", everyone lies intentionally or not, and nobody is really able to see and understand the truth of another person's life. If there was one thing I didn't like it's how much of a mess the main character is - an alcoholic with various other issues that come to light over the course of the book, she is constantly making truly abysmal decisions to an extent that makes it a little hard to remain sympathetic with her, although the author does an excellent job trying. Overall enjoyed it, entertaining read that kept my interest.
вагався між 4 та 5, але нехай вже, буду поблажливим: трилер непоганий, попри певну схильність авторки змальовувати жінок дещо інфантильними істеричками з купою комплексів замість мізків, а чоловіків… читайте, втім :-)
An interesting mystery told from the perspective of three flawed, egotistical characters. I'd have given it three stars if the method of telling the story hadn't been so engaging
It's a shade or two too complicated to be the basis for a Lifetime Movie, but I couldn't help thinking this is how things actually would go down if a real-life amateur 'sleuth' got involved in a mystery. Think Nancy Drew as a blackout drunk divorcee with no skills to recommend her the job but a stalker's gift for obsession and rationalization. It's not as funny as you might expect given those parameters. Or at all. But I enjoyed it.
Tight writing and storytelling. Three narrators device effective and done well. Not exaggerated, as often the case.
A solid 3 stars.
The good:
1. Unreliable narrator. Actually, 3 of them. Unreliable narrators are fun.
2. The narrators all engender an interesting complex of emotions--pity, disgust, affection, frustration--which was sort of emotionally satisfying.
3. It explores different types of domestic abuse -- not all abusers hit, and not all abusers who hit hit all the time.
The not-so-good
1. I prefer my unreliable narrators to be just a bit less obviously unreliable. Trying to figure out whether you can trust them is half the fun.
2. The narrators engender interesting emotions but are not, themselves, particularly interesting or richly developed. They are defined primarily by their feelings about motherhood and fertility and not a lot else, which would get old fast even if it weren't already overdone to death.
3. The Big Reveals were too obvious. Obviously there was another Other Man--the narrator always referred to the Other …
A solid 3 stars.
The good:
1. Unreliable narrator. Actually, 3 of them. Unreliable narrators are fun.
2. The narrators all engender an interesting complex of emotions--pity, disgust, affection, frustration--which was sort of emotionally satisfying.
3. It explores different types of domestic abuse -- not all abusers hit, and not all abusers who hit hit all the time.
The not-so-good
1. I prefer my unreliable narrators to be just a bit less obviously unreliable. Trying to figure out whether you can trust them is half the fun.
2. The narrators engender interesting emotions but are not, themselves, particularly interesting or richly developed. They are defined primarily by their feelings about motherhood and fertility and not a lot else, which would get old fast even if it weren't already overdone to death.
3. The Big Reveals were too obvious. Obviously there was another Other Man--the narrator always referred to the Other Man by name, so the lengthy sections in which she exclusively used "he" are kind of a tip off. And there is only one possible candidate for who the other Other Man might be. You don't have to be particularly familiar with crime fiction or psychological thrillers to figure this one out early.
Great read. Highly recommended. Unlike "DaVinci Code", this is a massively popular book that lives up to the hype...
I have to get up early tomorrow morning to catch the train.
I was intrigued by the similarities to Gone Girl, but I felt that this story fell short. This was a story about terrible people making bad life and relationship choices with a murder mystery added in for good measure. This was a solid 'it was okay' rating for me, it wasn't particularly exceptional in any area and am surprised to see it listed on so many to read lists.
