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Past And Present Fighting For Justice
Book Review: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
I have never been good at remembering the names of songs or movies. Only when either a song or a movie is really special to me, I can easily recall it but I forget most titles.
My husband is different. He seems to remember everything. Not only the names of songs and movies, but also that of the artists and actors. Sometimes I think his head has to be three times bigger to store all the information.
I normally don’t tell him which story I am listening, but when I started listening to The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins, I was so intrigued by the story that I just had to tell him. I mentioned the title, and he said: “We’ve seen the movie and we both liked it.”
Seriously, I have been trying to recall some scenes from the movie, but I just can’t. Not even after I finished the book.
That just means I will have to watch the movie again, and I know already my husband will joke: “It’s a good thing you don’t remember the movies; that way every time you watch it, it’s like the first time!”
The author, Paula Hawkins
Born and raised in what was once Salisbury, Rhodesia — now Harare, Zimbabwe — Paula Hawkins moved to London in 1989 when she was 17.
She studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford, and later worked as a journalist for The Times, where she reported on business. She also worked as a freelancer for several publications and wrote a book for women on financial advice, called The Money Goddess.
Paula Hawkins first tried her hand at fiction in 2009, writing romantic comedy fiction as Amy Silver. Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista is one of the four novels she wrote.
She only made a breakthrough when she turned to darker fiction, writing her best-selling novel The Girl on the Train (2015), which sold over 23 million copies worldwide and turned into a major motion picture.
Other books by Paula Hawkins are: * Into the Water (2017) * A Slow Fire Burning (2021)
Nowadays, Hawkins splits her time between London and Edinburgh.
A captivating psychological thriller
Every morning, Rachel Watson takes the train into the city, and every time it takes her past her old house, where she had lived prior to her divorce.
The train waits at the same signal every morning, giving her the time to look at the houses next to the train tracks. Not only the houses, but also the people in them. One couple in particular draws her attention, and she feels like she knows them. She even gives them names: Jess and Jason. Their life seems perfect, and Rachel wishes she could be that happy.
Then, one morning, during a minute while the train waits at the signal, she witnesses something shocking, and it fills her with rage. She wakes with a terrible hangover the next day and can’t remember anything of the night before, but she knows something bad has happened.
When the television report shows Megan Hipwell is missing, Rachel recognizes her as Jess, and she knows she has to get involved in the lives of the people in the houses next to the train track.
She can show them all she’s more than just the girl on the train.
A brilliant read
I enjoyed every minute of listening to this book. I totally attached myself to Rachel, understanding every step she took, every decision she has made, even why she drank too much, and why she kept her work situation a secret to her flat mate.
It has happened several times while watching series or movies that I remarked to my husband how people can get their lives all up in tangles, and that’s exactly what happens to Rachel. She wants to do good, wants to help, but she’s also working through her own pain because of her divorce.
It’s a good thing I couldn’t remember watching the movie, as I didn’t see the plot twist coming in the end. And what a twist it is!
If you haven’t read this book or haven’t seen the movie, I recommend doing either. Although I always lean more to books than to movies, the choice is yours!
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