The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

This book has a lot of hype swirling around it and that makes me default to the first Batman movie. I call it "The Batman Theory" which I apply to many things. If something gets a phenomenal degree of hype, I tend to avoid it until everyone shuts up about it and they are pretty much finishing up the movie.  I then have this crazy urgency to get the book read and over with. Batman was such a disappointment to me, it took me years to get over the hype lie. Years. So I tend to apply this theory to hyped up books.

I jumped on this one rather quickly, one more time, just one more time to kill off my Batman theory.

I wasn't disappointed, well, okay maybe I was a bit. Only because I EXPECTED incredible paced thrills, action, murder and mayhem. 

Not entirely so.

Think Hitchcock and all will be fine.

The book is about a woman named Rachel. She takes the train to London every day. During her daily stops at a station she observes a couple living in one of the homes along the tracks and gives them fake names. "Jake and Jess." Here, Rachel indulges herself with some happiness with a blissful marital  fantasy world that "Jake and Jess" live in. It helps her cope with her own less than perfect life.

One day, during a stop, Rachel observes something especially upsetting. After that she ends up going to the police weaving herself into the story while barely holding on due to her drinking but knowing that in all this confusion, she knows something. 

She just can't remember. 

And I can't tell you another damn thing in the description department.

What I liked about this book was the maddening descent into a very troubled world of marriage. Of alcoholism and what we lose, what we hope for and how we search for answers. I know that's vague but I don't want to give the story away. It took me a while to find Rachel endearing but I did about half way in. She was a complicated character and the author did a remarkable job in concealing Rachel but exposing her at the same time. I love it when an author can do that. 

What I didn't like was the slow pace at first, but that was totally on me. I was too busy to enjoy the Hitchcock type thriller I have always loved. I also noticed that the book is following a new trend in films and books, no extraneous characters. It's disturbing at first, it's like watching Castaway, you are completely ruffled over the isolated situation but so infatuated with it by the end of the movie. I think I do like this whole new effect. It somehow makes the story "clean" in all its messiness.

Buy it, Borrow it but don't skip it.

PS They really need to STOP this whole "if you loved Gone Girl you will love this book"craze. It's not Gone Girl it's not even remotely CLOSE to Gone Girl. No comparisons, they are two different books.