Every day and night,
Rachel Watson took the same train ride. She had been doing it for a long time
that she already developed a fixation for some things she would come across
while in transit, particularly Meghan and Scott, her favorite trainside resident
couple who she thought was perfect. After finding out about the infidelity
going on between the two, she got so affected that she just had to involve
herself. Still in the midst of her depression and alcoholism, she would accidentally
mix her personal post-divorce issues with her new obsession only to later find
out that things were actually not an accident and that everything was really engrossed
with each other.
Life is not a paragraph, and death
is no parenthesis. – Rachel Watson
The Girl on the
Train
is a unique and twisted story about members of three families related,
separated and interconnected by human nature’s misfortunes. It’s crazy to think
about how many novels right now are written about marital and familial
breakdowns and tragedies. This is yet another dark venture into how much such
things can affect someone.
Though the twist in
the end was not the ultimate shocker for me, it’s not to say it hadn’t had an
impact. I mean, I kind of already figured out who did what, as it became easy
for me to connect the dots, but I was still surprised when everything unfolded
because I was like hoping I was wrong. It’s
always the good ones, right? Hehe.
There was a good
play on perspectives and time frames also. They gave me the intended confusion
to lead me to different possibilities, just enough kind of crazy, without
totally boring or misleading me. They were careful and well-thought of, in
fairness.
He never understood that it’s
possible to miss what you’ve never had, to mourn for it. – Rachel Watson
Being a
psychological thriller, the book was all sorts of haunting even when there wasn’t
much brutality displayed. The novel invested on building and implanting horrendous
ideas inside the readers’ head through patches of provokingly horrible thoughts
in between chapters. There would always be something creepy about not knowing
or barely knowing, and the story was written around such principle.
It became
unputdownable for me because of the interesting plot and the flow of the story.
It was so unlikely for something like such a thing to ever occur. It was this unlikelihood
that made me want to go on immediately. I was on it after meals, before bed or
just about anytime I had nothing to do.
Being the other woman is a huge turn
on, there’s no point denying it: you’re the one he can’t help but betray his
wife for, even though he loves her. That’s just how irresistible you are. –
Anna Watson
I’d say it was also this
unlikelihood that made the book less relatable. And because it was like a one
in a million scenario for me, it became hard to put myself in the same
situation, as I wasn’t sure if I would be doing the same things the main
character did. I was a detached reader in this novel, distant and separated.
That was a bit off-putting for me because as a reader, it’s important for me
that I connect with what I’m reading, not necessarily seeing myself in the
characters but at least holding onto the story.
I enjoyed The Girl on the Train. It was not
something I thought about long after I finished it, but I was consumed while I
was at it. There was always something to look
forward to. It was dark and twisted, and that’s something I always find
amusing, a sure win on my reading list.
Are you done reading
this book? What are your thoughts? I’d like to know them! Feel free to share
them below!
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