The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins | Audible Audiobook

Series: Standalone

Publication: January 13th 2015 by Penguin Audio

Source: Purchased

Goodreads Summary: debut psychological thriller about a woman who becomes emotionally entangled in a murder investigation because of something she witnesses on her daily commute.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and every night. Every day she rattles over the same track junctions, flashes past the same stretch of cozy suburban homes. And every day she stops at the same signal and she sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof deck, living the perfect life that Rachel craves for herself - a lifestyle she recently lost. She looks forward to observing this household every morning, even makes up names and narratives for its residents. Then one day Rachel sees someone new in their garden, and soon after, the woman who lived there disappears.

Unable to keep this information to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and in the process is drawn into the lives of the couple she thought of as Jason and Jess but whose names - she has learned from the news - are really Megan and Scott Hipwell.

But the police accuse Rachel of being unreliable, and it's true that her memories can't always be trusted. Plus there are the stories that her ex-husband's new wife has been spreading about her. By the time Megan's body is found, Rachel is in over her head, intricately entangled in the details of the investigation, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she put others in danger? Has she done more harm than good?

A compulsively readable, emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller that draws comparisons to Gone Girl, The Silent Wife, or Before I Go to Sleep, this is an electrifying debut embraced by listeners across markets and categories.

Listening Length: 10 hours and 59 minutes
Goodreads Page

My Thoughts:

Perhaps if I hadn't read Gone Girl before this one, I may have liked it better. But I honestly think I would be rating it the same if not even dock it that half star and just leave it as 3 out of 5. There are some similarities between the two but this is a different story of course. And a more boring one in my opinion.

Unlike most of the other reviews I've read about this book, I didn't hate all of the characters. I actually kind of liked Rachel even though she frustrated me a little with how clueless she was and how she kept making the same mistakes over and over again. I really got into the journey she went through in trying to remember what happened that night and trying to recover her memory. I also wish we could've gotten more of Kamal. I think he was a really interesting character and the only one that made me want to get to know him better. Megan also didn't rub me too, too much the wrong way and I found the Mac parts to be pretty sad.

I like that this story gets told in three different point of views. I literally knew nothing going into this so found it to be surprising in that way. Yet it also gave it another similarity with Gone Girl. I found the plot to be okay-paced yet I just felt like it was going nowhere at the same time. I just never got that excited twist in my stomach while listening to this, even when the actual twist happens. And the actual twist--that was so obvious, let's just leave it at that.

I don't regret picking this audiobook up (and the narrators were all very good!), but if you're a reader trying to choose between this one and Gone Girl, go for Gone Girl. Enough said.

Likes: The narrators for the audiobook were very good. Okay-paced. I didn't actually hate all of the characters like most reviewers.

Dislikes: Felt like it was going nowhere most of the time for me. Twist very obvious I feel.

Overall:
Recommend? I suppose but I do honestly think that Gone Girl was better.