Here’s to another new author! This time, it’s The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.
Every day the same: Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. 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.
Until today. 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 goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?
When we meet Rachel, I can already tell she’s going to be a problem! She’s got a wild imagination and uses it to attribute a happy marriage to 2 people she sees in their home while she’s on a stopped train. She watches them constantly. She even named them Jason and Jess. From what we learn, she longs for the marriage she used to have, and seeing Jason and Jess makes her ache.
We slowly dive into Rachel’s backstory. She and her husband Tom used to live down the street from where Jason and Jess are now. They were wildly happy. That is until she wasn’t able to have kids. It broke her. It broke them. She started drinking to numb the pain, even blacking out to the point where she didn’t remember anything. And apparently she was so belligerent, she’d try to hurt Tom or say embarrassing things in front of people. But she can’t reconcile that with what she feels. She knows she’d never do that.
When the train stops again, she sees Jess kissing another man. How can this be? Then Rachel learns that Jess is missing. And her real name is Megan. Her husband’s name is Scott.
Through several different perspectives and timeframes, we get to the bottom of things. Tom was not a good person. Not only did he cheat on Rachel with Anna, who ends up giving him the child he wants, but he was also involved with Megan. Once a cheater, always a cheater. Megan ended up pregnant. Is it Tom’s or is it Scott’s? Either way, Tom wanted nothing to do with it. Angry at Rachel that night while she was drunk and belligerent, he took it out on Megan and killed her.
Rachel ends up killing Tom in self-defense. And Anna not only didn’t stop her, but while Rachel ran, Anna made sure Tom was actually dead.
What I loved about this book is that Rachel was so unreliable. Was what I was reading correct, or is this all a lie due to her hungover state? Could any of us trust what she was saying? And when she started inserting herself into the missing person’s case, I thought, oh no, here we go! She’s going to be in so much trouble. And with the nightmares and time lapses, I thought maybe she even had something to do with it.
But I was so glad the book ended the way it did. I love when the bad guy goes down. And Tom was the ultimate bad guy.