Trust No One

Train journeys are normally filled with adventure and excitement and longing when young.

As the travel becomes frequent, it loses its charm and get to be tiring. 

And for anyone who has to travel to work by train everyday, the daily commute can be a grind!

So it is for Rachel, she maintains her sanity (what little is left of it) by imagining lives around the people who live in the houses which dot the railway tracks. She herself leads a life of lie, celebrating it only with her maniacal drinking. 

It is slowly revealed that she too had once been married and leading a happy life with her husband in one of the neatly lying cottages she spies on everyday.

This forms the basis of a dark psychological thriller which as everyone points out has similarities to Gone Girl in its study of the working of a women's mind. Beyond which the similarities end. 

It talks about a delusional woman, drunk, lying, desperate for love. Her need to belong, her fears and self pity.

There are times when you want to walk into the story and give her a slap and tell her to find a life of her own and not scrounge around for attention.

The other 2 female characters in the movie are not stable as well. They have their own past stories, present fears and the book takes turn with different narratives and point of views.This definitely takes the edge away from the pathetic life of the main protagonist- a middle aged woman, not girl.

Imagination some, reality mixed within confuses the reader on which is true.

That by itself keeps the reading interesting and the story compelling. I commend the author on the style and the way she connects the characters and keeps the story alive. 

Soon revealed is the complicated mind of the men in the lives of the women, This is the twist and that is when you realise the women were the saner lot.

The ending was not to my liking, I expected more of a surprise to it, It fell flat and predictable after carrying the story so well so far. 

Definitely a thriller!

I could read the book in one day while waiting for a connecting flight on a vacation.  It held my attention, yes, making me want to know the end, but also wanting me to get done with the book because of the complicated twists it brought into the tale. The book was on my to read list ever since it was available at the book store, so it made me happy to have read it to have satisfied my curiosity,

Would I watch the movie based on the book- No, its too dark and uncomfortably depressing to watch their sad lives, each one with a gory story. 

The Girl on TheTrain- by Paula Hawkins.A failed journey!