{"id":11907,"date":"2017-03-26T11:01:37","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T05:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/?p=11907"},"modified":"2020-11-15T13:59:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T08:29:12","slug":"the-girl-on-the-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2017\/03\/26\/the-girl-on-the-train\/","title":{"rendered":"The Girl on the Train"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Paula Hawkins<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It does have a lot going for it, and I now understand why it has been such a rage. Quite a fresh take on the amnesia thriller, the author makes it easy to connect with Rachel, with whom the story begins &#8211; she is the girl on the train. Through her eyes, we see the other characters. The build up in the initial pages &#8211; we know something is about to happen &#8211; is done really well, and while the multi -first person narrative is not new, the skill with which it has been wielded deserves a thumbs up. It is not just the shift in perspective and the fresh format, but the timing of it that makes the whole thing work. A lot of work seems to have gone into Rachel&#8217;s character and the gamut of emotions one feels for her is proof that it is a job well done! But..<\/p>\n<p>In the end, I think it was the expectations that spoiled it for me a bit. That, and the length. The immediate comparison was with the other girl &#8211; Gone Girl. I&#8217;d totally loved its unpredictability. In this case, there just aren&#8217;t enough twists to warrant 300+ pages. Actually, the pace towards the end is fantastic &#8211; I read the last 100 pages in one go &#8211; but I felt that all of that could have been made more gripping.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I also felt that the other characters were too &#8216;thin&#8217; when compared to Rachel&#8217;s. Even when the layers are being introduced, the sharpness that makes it exciting is missing. Maybe that is by design &#8211; to have some level of ambiguity and secrecy in order to keep the plot intact &#8211; but it somehow took away from the overall structure. The other thing that didn&#8217;t really work for me was the limited set of characters. It really made the outcome predictable. The &#8216;extras&#8217; who add to the plot to a limited extent, were fairly obvious.<\/p>\n<p>In essence, it is a good read and will serve you really well during a short trip!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12238 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/The-Girl-on-the-Train.jpg\" alt=\"The Girl on the Train\" width=\"590\" height=\"597\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/The-Girl-on-the-Train.jpg 590w, https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/The-Girl-on-the-Train-296x300.jpg 296w, https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/The-Girl-on-the-Train-50x50.jpg 50w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 590px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 590\/597;\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paula Hawkins It does have a lot going for it, and I now understand why it has been such a rage. Quite a fresh take on the amnesia thriller, the author makes it easy to connect with Rachel, with whom the story begins &#8211; she is the girl on the train. Through her eyes, we <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2017\/03\/26\/the-girl-on-the-train\/\">[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[370,6007],"tags":[5273,5272],"class_list":["post-11907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-fiction","tag-paula-hawkins","tag-the-girl-on-the-train"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11907"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12239,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11907\/revisions\/12239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}