unless you have been living under a rock for the past six months, you have heard about how paula hawkins took the world by storm with her novel the girl on the train. and after reading the synopsis as well as a few reviews, i knew i needed to check it our for myself. i lucked out and found the kindle version for a good price, so i decided to make it my 15th book in 2015, thus completing the goal i set at the beginning of the year. huzzah!

the girl on the train is one of those thrillers that starts out kind of slow but before you realize it has built into something you didn’t even imagine at the beginning. told from the alternating viewpoints of the three women at the heart of the story, hawkins slowly unravels her mystery.

i got totally wrapped up in the story without even realizing it, and before i knew it i was making assumptions and jumping to conclusions along with each of the characters. i found myself disappointed when someone wasn’t who i thought they were. i was upset when the struggling alcoholic kept falling off the wagon. i was thrown when things didn’t work out the way i wanted them to.

none of hawkins’ characters are perfect, which is kind of the point. it’s a reminder that no one is perfect, and nothing is ever as it seems. the couple that appears perfectly happy on the surface is nearing their boiling point. the woman who gets on the train each morning is actually going nowhere. and the person you thought you hated most in the world might actually be your strongest ally.

that’s what hawkins’ book is like. it’s a roller coaster of emotions and questions, but in the end it’s always worth the ride.

my goodreads rating: 4 out of 5 // average rating is

crossing off the popsugar reading list: a popular author’s first book.

next up: i just finished a short story by langston hughes and have now begun the witness by nora roberts, one of my all-time favourite guilty pleasure authors.

xx