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REVIEW: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and a Farewell from Laura



Cormac McCarthy


I am sad to say that my term as the Teen Blogger in Residence has come to an end. It’s been incredible to be able to take part in such an incredible experience; I urge anyone with a passion for reading and an even bigger love for sharing their world of literature with others.

My final book review will be on one of my all-time favourites: The Girl on the Train. Classified as a psychological thriller, this novel focuses on the point of views of three women who have more connections than they believe.

Rachel - the protagonist of the story - is an alcoholic still mourning over the harsh end of her glorified marriage with her ex, Tom. Every day, she rides the same train that passes a house with a seemingly perfect couple on perfect display for her to watch. She does not know them, but feels a strange relation with them. She names them Jess and Jason and creates vivid imaginary descriptions of their lives, using it as a healing factor for her own divorce. However, after one of her routine train rides past the couple’s home one day, Rachel sees something that permanently ruins her image of the two. The following day, “Jess” makes headlines after “mysteriously disappearing” overnight, and somehow, Rachel knows that she is involved.

The characters were unmistakably some of the most irritating ones that I’ve ever read about. Rachel can be simply described as a mental mess; I often had to restrain myself from throwing the book across the room out of anger due to her plain idiocy. She was unpleasant and an unreliable source of information 80% of the time, and yet, I was still rooting for her at the end of the day. Though you may not enjoy these characters, you still manage to put up with them because you understand why they may act a certain way. I believe that was the main key to why this book became such a great psychological thriller - in some ways, you had to analyze every detail as if you were a psychologist trying to untangle the problems running through your patients’ minds.

Even though this book isn’t shelved in the Teen section, its plot and hooks are still immensely entertaining and should definitely be given a shot. On that note, I would like to say a final goodbye to all my readers. I would also like to thank everyone that has helped me throughout the way for making all this possible in the first place.

Now do me a favour and grab a book, will ya?

Ottawa Public Library’s Teen Bloggers in Residence are fantastic teen volunteer writers from across the city. They blog about their favourite teen reads and authors, and get writing assignments to cover special teen events happening at the library. Their residency rotates throughout the year. Call-outs for upcoming terms are made through the Teen Blog in May/June, September/October and January/February.