The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I typically really enjoy stories about antiheroes or with unreliable narrators, but there was a stretch at the start of this book when I considered DNF-ing the book (which I confess I had done once before). In the end, I’m glad that I didn’t. The story has a very slow start, so it’s not until about 15% in that things started to happen. Even after that, it took a bit longer for the pace to really pick up enough to create intrigue and suspense.

Then a friend told me that she was shocked by how the story worked out, and after that, I couldn’t quit guessing and second guessing how it would all work out in the end, which helped keep me invested in the rest of the story. By the end, I had suspected and accused almost everyone and everything.

In fact, I kept texting guesses to my friend, which start out reasonable and then quickly become ridiculous. So for fun, I’ll share them all below in order. If you hate SPOILERS, please don’t read ahead, as I don’t want any of my predictions to impact how you read and view the story. It’s best to approach this story with no information or preconceptions.

Book 138 read in 2018

Pages: 323

The Predictions in Chronological Order:

Did she run away? Don’t tell me. But I’m now worried she just ran away. LOL. But Don’t tell me.

OH MY GOD. IS IT THE ROOMMATE? She just sent an email that she doesn’t remember sending. Granted, she’s an angry drunk, but now I suspect the roommate!!!!!

I’m starting to understand why people like this book. It just got off to a slow start. I was impatient

Oh shoot! Or maybe Anna did it to blame Rachel, because she hates Rachel for stalking them?

Now I can’t quit guessing.

Now I suspect the darned husband. I’m a mess. Everyone is guilty until proven innocent.

Except he seems genuinely sad. Either that, or he’s trying to manipulate.

Oh shoot. Maybe it’s the therapist! There are so many suspects, and now I’m accusing everyone, since you said you were shocked.

Maybe she has split personalities.

I don’t think it is the therapist, but he is definitely lying.

Either that, or Megan’s POV is unreliable…

And something is off with the husband (Megan’s husband), but it can’t be him. That’s too easy.

I contemplated that someone killed her on accident, thinking she was Rachel, but she doesn’t look like Rachel. She looks like Anna. So then I thought maybe someone wants to kill Anna, but why?!? She’s a bit annoying but relatively harmless.

OH MY GOD. I think it’s the ex-husband now. I suspect they wanted a baby and couldn’t get one. So now he married Anna and had a baby. And he got tired of Anna, so he murdered Megan, and they will pin it on Anna and Rachel will go back to Tom and they’ll raise that baby…OMG. I officially sound insane. That barely even makes sense.

OK, now I think Rachel’s ex-husband Tom was having an affair with Megan, the dead girl, and he murdered her on accident, thinking he was murdering his wife, who looks kind of the same. That’s my latest theory.

Ok, the ex-husband is a compulsive liar and cheater, so I no longer trust him. But I’m not convinced that Megan’s husband wasn’t also abusive, and he’s also unstable. So maybe they were in on it together? Double bad guys??

That last one was the end of my predictions, because after that, I was too caught up in finishing the story to send any more texts. Overall, this was an engrossing read for the last ¾ of the book, and it kept me guessing, which added to the fun.