The Girl on the
Train
Overall Rating: ★★★★
Characters: ★★
Plot: ★★★★
Writing：★★★★
I am so sorry for not updating any book
review stuff for approximately a month. The reason is the disturbing SAT, which
will take place on June 4th. I am pretty sure after the test, I will be able to
read much faster, considering the fact that I only read ONE book in nearly
three weeks. SHAME ON ME. So without further ado, I am going to start talking
about the only book that I read recently——The Girl on the train.
I have to say that when books are turned
into movies, the trailers of those movies are normally good inspirations for me
to pick up the book. I did the same thing with Me Before You, and The Girl on
the Train is also another example. I was intrigued by the trailer, so I bought
the book. I struggled a little bit during the middle part; I hate some of the
characters but not so much at the end. This book is quite different from what I
thought it would be, but I still give it a four-star rating. I definitely
understand why some people dislike this book, and I share the same opinion with
them to a certain degree. However, I believe the unpredictable twist in the
plot makes up for that. I spent a long time reading the first half and then
flew through the second half in about two days; the plot does pick up at the
end, which I am glad to see.
The Girl on the Train is told from three
perspectives. All three perspectives may seem to be independent, but they all
intertwined somehow at the end. The story is mainly told from the perspective
of Rachel, a woman who is an alcoholic and is suffering from a heartbreaking
consequence of a divorce. She takes the train to London every single day, and
on that train, she passes the same houses every day. She sees a couple living
in a house, and she imagines how their lives will be like. She even puts
imaginative names on the couple. One day, she discovers something peculiar that
makes her do something that she has never done before. I am not good at
summarizing the plot of a book, so that’s the best I can do. Now, it is the
spoiler part.
The main part that I dislike about this
book is the characters. Normally, when I am reading some books, I always tend
to find somebody that I like or someone that I can side with. But in this book,
I hate practically every character. None of them is one hundred percent innocent.
I probably dislike Rachel the most, because I always feel like she gives up too
fast. Every time I thought she is going to make some change to her pathetic
life, she turns to drinking again. That really pisses me off. Through the first
part of the book, I just kept repeating the sentence to Rachel “Get a grip, for
god sake.”
Aside from the characters, I really
appreciate how the writer crafted the plot. I admit I am not a good guesser
when it comes to thrillers or crime novels. I can only tell who does the crime
until the very end, and this book is no exception. I have no idea who kills
Megan until the last fifty pages or so. This book is absolutely not terrifying.
It only has a certain amount of suspense that is not scary at all. I am glad
that I didn’t guess the plot, or that will be so much boring to read.
I don’t think I will watch the movie
because I don’t feel like going through the same emotional process with Rachel
being an alcoholic. I give this book four stars but more likely to be a
3.5-star rating. I had some enjoyment while reading it, but I don’t feel the
enjoyment is fantastic enough to completely outweigh its flaws. I understand
why it was such a huge thing last year, but maybe it is just not my piece of
cake.
