The Girl on the Train – I Almost Quit This Book

I feel like I’m the odd one out in thinking that The Girl on the Train was just okay, because most of my friends absolutely loved it. While it was a quick read, I actually found myself thinking thoughts in the first fifty pages like, “Oh my goodness, will something please actually happen!” and “These horrible people are so depressing! Won’t the main character ever do anything but weep in a drunken stupor?”

Things do happen eventually, which kept me from giving up on the book, but it was a near thing. I was just about to set the book aside for good when I gave it my last ditch effort (I flipped to the back and read the ending to see if something exciting took place) and after that I did want to know how the characters got from where they were at to the dramatic ending so I kept reading.

Was it worth the effort? It killed a few hours on a cold afternoon. I would have been content to read it on a plane or in an airport and at least not have been bored. But did I like it? Well… it was just okay. The writing was decent, but I couldn’t get past the overall gloom of the atmosphere and the depressing nature of every scene in the book. The whole thing was one big downer with a couple of exciting conflicts at the end.

In short, it was not my cup of tea, but obviously it hits the spot with other readers.

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