finished reading // The Girl on the Train

Note: This post is part of a blog book club and is a post about my feelings and opinions in regards to this book. Read more about the blog book club and why I read this book here. This post was written after I read the book and therefor contains SPOILERS, so don't read this post if you aren't finished with the book!

This book took me a little longer than I would have thought to read ... not because I didn't enjoy it, but simply because over the past month and a half I didn't have as much time to read as I would like - my lack of posts here on andchloe are perfect evidence of 24 hours in a day not being enough to accomplish all that I want to (see my post from a couple days ago!).

Overall Thoughts

It was entertaining and intriguing. The mystery was a good one; certainly my style of true crime. The story was original, the twists kept me guessing, and the overall intrigue kept me wanting to read more.

Jumping back and forth between the female characters sometimes felt a little exhausting, as I would sometimes get impatient for more information about that particular character, but *boom*, end chapter, switch female.

Opinion on Characters

I liked Rachel, but I definitely became impatient with her self destructive behavior. I was routing for her but was frustrated that she struggled for so long. And, I certainly questioned a lot of her decisions. The author led us to believe that Rachel maybe had something to do with Megan's disappearance, and the reader certainly starts to wonder what she is capable of in this dark, self destructive place she is.
Megan was more of a mystery to me. I didn't find her relatable. I had a hard time liking her which let me to also be critical of her past. Even finding out the details of her murder didn't change how I felt about her. The tragedy in her past (the accidental drowning of her infant daughter) did not even soften my opinion of her. Her bad decisions started when she left home at a young age to go live with a boyfriend. Things went down hill from there and her behavior was selfish and, in my opinion, manipulative.
Likewise, I never became an Anna fan. I disliked her, although not strongly. She didn't paint herself in a good light, and I didn't like her overall attitude. Of course, in the end, her rating went up in my book, at least a little.
The male characters were all of not much consequence to me. Most of them were not likable for obvious reasons, but my negative feelings of them were not strong and perhaps I felt more indifferent of them.

Rating the Book

To sum up my feelings about various aspects of this book, I offer the following ratings...

Scale 1 - 10 with 10 being the best

Plot/Story // 8
Pace // 8
Length // 9
Characters // 8
Ending // 9
Overall // 8

Would I recommend this book to a friend? Yes. Specifically a good vacation/beach read.

If you read The Girl on the Train too,

I would love to hear your thoughts! Please share your opinion of the book in the comments below and let's get a little discussion going.

Read Jenny's thoughts on the book...

You can read what Jenny thought about the book over on her blog.

Next Up

And, watch for the next book announcement soon!