The Girl on the Train

A really interesting fiction read! This book is not just your regular book. The story is captivating and is told from 3 different points of view. The story is centered around the main character called Rachel, who is living an ordinary life until one train journey, her entire life changes. The only thing I didn't like about this book was it started off slow and took a while to get into the action. However, I would definitely recommend this book to another adult as it will absorb you and take you on a reading journey of its own.

It's a good book to read , Rachel rides the train into London every day and watches the same row of houses - and the people living in them.
The only thing I didn't understand of the book which is, if she fired from work how can she afford buy train ticket every day and buy all drinks?!!.

Read as part of the Gloucester Book Club
What a ride! I found the characters a bit pathetic but I was hooked on the story. I got it wrong as to who I thought was the killer, but I was right in some other predictions. It's so fun trying to figure out yourself what happened and I like being wrong because it shows it's not predictable and boring.
Not a fave, but I did really like it.

An incredible book, with mystery and drama everything I think you need in a good book, would 100% recommend to anyone looking for a page turner

i enjoyed this book because it is more grown up and it was very addicting

Everyone in the meeting had finished the book. This was probably because it was quite a short book written in an easy style. But we did not think this was much of a page turner, it didn't grip anyone.

As this book was sold as a tense psychological thriller we were all looking forward to reading it, but we found that we got a little confused with all the jumping backwards and forwards in time. Especially as a lot of the characters felt very similar and quite 2 dimensional. Plus we felt that there really wasn't much of twist as some of us had worked out what was happening and the rest just weren't taken that much by surprise.

A lot of the book was written as if we were in the characters minds so we didn't get a lot of interaction between the characters. This meant we felt a little put to one side with little connection to the characters. We also felt they were a little dull and we didn't really empathise with them very much. We weren't given enough background to feel anything for them at all. We felt that the story wasn't very well developed, and the characters and the plot could have been much better with a lot more polish. It felt like we were reading just facts, maybe the outline of the book rather than a completely realised book. There just wasn't enough depth to the book, and it lacked the creepy factor that is needed in a psychological thriller.

We did find the use of the "rear window" trope to be interesting as it is something that everyone does either on a train, bus or simply out for a walk. To see a lit window and not glance at it is unusual. We thought about how the things we might see through that window might look like a perfect life as a beautiful domestic scene but we never know what's lurking beneath.

We discussed the issue of domestic abuse, both physical and emotional and the reasons that people in abusive relationships might or might not stay.

Overall we gave this book 6.5 out of 10.

Everyone in this book is absolutely terrible, and as a result, this book is a masterpiece in character study and development. It's also a well-written, precisely plotted psychological thriller, and deftly sketches one unreliable narrator after another. I guessed the culprit not too far into the book, but that didn't spoil my reading experience at all, particularly because the author drops so many diverting and convincing red herrings into the story.

Unpredictable and full of mystery.

I promised myself I would stay away, and yet I read it anyway. I knew what to expect: full of twists (some of them I found quite stretched and unnecessary) and interestingly written from three points of view. This latter choice at the end I decided that it was superflous to the plot, which would have unfolded even better under a more classical single point of view.

Also, full of awful things. Sometimes I feel as if thriller authors constantly try to compete on who can be more despairing and atrocious. Unnecessary read.

LOVED THIS BOOK AND THE WAY THAT IT IS WRITTEN FROM THE 3 WOMENS POINTS OF VIEWS AND HOW THEY ARE CLOSELY LINKED TO EACH OTHER.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I liked how the writer made me want to read on as it was very tense and thrilling.

I found the book difficult to get into to begin with as each chapter was from a different characters perspective and at a slightly different time frame. Once I became familiar with the characters, I enjoyed reading it. I also like that it was set not far from where I live, as I read I could clearly imagine the settings.

I found this book dark and twisted, the contrast of all the characters was gripping. Although the characters were different they were all tied together through previous relationships, heartbreak and pain. Through the story you follow the struggles of a recently divorced unemployed woman, and learn here fantasies to be in an idyllic relationship, however she soon learns to not judge by the couple by their lifestyle.

This book is very fascinating because psychologically thrilling. You learn about this women who is unaware that she is being emotionally abused by her husband who then leaves her for another women, however bothy women eventually find out that he is a cheating and abusing towards women. This book was very griping and I would recommend to others.

This is a very thrilling, gripping, tense and exciting book. I loved the fact it started all calm and ended quite serious. I know that looking into peoples lives and imagining what's going on behind closed doors is a common thing, so reading it in a book made it quite relatable. Actually quite excited for the film to come out. I absolutely adore the idea of 'Jess and Jason' characters that Rachel describes whilst she is on the train. I recommend this to all.

We liked it, but some found the time changes quite irritating. Great idea for a story, how many of us haven't wondered about other people's lives? We felt the female characters were quite similar in many ways. One of our group also wondered if Rachel had multi personalities.

Good novel, but perhaps not so worthy of the hype that's surrounded its publication.

wow an eye opening read. Plenty of twists and turns to keep me reading just did it in just 2 days.

was lent it by another member of staff Jane

great read

Great storyline. Will be buying more books by Paula Hawkins.

Great read... I was a little concerned that it was being featured on the TV as part of the book club, however took the plunge

What a spiders web...

Excellent intertwined stories which then come together at the end.

Really not what I expected and I loved the read.

This book is fiction but I suppose it could just as easily happen in real life, in that the same things happen on a daily basis and then events take a certain turn and before you know it, things have spiralled out of control. It kept me guessing and also wanting to read more to get to the end to find out what exactly happens to all the characters. I got this book on my kindle at a sale price but don't know whether I would have paid the full price for it.

I really enjoyed this book. I felt the different perspectives that the three main characters gave through their accounts was brilliant - made you really want to read on.

It had you guessing until the very end which I really loved and I would definitely recommend it.