Reviews for The Girl On The Train

by Paula Hawkins

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Hawkins's highly engrossing debut novel introduces listeners to Rachel Watson, an unreliable point-of-view character if there ever was one-she is unemployed, an alcoholic, and stalking her ex-husband and his new wife. She attempts to save face by pretending to go to work every day, seeing the same seemingly perfect couple daily from her train window. Rachel's narrative is intersected by those of two other women--Megan, the woman who lives in the house Rachel is obsessed with, and Anna, who lives down the street from Megan and is married to Rachel's ex-husband. When Megan disappears, layers of the women's personalities are slowly revealed in unexpected ways. Narrators Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey, and India Fisher give outstanding performances. VERDICT A gripping novel that will appeal to fans of psychological fiction and suspense. ["With only a brief look into backstory, undeveloped characters offer no reason or motivation for their actions, and none of them is likable," disagreed the review of the Riverhead hc, LJ 10/15/14.]-Phillip Oliver, Univ. of North -Alabama, Florence © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Melding the voyeurism of Rear Window with the unreliable narration of Gone Girl (2012), Hawkins delivers a riveting thriller. Rachel commutes to London each day, pretending to go to a job she got sacked from months ago for being drunk. Her ex-husband left her for Megan, and now they have a baby and are living in the home Rachel so lovingly decorated. Almost every day, from the train window, she sees Anna and Scott, who live two doors down from her old home. Rachel vividly imagines Anna and Scott's perfect life (she calls them the golden couple), giving them elaborate backstories; however, one day she sees Anna kissing a man who is not her husband; the very next day, Anna goes missing. Rachel inserts herself into the investigation with a headlong desperation, keen to find a way to give her life meaning, and what she discovers is surprising on every level. The novel is alternately narrated by three equally unlikable women, and Hawkins very deliberately doles out tantalizing information, but what really gives this novel its compulsive readability is the way she so expertly mines female archetypes: the jealous ex-wife, the smug mistress, the emotionally damaged femme fatale. Hawkins makes voyeurs of her readers as she creates one humiliating scene after another with the women's near-feral emotions on full display. A wicked thriller, cleverly done. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This may well be the next Gone Girl, with foreign rights sold in 20 countries and film rights optioned to DreamWorks.--Wilkinson, Joanne Copyright 2014 Booklist


Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Hawkins's bestseller introduces us to a young woman named Rachel Watson, whose life has been unspooling in the years since her recent divorce. Though alcoholism and a loss of self-worth have left her jobless, she continues to commute to London by train past her old Victorian, where ex-husband Tom now lives with his new wife, Anna, and their baby girl. She also passes her neighbors Megan and Scott Hipwell, who are, in Rachel's words, "a perfect, golden couple." When she learns that Megan has gone missing, Rachel has a vague memory of having been in the neighborhood, inebriated, the night of the disappearance. The novel consists of dated entries in the diaries of Rachel, Anna, and Megan, portrayed in this production by a trio of actresses. All three readers perform admirably, and as the novel speeds toward its breathless whodunit conclusion and the diary entries grow shorter and shorter, it almost seems as if readers Corbett and Fisher, following the leads of their characters Rachel and Anna, are one-upping each other to have the story's last word. A Riverhead hardcover. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.


Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Every day, Rachel takes the same London commuter train and passes the same suburban scenery, yet one house catches her eye-mainly because of the married couple she glimpses living there. This leads Rachel to conjure up an entire dream life for this husband and wife, even naming them and giving them make-believe careers. Rachel's life has been spiraling downward, and her fantasy about this couple gives her a little joy. But all is not what it seems and Rachel is soon embroiled in a murderous thriller. Each chapter is narrated by either Rachel or Anna, who's married to Rachel's ex-husband, or, Megan, the woman Rachel sees from the train, but, unfortunately, by using this format, debut author Hawkins confuses the reader. With only a brief look into backstory, undeveloped characters offer no reason or motivation for their actions, and none of them is likable. VERDICT This disappointing psychological thriller is being touted as the next Gone Girl and has already been purchased for film adaptation. So while it may not be the best, it will be popular. For fans of Sophie Hannah or S.J. Watson. [See Prepub Alert, 7/21/14.]-Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Desperate to find lives more fulfilling than her own, a lonely London commuter imagines the story of a couple she's only glimpsed through the train window in Hawkins' chilling, assured debut, in which the line between truth and lie constantly shifts like the rocking of a train.Rachel Watsona divorced, miserable alcoholic who's still desperately in love with her ex-husband, Tomrides the same train every day into London for her dead-end job, one she unsurprisingly loses after one too many drunken outbursts. Continuing her daily commute to keep up appearances with her roommate, Rachel always pays special attention to a couple, whom she dubs "Jess and Jason," who live a seemingly idyllic life in a house near her own former home. When she sees a momentary act of infidelity, followed soon after by news that Jesswhose real name is Megan Hipwellhas disappeared, Rachel is compelled to share her secret knowledge, becoming enmeshed in the police investigation, which centers on Megan's husband, Scott. Further complicating matters is the fact that the night Megan vanished, Rachel has a hazy memory of drunkenly stumbling past the Hipwell home and seeing something she can't quite recall. Hawkins seamlessly moves among Rachel's present-day story as the investigation into Megan's disappearance widens, Megan's own life leading up to her disappearance, and snippets about Anna, the woman for whom Tom left Rachel. Even the most astute readers will be in for a shock as Hawkins slowly unspools the facts, exposing the harsh realities of love and obsession's inescapable links to violence. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Rachel Watson, the principal narrator of Hawkins's psychologically astute debut, is obsessed with her ex-husband, Tom. She's having a hard time putting the past behind her, especially since she confronts it daily, during the hourlong commute to London from her rented room in Ashbury, Oxfordshire, when her train passes the Victorian house she once shared with Tom. She also frequently spies an attractive couple, four doors down from her former home, who she imagines to be enjoying the happily-ever-after that eluded her. Then, suddenly, the woman, pixie-ish blonde Megan Hipwell, vanishes-only to turn up on the front page of the tabloids as missing. The police want to question Rachel, after Anna, Tom's new wife, tells them that Rachel was in the area drunkenly out of control around the time of Megan's disappearance. Hawkins, formerly deputy personal finance editor of the Times of London, deftly shifts between the accounts of the addled Rachel, as she desperately tries to remember what happened, Megan, and, eventually, Anna, for maximum suspense. The surprise-packed narratives hurtle toward a stunning climax, horrifying as a train wreck and just as riveting. Agent: Lizzy Kremer, David Higham Associates (U.K.). (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.