(book review)

The psychological thriller “Girl on the Train” was written in 2015 by British writer Paula Hawkins. It is considered to be the most successful work of the writer. According to ‘The New York Times’, the book became a bestseller and held the glorious Number 1 spot for 14 weeks, selling more than three million copies and translating on 44 languages. Also based on this book, Dream Works made a film in 2016, complete with all the details of the plot, which I met for the first time in my practice. Vanity Fair compared the writer’s style to Hitchcock’s thrillers, and Entertainment Weekly claimed that the reader would not be able to solve the riddles of the book until the enigmatic end. Even Stephen King gave his personal response: “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins is a truly wonderful novel that keeps you in suspense. Because of him, I did not sleep almost all night. The narrator is just super…”

That is, the advertised book is quite good. It is originally written from 3 POVs. One positive review of King is worth something, and if they also made a film based on the book, then, in my opinion, it is a success in general. I also researched the reviews and review of readers, in general, the rating is good. Many people complain about a poorly-thought-out storyline, boredom, the main character, who immediately calls and says that “if you want to take your time with easy reading, then this is the best choice.”There were also those who fell in love with the book because of its fascinating plot”.

In my opinion, the book is intended to young people and the older generation. After all, it violates the problems of a family, alcohol, drug addiction, self-destruction, there are also spicy scenes of an erotic nature.

The genre of the book is a psychological thriller. The author made good use of all the manipulations related to this genre. While reading, I was almost constantly energized. The culmination was also at a fairly decent level.

I think Paula Hawkins wanted to influence us to think about some of life’s issues. Is it always worth trusting people completely, whoever they are for us? Why are we engaged in self-destruction? Why are we so vulnerable in this world and why? How can we understand that the person closest to you is lying and capable of horrible deeds? She raises all these questions in her novel on the example of the main characters. In addition, the author was able to instill in us through the text a depressing atmosphere of the book, which further encourages such thoughts. The obvious influence here, apparently, was a tense plot, for those wishing to get thrills. Even the annotation is completely imbued with mystery and gloom. However, for me, it is a gripping mystery thriller forcing my pulse beating much faster. My rating is 9.7/10.