The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.

Review + spoiler talk!

So I don’t think I need to give this book a proper introduction because, well, we all know this book; we all know Paula Hawkins, even though a lot of people haven’t read her books yet. She’s extremely popular; she’s a phenomenon.

I have not yet read The Woman in the Window, but I know that book is more of a character study or character-driven, so for this one, I would honestly say that it’s a combination of plot and character development.

Rachel, as a person, grows. Tom, I guess, like yeah, we honestly eventually see everyone’s true colours, and I loved it.

Honestly, there are times when you are just craving a thriller with very few characters. There is, for example, The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena; the core characters are between 2-4, but we know who is being affected the most: the couple. Here we have Ana, Rachel, Megan, Scott, and Tom.

I am going to say that I did fall victim to some narratives, like the one that The Woman in the Window, Gone Girl, and TGOTT were very similar and that they were just churned out to sell.

I was reluctant about reading this as well as The Woman in the Window, but I chose to read this one because TWITW is longer LOL. Not disappointed at all. I like Hawkin’s characterization.

When A Slow Fire Burning was released, I let the reviews determine my opinion of it. I think I read some spoilers to see if it was worth reading. I was like, “Well, people didn’t like this, so I’m not gonna bother,” but now I barely remember the very detailed spoilers, so we will be giving it a try.

Click for spoilers!

Tom was the one that killed Megan. He was the one she was having an affair with, not Dr. Abdic. Tom was also the man that Rachel saw kissing Megan at the beginning of the book.

Megan got pregnant as a result of the affair; the day of her death, she told Scott the truth and ran out of the house to escape her husband (who was also a controlling POS). Because she was determined that the key to her mental health healing and starting anew was to tell the truth, she met up with Tom to tell him about the baby; however, he asked to abort, but she refused. This is what led Tom to bludgeon her to death with a rock. Rachel witnessed Megan go off with Tom before her death; these are the events that Rachel forgot because of the alcohol and what she tried to recall throughout the book.

Tom was abusive and a gaslighter. He took advantage of Rachel’s period of blacking out and lied to her about her being violent and doing things that destroyed her social life. In actuality, he was the one who was physically violent towards her, as well as having been fired from his job not due to Rachel but because he had SA complaints against him. He was also lying about his relationship with his parents.

Anna also figures out Tom was having an affair with Megan by finding her burner phone in his gym bag after a fight.

When she figures everything out, Rachel turns up at the Watson’s home to retrieve Anna and be sure she and Evie are fine, but Tom shows up, and after ever being confronted by Rachel’s findings and revealing his true self, Tom attempts to kill her. Rachel acts in self-defence and stabs him with a corkscrew, and Anna responds by deepening the wound and ensuring his death.

Rachel takes on a new job and starts a new, sober life.