The Girl on the Train
(Contains spoilers)
The Girl on the Train is a book that I’ve stumbled upon various times. It’s always included on every Top 100 Thriller Books lists that I’ve seen, and most of the time it’s reviewed as among the first twenty. The Girl on the Train is 2015 published psychological thriller by British author Paula Hawkins. Movie adaptation of the book was released in 2016, and it stars Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, and Luke Evans among others. In 2021 an Indian movie adaptation of the book, directed by Ribhu Dasgupta, aired on Netflix. Both of the movies have received mixed reviews.
The book is narrated from the point of view of Rachel Watson, Anna Boyd, and Megan Hipwell. Rachel is a 33-year-old, former resident of Blenheim Road where she used to live with her ex-husband, Tom Watson. Tom is now married to Anna Boyd and they live together with their daughter, Evie, in the house that used to belong to Rachel and Tom. Rachel is known to harass Tom and Anna, calling them constantly and even visiting their house. Rachel is an alcoholic, and recently lost her job in London because of her ongoing problems with drinking. She loves to travel by train, and still follows her commute routine every day, leaving by the 8:04 am train and returning by the 5:56 pm train. Because of her routine, her roommate Cathy doesn’t have any clue that her trips to London are mainly pointless.
Rachel’s trains always stop in front of the Blenheim Road because of construction work, and she has developed a habit to observe people and houses near the train tracks from the train window. She’s especially fascinated by the couple who lives few houses from her former home. In her imagination they are the perfect couple. The petite, fair-skinned woman is called Jess, and she’s an artist. She loves to have her morning coffee out on the terrace and watch the trains go by. Her caring and strong husband is called Jason, and because he’s often away from home, he works as a trauma surgeon.
I know that on warm summer evenings, the occupants of this house, Jason and Jess, sometimes climb out of the large sash window to sit on the makeshift terrace on top of the kitchen-extension roof. They are a perfect, golden couple.
Jess is often out there in the mornings, especially in the summer, drinking her coffee. Sometimes, when I see her there, I feel as though she sees me, too, I feel as though she looks right back at me, and I want to wave.
In reality, Rachel doesn’t know the couple. They moved on Blenheim Road after Tom had already bought Rachel out of their house. Jess and Jason are called Megan and Scott Hipwell, and their life is far from perfect as Rachel sees it. Scott is deeply possessive of Megan, and Megan finds herself bored and restless of the role of a suburban wife. Megan has a dark past which causes her depression and insomnia. She opens up to her therapist, Kamal Abdic, about her problems, and they begin an affair. One day Rachel passes by Hipwell’s house and sees Megan and Kamal together, kissing on the terrace. She becomes furious, and not long after that, Megan goes missing.
I don’t have words to describe what I felt that day, but now, sitting on the train, I am furious, nails digging into my palms, tears stinging my eyes. I feel a flash of intense anger. I feel as though something has been taken away from me. How could she? How could Jess do this? What is wrong with her? Look at the life they have, look at how beautiful it is!
During the investigation of Megan’s disappearance, Rachel actively tries to include herself to it by any means possible. She goes to the Hipwell residence and introduces herself to Scott as a friend of Megan’s. She tells Scott about the affair and founds out the identity of Kamal. She tips the police about the possible lead, and starts therapy sessions with Kamal in order to know more about him. She’s obsessed with the case mostly because of the bond she feels with “Jess” and “Jason”, but also because she’s not sure of her own innocence. The day Megan went missing, Rachel had began drinking early on the day, and on an impulse, got off the train at the Blenheim Road station. She drank herself to the condition of not remembering the events of the evening, but woke up in her bed the next morning, covered in blood and dirt. Anna reported to the police that she saw drunken Rachel around the neighborhood at the time of Megan’s disappearance, which makes Rachel a suspect.
Before reading the book, I had already seen the (2016) movie adaption so I had some insights on what’s going to happen. However, I didn’t remember the ending at all, so it was nice that the most important part remained hidden until the end. After reading the book, I wanted to watch the movie again, and it was somewhat a disappointment to me.
During Rachel and Tom’s marriage, they were unable to conceive which led to Rachel’s drinking problems. Tom would make her believe that her alcohol consumption got that out of hand, that she even got violent towards Tom’s co-workers. Because Rachel couldn’t remember the events, she learned to just apologize for her behavior in the morning without asking for any details of the night. She, however, felt like there were two Rachels. She couldn’t be truly sorry of the things she had allegedly done, because she didn’t feel responsible for them. She felt like the “drunk Rachel” was a separate person from her, which meant that the regret wasn’t direct. She didn’t feel bad enough.
As it turns out, Rachel had reasons for doubt. I liked how in the movie, they included a scene where Rachel apologizes to Tom’s former co-worker for her drunken, violent behavior that ultimately got Tom fired. The co-worker seemed confused and tells Rachel that she only took a nap at her place, none of the told rampage happened. Tom got fired because he couldn’t keep his thing in his pants, and not because of Rachel. He’s been gaslighting Rachel long before the divorce, and distorted her self-image tremendously.
That scene was one of the few good things about the movie. Overall the movie felt really mismatched. It didn’t take place in the UK where the book is based on, and the culture shift obviously affected the atmosphere of the story. The movie also included variety of different accents which was a weird add to it. Rachel, who’s played by British actor, Emily Blunt, had British accent which wasn’t explained at all. Kamal Abdic was supposed to be Middle Easterner that could pass as an Indian, which means that he had darker skin. In the movie, however, Kamal was played by an actor, that I don’t know the ethnicity of, but could pass as a white person. Getting tired of Hollywood and their white washing..
This was also a movie that I’ve had the strongest opinions on casting choices. Luke Evans didn’t fit the role of Scott at all, because he behaved threatening all from the beginning. I feel like Scott could appear to be very empathic and sweet if he wanted to. That’s why people around them, including Rachel, though that they were the perfect couple. Also Laura Prepon from That ’70s Show and OITNB as Cathy didn’t make sense to me. For me, Prepon is on her best with roles that require some sassiness, provocativeness and edge. Maybe because of her looks and voice. Cathy, however, don’t have those qualities. She’s very kind, empathic, understanding and caring person, which made all more clear that Prepon wasn’t the best choice for the role. I liked Emily Blunt as Rachel but I must admit that she only had one expression throughout the movie, which approaching the end of the film, got kind of annoying.
I laughed out loud when I noticed that my list of alcoholic women in thrillers just expended AGAIN after The Girl on the Train. The same characteristics hunt me:
- Woman,
- Brunette,
- Mid-20’s to mid-30s,
- Troubling romantic relationships or lack of them, and
- Alcoholic with mental disorder(s) or tendencies to it.
However, the repetition of the characteristics in The Girl on the Train didn’t bug me that much. The problems with alcohol caused, as well as explained the memory loss and instability of Rachel’s mental state. Of course there were other influencing factors and people, but without the problems in Rachel’s life, the book wouldn’t have foundation. In some other books I’ve read, the drinking is used as a way of character building which seems forced and unnecessary if it doesn’t have deeper meaning to it. That being said, I liked the book. I understand why it has gotten it’s place among the 100 or 50 or 20 best thrillers, 4/5. The movie, however, didn’t impress me much, but I guess it passes time if you have nothing else to do, 2½/5.
