I haven't got a lot to say about The Girl on the Train. I picked it up because I had seen a lot of hype all over the interwebs and thought, why not? Normally I would have to wait for ages for hyped books using the library and by the time they get into my hands everything has died down a little and I can make my own mind up; but now with work there's a 9/10 chance that a copy will turn up in the shop. I'd heard things like it was the next Gone Girl - and while there are some similarities, I didn't really take to this book as much.
Paula Hawkin's debut is basically what it says on the tin. Told from 3 female points of view: Rachel, a girl on the train; Rachel's ex-husband's new wife Anna; and Megan, the girl that Rachel passes by every day on the train. When Megan goes missing, Rachel's life starts to spiral out of control - or at least her web of lies does.
Now, I'm all for an unreliable and unlikeable narrator -which I know is not everybody's bag - but all three characters were pretty dull. Anna comes closest to being interesting (let's be honest, she's what you'd call a straight up mean person), yet Hawkins never really develops her character beyond the mother bear and blameless homewrecker archetypes.
The story is supposed to unravel slowly as Rachel reveals more of her deceptions, keeping the reader on edge. For me, I got so bored that I kept flicking forward to the last few pages to see if my predictions of the "big twist" were going to be correct. Is it too much to ask for a story to be so gripping that I want to read every single word on the page and not even notice how far along I am?
The Girl on the Train is an easy read, but it's also formulaic and disposable. I don't think I'm going to remember it in six months time as I'm having trouble enough remembering details now when I'm only two weeks post read!
No comments:
Post a Comment