{"id":17858,"date":"2015-08-02T17:54:59","date_gmt":"2015-08-02T07:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=17858"},"modified":"2015-08-02T17:55:16","modified_gmt":"2015-08-02T07:55:16","slug":"the-girl-on-the-train-by-paula-hawkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=17858","title":{"rendered":"The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tfwbookclub\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"girlonthetrain\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“There is a pile of clothing on the side of the train tracks.”<\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/span>s you can probably ascertain from the book’s cover, Paula Hawkins’\u00a0The Girl On The Train<\/em> is being marketed front and centre at people who enjoyed reading\u00a0Gone Girl<\/em>\u00a0– an audience of which I am a part of.<\/p>\n

Gone Girl<\/em> was the perfect book to read along with others in a book club environment. \u00a0It’s an excellent thriller in its own right – an addictive whodunnit that keeps you guessing right to the very end – but to share the experience with someone else only heightens the experience further. \u00a0There’s nothing quite like waiting for a friend’s reaction and response when they reach\u00a0that chapter<\/em>\u00a0where the story gets turned on its head. \u00a0Sharing ideas on who the guilty party is and guessing what happens next is all part and parcel of the experience. \u00a0In many ways,\u00a0Gone Girl<\/em>\u00a0is the perfect book club selection.<\/p>\n

I imagine plenty of people want to replicate that experience. \u00a0I guess its what prompted me to give this novel a go too. \u00a0The premise is simple. \u00a0A woman named Rachel has a daily commute to work on a train where she looks out the window and sees the same people in the same houses every day. \u00a0She makes a little narrative in her head for one particularly idyllic looking couple that seem perfect for one another. \u00a0Then one day, she is shocked to see that one of the partners appears to be cheating on the other. \u00a0Crazier still, the next thing she sees is a man putting his arms around the woman’s neck as he chokes the life out of her.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, even at this stage – thirty pages in – I felt the whole thing was pretty ridiculous and strained my suspension of disbelief to breaking point. \u00a0The first few chapters are spent almost entirely on the train, watching events at this house unfold with incredible convenience. \u00a0I was beginning to wonder if The Girl On The Train<\/em>\u00a0was going to use this gimmick right the way through. \u00a0That Rachel would never go to the house and instead every time she went past on a train there would be a new development in the story and different suspects at the house.<\/p>\n

Eventually the story does branch out. \u00a0Only it does so as a near carbon copy blue print of\u00a0Gone Girl<\/em>. \u00a0There’s a narrative passage from the husband. \u00a0Then from the wife. \u00a0The husband Scott is a kind, caring and supportive husband. \u00a0Or is he? \u00a0Megan is the perfect stay at home housewife. \u00a0Or is she? \u00a0An affair is revealed. \u00a0Someone turns out to be a closeted psychopath. \u00a0I can’t believe someone wrote this book with these plot strands so soon after\u00a0Gone Girl<\/em>. \u00a0Gillian Flynn should ask for royalties.<\/p>\n

Even with the striking similarities to\u00a0Gone Girl<\/em>,\u00a0The Girl On The Train<\/em>\u00a0remains a shallower and less interesting proposition. \u00a0Amy from\u00a0Gone Girl<\/em> was a compelling character and the role she played deliberately subverted a ‘cool girl’ persona that she memorably describes and then desecrates. \u00a0The characters in\u00a0The Girl On The Train<\/em> are far more conventional and conservative by comparison. \u00a0Virtually every female character doesn’t work and stays at home. \u00a0All of the men are carved from\u00a0soap opera cliches – handsome doctors, mysterious dark strangers and the like. \u00a0There’s not enough depth to their personalities to be shocked when the plot twists begin to unfold and the characters reveal their ‘true’ nature.<\/p>\n

I didn’t find much to enjoy with\u00a0The Girl On The Train<\/em> but clearly others did. \u00a0The book has been a fixture of the best seller list this year for several months, breaking sales records in both the States and the UK. \u00a0A movie deal has been penned with the director of\u00a0The Help<\/em> on board and Emily Blunt to play the lead. \u00a0It’s a shameless copy of\u00a0Gone Girl<\/em> but I guess for some people, that’ll do just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A woman commuting to work appears to spot a murder take place at a home she goes past every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[1464,2263],"class_list":["post-17858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-club","tag-gone-girl","tag-paula-hawkins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17858"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17869,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17858\/revisions\/17869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}