'The Girl on the Train'

Here in Oregon, our Summer has been very hot.  And I don't mean sexy.

Hot, hot, hot.  Hot enough to make breathing difficult.  Hot enough to make a person live inside their air conditioning units.  

For this little Book Hog, it was hot enough to push me to the park, with a book in my hand.

I've had this particular book on my Hold list for quite a while.  I heard that it's comparable to 'Gone Girl', a book I really liked.  So when the library notified me that 'The Girl on the Train' was finally waiting for me, I took my time in retrieving it.  

If I had known then how good this book was, I would have RUN to the library.

Yes, it's comparable to 'Gone Girl', but the tension....lordy, the tension!  When I got to a certain point in the story, I had to put the book down and slowly back away.  I felt uncomfortable, much more than I did while reading 'Gone Girl'.

Rachel take the same commuter train every morning and night.  Every day, while the train stops at the signal, she lets her mind wander as she looks over at a row of cozy suburban homes.  And every day, she sees the same couple having breakfast on their deck.  She calls them 'Jess' and 'Jason', and she pictures them living the perfect life, not unlike the life she recently lost.

But then she sees something shocking, and everything changes.  Rachel goes to the police, but is she really as unreliable as they say?  Soon she is deeply entangled in the lives of almost all involved.

Author Paula Hawkin's was a journalist, and you can certainly tell.  Her sentences are clear and sharp.  Her characters are people you would meet on the street, in your neighborhood, or in the local coffee shop.  And Rachel is deeply flawed, which made this story so good.  You never know if she's in her right mind.  I cared for her; I was worried about her, which isn't unusual when you're so involved in a good story.  

And once you find out 'who dunnit', everything does change.  I was quite surprised.

I loved this story, I give it a hundred thumbs up, and I can't wait to see what Hawkins next brings to the reading table.

'The Girl on the Train' is available at your local library or favorite independent book store.  ISBN 978-1-59463-366-9