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The Girl on the Train

by Paula Hawkins

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
16,7851084292 (3.63)524
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning, flashing past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stopping at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. Their life, as she sees it, is perfect ... until she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but now everything is changed. Rachel goes to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?… (more)
  1. 191
    Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson (fannyprice)
    fannyprice: Similarly unreliable, damaged women trying to reconstruct their lives.
  2. 172
    Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Anonymous user)
  3. 40
    The Woman in the Window by Daniel Mallory (TAir)
  4. 30
    Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes (melissarochelle)
  5. 30
    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (James_Mourgos)
    James_Mourgos: Great murder mystery suspense from this famous Swedish author.
  6. 20
    The Widow by Fiona Barton (vancouverdeb)
    vancouverdeb: psychological suspense,various points of view, both feature a woman as the main character.
  7. 10
    No Night is Too Long by Barbara Vine (vwinsloe)
  8. 00
    Losing You by Nicci French (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: A beloved teenage daughter goes missing in Losing You, a stranger (of sorts) in The Girl on the Train. Despite this difference, these compelling psychological suspense novels, each set in England, offer a gripping, twisty story.
  9. 00
    In Fidelity by M. J. Rose (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: In these fast-paced, compelling psychological suspense novels, love, obsession, infidelity, and violence are all closely linked. Both centering around one woman, In Fidelity has a larger cast of characters (a family), while The Girl on the Train suffers alone.… (more)
  10. 00
    The Missing World by Margot Livesey (vwinsloe)
  11. 00
    The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones (SonjaA)
  12. 00
    Lullaby by Leïla Slimani (MissBrangwen)
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» See also 524 mentions

English (1,038)  Dutch (14)  Spanish (11)  Italian (9)  French (4)  Catalan (4)  German (2)  Swedish (2)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  Danish (1)  Indonesian (1)  Finnish (1)  All languages (1,088)
Showing 1-5 of 1038 (next | show all)
I was given this book for free for my honest review. I loved how intense the book was it kept you on the edge of your seat because you truly didn’t know if the main character was crazy or if she saw what she said she saw. I was gripping my seat the entire time. ( )
  Angelamackie | Sep 10, 2023 |
Wow, this book really does deserve to be on the best seller list for as long as it has been. Gripping, and it just kept me guessing until the very end. Would have never guessed. I so couldn't put it down! ( )
  LinBee83 | Aug 23, 2023 |
Cleverly put together thriller. Slow start as you get to know the players.
Characters built up as the story progresses. Three women narrators.
Having just read a meatier biography, I found it only mildly satisfying.
  GeoffSC | Aug 20, 2023 |
A very unsettling and suspenseful story. Written in first-person from the point of view of three female characters, all unreliable narrators, the reader is never certain what is fact and what is a made up. The three men they interact with are also not very reliable. By the middle of the book, it's clear that everyone is a psychological mess and anyone could be responsible for the unfortunate event. In that way, the comparisons with [b:Gone Girl|21480930|Gone Girl|Gillian Flynn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1432019852s/21480930.jpg|13306276] could be fair (I've only seen the film). But thankfully, this book has a completely different twist.

Ultimately, this is a familiar tale. It's just told in a compelling way. ( )
  zot79 | Aug 20, 2023 |
This is what happens when I read something just because a bazillion other people read it and gushed about it. That said, I think as a movie it could work, slogging through it as a book did not work for me.

Guess I'll have to watch the movie and see how it is. ( )
  beentsy | Aug 12, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 1038 (next | show all)
"...a building, inescapable tension that Hawkins handles superbly, nibbling away at Rachel’s memories until we, like our sardonic, bitterly honest narrator, aren’t really sure we want to know what happened at all."
added by fannyprice | editThe Guardian, Alison Flood (Jan 19, 2015)
 
“The Girl on the Train” has more fun with unreliable narration than any chiller since “Gone Girl,” the book still entrenched on best-seller lists two and a half years after publication because nothing better has come along. “The Girl on the Train” has “Gone Girl”-type fun with unreliable spouses, too. Its author, Paula Hawkins, isn’t as clever or swift as Gillian Flynn, the author of “Gone Girl,” but she’s no slouch when it comes to trickery or malice. So “The Girl on the Train” is liable to draw a large, bedazzled readership too
added by rybie2 | editNew York Times, Janet Maslin (Jan 4, 2015)
 
Readers sometimes conflate the “likability” of characters with a compulsion to care about their fate, but with a protagonist so determined to behave illogically, self-destructively and frankly narcissistically (someone even refers to her as “Nancy Drew”), it’s tough to root for Rachel. She’s like the clueless heroine of a slasher film who opts to enter the decrepit, boarded-up house where all her friends have been murdered because she hears a mysterious sound through an upstairs window
 

» Add other authors (25 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Hawkins, Paulaprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Brealey, LouiseNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Corbett, ClareNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Crescentini, CarolinaLettoresecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fisher, IndiaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Göhler, ChristophÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lawrence, Vera Brodskysecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Manhood, SilasPhotographersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Porteri, BarbaraTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ward, ClaireCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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La Campana Tocs (La Campana)

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Epigraph
Dedication
For Kate
First words
She's buried beneath a silver birch tree down towards the old train tracks.
Quotations
The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps.
All those plans I had—photography courses and cookery classes—when it comes down to it, they feel a bit pointless, as if I'm playing at real life instead of actually living it. I can't do this, I can't just be a wife. I don't understand how anyone does it—there is literally nothing to do but wait. Wait for a man to come home and love you. Either that or look around for something to distract you.
...let's be honest: women are still only valued for two things—their looks, and their role as mothers.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning, flashing past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stopping at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. Their life, as she sees it, is perfect ... until she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but now everything is changed. Rachel goes to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

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Book description
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?
Haiku summary
Fall-down drunk rides trains.
Witnesses murder? Maybe.
Needs to sober up.
(pickupsticks)

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