The Girl On The Train | Paula Hawkins

There are just some books that seem to pop up out of no where and suddenly there is this massive hype surrounding them. Everybody wants to get their hands on a copy and end up going mad when its out of stock in every store they visit. This book is one of them. The Girl On The Train is hailed as 'the new Gone Girl' and has been at the top of the UK Hardback chart for 20 weeks. This has broken the previous record set by Dan Bowen's Lost Symbols six years ago, which even the likes of JK Rowling and EL James failed to beat! So just what makes this book so special?

Every morning Rachel catches the same train, at the same time which always stops at the same signal overlooking a row of back gardens. She is here so often that Rachel has started to feel like she knows the people who live at number 15. Jess and Jason, as she calls them, seem like they have the perfect life- unlike her. But one day Rachel seems something shocking through the train window that changes everything. She now has the chance to become part of their life, but all is not what it seems. 

I really liked the idea of sitting on a train and imaging the lives of the people you see because I will be the first to admit that I have done the same in the past. Over active imagination, sheer boredom and that! But unfortunately this is only a tiny part of the story right at the beginning because as soon as Racheal sees something unusual that puts her on edge, the whole plot is catapulted away from the train and forms into something that is a bit boring and unrealistic. A slow train that looks as if it's going god knows where basically.

It does pick up at the end and get more interesting once the mystery is solved and the action really begins! And to give the author some credit she really does bring awareness to the problem of alcohol with her portrayal of Rachael who we can easily see has a bit of a problem with the stuff. However, other than that, there doesn't seem to be much of a message for the reader to grasp. Maybe it's just my love of deep, meaningful books talking, but for a novel with so much hype surrounding it I was expecting a little bit more. Sorry.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought this?

Love Beth xx