Megan's sections flash back in time to before her disappearance. 'I went from being a drinker to being a drunk,' she admits, 'and there's nothing more boring than that.' Or rather, it broke me, and then I broke us.' After that, it didn't take long for her collapse to become complete and total. She turned to alcohol after she and Tom were unable to conceive a child via in vitro fertilization: 'It was, as everyone had warned us it would be, unpleasant and unsuccessful.

She seeks solace in gin and wine, ignoring her roommate's pleas to get help. The point of view alternates among three characters: luckless, obsessed Rachel charming, complicated Megan and Anna, the new love of Rachel's ex Tom. The novel is perfectly paced, from its arresting beginning to its twist ending it's not an easy book to put down.Įven the most cleverly plotted thrillers don't work without compelling characters, but the people we meet in The Girl on the Train are drawn beautifully. This is Hawkins' first thriller - she's a journalist by training - but it doesn't read like the work of someone new to suspense. It's difficult to say too much more about the plot of The Girl on the Train like all thrillers, it's best for readers to dive in spoiler-free. Did Megan run away, or was she kidnapped? What about the man that Rachel saw kissing Megan one morning? Rachel finds herself unable to stay away, and winds up directly in the middle of the investigation, all while trying to deal with her growing addiction to alcohol and her frequent memory lapses. When Megan goes missing, Rachel's world, already profoundly messy, shifts even farther off-center. They're what I lost, they're everything I want to be.' They're what I used to be, they're Tom and me five years ago. 'They're a match, they're a set,' Rachel reflects. The couple, whose real names are Megan and Scott, live a few houses away from the one Rachel used to occupy, before her alcoholism poisoned her relationship. She sees them through the windows of a train, one she takes each morning and evening on her commute to and from London. She can't stop thinking about Jason and Jess, but she doesn't know them. She is one of those tiny bird-women, a beauty, pale-skinned with blond hair cropped short.' Rachel, the main narrator of Paula Hawkins' novel The Girl on the Train, is obsessed with the pair they represent to her the perfect relationship that she once had, or seemed to, before it imploded spectacularly. 'He is dark-haired and well built, strong, protective, kind. 'They are a perfect, golden couple,' Rachel Watson thinks, regarding handsome Jason and his striking wife, Jess. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Girl on the Train Author Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins