The Girl on the Train Review: Not Quite Gone Girl

When reading mysteries, readers expect to be transcended into a world that captivates our imagination and tears us away from reality. We find ourselves immersed in the characters lives, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel, and for the time being, we become them. Paula Hawkins’ novel “The Girl on the Train,” much like Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl,” is a psychological thriller that is told from the point of view of multiple narrators. Unlike Flynn, Hawkins fails to hook the reader and essentially drags them down the rabbit hole that is Rachel’s life.

Although deception and infidelity is constant variable throughout the novel, it is not until the end that the plot begins to pick up, and the reader becomes physically, mentally and emotionally invested. For those looking for a “Gone Girl” 2.0, this will fail to meet your expectations.

From the beginning, Rachel, the main character, fails to grab the reader. She is an annoying drunk who can’t seem to get her life together. After losing her husband (to another woman) and her job, she follows the same old dull routine drinking her days away, and dwelling over her failed marriage. In an attempt to create a sense of empathy, Hawkins presents Rachel as not only weak and spiteful but overweight and relatively unattractive in comparison to the other narrators, Megan and Anna. Despite your best efforts to empathize with her, she is not a likeable character.

In a clear echo of “Gone Girl,” when one of the narrators goes missing, the grieving husband, appears more disreputable than his charming manner indicates. However, in this novel, the other protagonists come to seem less like the perfect couple and more like vindictive troublemakers. While on the surface everyone seems to be nice and calm, something lurks underneath their facades.

Full of back-stabbing, and complicated love triangles, Hawkins keeps all these lies, threats, and allusions swirling through her book, to the point where they all undermine and frighten each other. Although there is a lot of diabolical plotting, there is also the cliche story which a man tries to convince his wife that she is going mad, which all three women fall victim to. A strong feeling of hatred for these women overcomes readers as we watch their lives fall apart.

The complexity of the story is due to Rachel’s tendency to seek solace in gin and wine causing her to black out and forget things that may or may not have occurred the day before. Readers may find themselves in a state confusion as Hawkins jumbles the timing of scenes, with one of the narrators gone in one chapter and then present in the next. The shifting among her narrators’ points of view and moving parts is meant to keep the reader on edge, however, Hawkins takes longer than necessary to get them started.

Much like pulling teeth, getting through this novel was extremely tedious and frustrating. Each of the women is incapable of thinking for themselves and rely heavily on the approval of a man making it utterly impossible to like them.

Failing to captivate her readers, Hawkins reveals the plot twist halfway through the book so there is no “ah-ha!” moment when you get to the end. Although readers may feel somewhat sympathetic towards the three protagonists as the final scenes play out, there is s sense of relief when the book is finally over.