“The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins – The Threads of Truth

It doesn't happen very often for a debuting author to make a huge splash in the literary community, but if every single book review outlet is to be believed, Paula Hawkins accomplished just that with her first thriller, The Girl on the Train.

It would be best classified as a psychological thriller, one where the main attraction lies in watching things unfold, even if you suspect or already know how they are going to turn out.

The book begins by telling the story from Rachel's perspective, the titular girl on the train, who commutes to London and back every day, very often being able to see the same couple through her window, a couple she dubbed as Jess and Jason.

Their idyllic life draws her eyes every day, until something strange happens: one day, Jess is kissing another man, and on the next day she suddenly disappears. From then on, Rachel suspects something foul, and after going to the police with her findings can't keep herself away from this mystery and its actors.

Other points of view do come into play, with the story being told from two additional perspectives, that of “Jess” herself (actually named Megan), and her neighbour, who just happens to be the current wife of Rachel's ex-husband.

As you can tell, the premise is certainly present for a fantastic thriller, and the multiple perspectives are perfectly used to satiate the reader's curiosity and keep the story flowing in a way that doesn't reveal too much, but constantly offers something new and exciting to focus your attention on.

The fact that the three characters themselves are rather unreliable narrators only adds to the vagueness and distrust that feel rather omnipresent in this novel, accentuating the idea that a lot of things are not what they seem, if not the majority of them.

However, I should add that them being unreliable does not equate with them being unlikeable; they all have a certain amount of depth and development to them, one that provides believable explanations and justifications for their decisions.

As far as the mystery of the disappearance itself goes, I don't want to spoil too much, but the opening lines treat us to “She's buried beneath a silver birch tree...”, so as was mentioned before, this really is more about the development of the mystery, the dynamics between the various characters, and the unraveling of a web of lies and deceit.

As a matter of fact, it feels as if there is something truly Hitchcockian about the whole thing, with seemingly idyllic existences on the outside being shown as horrible, rotten and deadly from the inside.

When speaking in technical terms, the writing itself isn't exactly the refined free-flowing prose we'd expect from the greatest writers of our time, but it certainly leaves a very nice impression. The wording is rather simple and much of the emphasis is placed on the development of further events with timely insights into the characters' thoughts.

It all comes together very nicely for a read that doesn't feel heavy but still manages to offer a certain amount of complexity in terms of the ideas explored... this is one of those books you can actually burn through rather quickly.

All things taken into consideration, The Girl on the Train is a most surprisingly successful debut by Hawkins, a thriller that steps above the domain of the average and offers a more unique experience than what aficionados of the genre have come to expect from the average effort.

Most certainly a recommended read for anyone looking for a top-notch psychological thriller.

---

Paula Hawkins Personal site Paula Hawkins is a British author who spent more than fifteen years working as a journalist before trying her hand with the pen. Her first thriller was a rather successful one, The Girl on the Train, having gathered her attention on an international level, paving the way for what seems like a bright literary future.