Affairs, Trains, and Murder

 This novel is the first real thriller I have decided to read. I am much more of a fantasy and romance kind of reader, as is quite obvious from my bibliography and bookshelf. But I enjoyed this strange tale of affairs, trains, and above all, murder. It all starts with Rachel, the girl on the train. An alcoholic struggling to get and stay sober, she suffers moments of blackout that cause her to have no memory of pivotal moments. One of these pivotal moments has to do with the disappearance of a woman she used to see everyday -- but only from the train. Megan was her name, Scott her husband, "Jess and Jason" in Rachel's mind. Suddenly her innocent people-watching throws her into the middle of a whirling mystery. Amidst all of this, she is struggling to come to terms with the fact that her ex-husband, Tom, has replaced her with a woman named Anna. He has moved on and yet still lives in the house they used to share -- a house you can see from the train. This novel is a classic example of readers having to be wary of unreliable narrators, whether those narrators be drunk, hysterical, jealous, or perhaps even mentally unstable. I enjoyed the constant question as to "whodunit" as well as the issues that Rachel has to deal with on a personal level in order to get to the bottom of Megan's disappearance. My only wish is that the plot would have picked up speed faster than it did; I began to lose interest, but held out till the end to see where the story would lead. 

Some of my favorite quotes from The Girl on the Train:

"...today he's a man ascending the scaffold. I just don't know whether he's the condemned man or the executioner."

"I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts."

"it's possible to miss what you never had, to mourn for it."

"I'm playing at real life instead of actually living it."

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