This is a book, and now a movie, that should not be spoiled, so don’t read past the spoiler warning if you haven’t already read the book. Although, I was 99% sure I knew who the murderer was and why fairly quickly. I wasn’t surprised, but this book is really more about uncovering memory and revealing the things we already know, than it is an actual whodunnit. Rachel is an alcoholic who gets black out drunk. She is having a hard time moving on from […]
What the hell did I get up to last night?
3.5 stars Rachel, trying to drown the sorrows of her recent divorce in alcohol and denial travels to London on the train every morning and back to the suburb where she shares a flat with an old friend in the evenings. As she passes the area where she used to live, she observes a seemingly golden couple and makes up a fantasy narrative about their life to comfort herself in her loneliness. She’s named them Jess and Jason and believes them to have a perfect […]
Rainbow Rowell is my spirit animal.
I am iridescent with joy. I am pregnant with wonder. Gestating within me is the belief that regardless of how much I love the book, if Rainbow Rowell is writing it, I will absolutely love the people she fills it with. When my egg hatches, I will be gifted with the certainty that Rainbow Rowell is my new favorite author. Part of my effervescence, no doubt, is due to the long string of unhappiness in which I’ve enshrouded myself. The Girl on the Train, Cujo, The […]
Depression, and blackouts, and murder(?), OH MY!
If you are looking for a well written, fast moving psychological thriller in the vein of Gillian Flynn’s brilliant Gone Girl you will be entertained and satisfied with The Girl on the Train. Like Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train uses an unreliable narrator structure to keep the reader off balance, revealing information bits at a time so that your understanding of the story keeps changing. It also features characters that are largely unlikable, yet strangely compelling, and keeps you turning the pages even […]
Like Gone Girl’s Twin, but Slightly Better
Rachel rides the train every day. And every day she passes the same homes and people going through their same routines. Until one day, something changes. What Rachel sees alters the trajectory of her life that is already complicated with a divorce and alcoholism. Anna is a stay at home mom. Although her life seems simple, she lives in the shadow of her husband’s ex-wife, struggling with raising her two-year old daughter and keeping her sanity while trying to maintain a happy marriage. Megan shouldn’t […]
Gillian Flynn: Lite edition
I’m going to be honest with y’all, I heard about The Girl on the Train through a recommendation on Reese Witherspoon’s instagram page. I figure if she is making Big Little Lies into an HBO miniseries and produced last year’s Gone Girl she must have pretty good literary taste. And she does! There are a lot of comparisons between The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl floating around and they aren’t incorrect. There are multiple narratives told by unreliable narrators with a missing woman […]