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Book of the month for June听听

Paul Clements reviews:听

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins听听

Synopsis:

The book is based on a train journey that the main character, Rachel, makes on her daily commute in which she looks in through windows and sees the lives of people going on around her.听 It is divided into the stories and speaking voices of three characters: Rachel, Megan and Anna, and is written in the first person narrative. The author writes in the way her characters speak, so we hear their authentic voices. Rachel comes across at the start as someone who has no real purpose in her life 鈥� she has no job, drinks too much, her life is in ruins, and she is drifting around without any real purpose so she's in a pretty bad way.听

Paula Hawkins is a good writer of dialogue and ordinary everyday language. There's nothing flowery about her prose style 鈥� it's simple and straightforward. There are many twists and turns along the way, but these are well signposted in terms of who is doing the speaking because every chapter states who it is and when it relates to. The time-switching and voice-switching is well laid out. It takes place over a period of a year from 2013-2014.听听

Train journeys play a big part in it. Some people might feel there are too many of these in the book but it brings a curiosity out 鈥� how many of us have sat on a train and looked into the back gardens houses as Rachel did and wondered about the lives of the people who live there.听听

Views on book:听

Wasn't keen on the first 70 pages which I felt were very depressing. It did not engage me and I had no empathy with Rachel 鈥� it was mostly her voice speaking. But there was a turning point, which represented a gear change, when she was interviewed by the police (P 75) which introduced an element of intrigue and mystery as well as some action.听听听

The book does turn into a thriller. It is unpredictable as to how it will develop but I found it hard to know which of the characters to believe. For me, Rachel initially was not a believable character, but I became more sympathetic to her towards the end of the book.听听听听

I did not see the ending coming but thought it might be a different twist so it may be slightly disappointing for some.

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