It starts with one girl, on the train, literally as the title of the book says it begins with a girl on the train, the same trains she takes daily to a job she doesnt actually work at anymore, whilst drinking a hell load of alcohol (what a life aye). Rachel, but it isn't a great life, her life, later on in the book, when her memories come back... eventually, you find out that she was abused by her husband, who put the blame on her all the time after getting blindo drunk, telling her lies of the stories that happened the night before when it was really the other way round. It ruined her, he had an affair, with a girl he then moved in and got pregnant and married and closely fell in love with, which broke her. So she became more of an alcoholic than she planned to be, lost her job for coming in half cut one day and now lies to her 'friend' and landlord that she goes to work, takes the train to London every day.
Anyway... going back to the beginning Rachel takes the train every morning and evening, and the train stops at a specific stop right infront of the old street she should still be in, her ex-husband and now wife/old-mistress lives in, and another two faces she see's everytime she stops. She makes lives based around what they look and act like, and is witness to a suspect that may have been involved in the murder of Megan, the girl who she watches, and her boyfriend Scott. Megan goes missing, and is found a few weeks later buried in the forest just near to where she lived, she was pregnant as autopsies found out.
There are many chapters, i call them chapters but they are more like the storyline seperated into certain paragraphs, but each 'chapter' is a different persons version of the story, and it goes between Megan, Rachel, and Rachels ex husbands new wife Anna. They all have different aspects of the crime that was committed, especially closer to the end, the explanation and description of how megan died was horrendous both from Megan's perspective, and her killer, Rachels ex-husband Tom's perspective as he confesses infront of his two wives. Anna's story is based around the fact that shes terrified of Rachel, after the night Rachel visited her house and took her baby and stood in the back garden with her for no reason. Anna had no idea that Tom was having an affair, just like he had done with Rachel, right under Anna's nose, as Megan was a babysitter for their child for some time.
Anna's story concludes that after Anna started thinking about Tom's lies, she started to be suspicious, checked his computer, but nothing was on it, checked his phone, nothing. But as an argument occured between the two of them, Tom left to 'go to the gym', Anna found his gym back shortly after under the bed with a phone, in which had no battery left, after a brief moment of charging, she found that the harrassment call logs she kept in which she thought Rachel was contacting him didnt add up, and so she decided to ring the number calling that specific found, to soon find out it was Megan's voice. Meanwhile in Rachel's story, after a brief argument and fight with Megan's husband Scott, after trying to help him with the other man in Megan's life and lying to make it easier, she got home and that argument caused her to get some drunken memories back of the times with Tom in which he made up stories to make her feel bad, she also in that moment, remembered what happened to her on the fatefull night of Megan's death, she was there, and saw Tom walking up to her and smashing her head with something hard, (explaining the massive lump and blood on her hands), and then getting into a car with which at first she thought was Anna, but was actually Megan, in her red top and jeans (which she was found in), these memories coming back on the sofa of her apartment made her rush to Tom's house to confront Anna about the situation. A conversation starter really, 'did you know that my ex husband, your husband now, who cheated on me with you, may have had ANOTHER affair with your babysitter and also may have possibly killed her?' With a child on her lap, and Rachel flustered over the sudden rememberance of the past, Anna didn't know what to believe. Tom walked through the door and all hell broke loose. At first he tried to lie through his teeth, tried to make Anna believe in what he was saying, heck i think he even believed what he was saying but soon after Rachel tries to run the true Tom comes out, abusing Rachel again, chucking her back inside the house and basically keeping her prisoner. He soon confesses over what had happened with Megan, that she was pregnant with his baby and that Megan was not letting it go, and was not going to be a single mother again after what happened when she was younger, as she lost a baby by drowning in the bath by accident when she fell asleep, she was distraught to find that he didnt care and flipped out on him, he lost it, threw a rock at her it went badly, extremely badly so bad he had to 'finish it off', anyway as he was confessing this, Rachel soon tried to escape again, and Tom attacked once more, this time badly, he told Anna to go upstairs with the baby and stay there till he called back down, it flashes back and forth towards both sides of the story, Anna's and Rachels, Rachel soon got the better of him and attacked him back, and again tried to make a run for it but briefly got the hand on a corkscrew, she stabbed him, right there and then stabbed him, whilst Anna secretly rung the police and ambulance, and came back out and made sure the job was well done, she continued to screw the corkscrew in even more. The two wives, working together to defeat this inhumane man with the pain and suffering he caused many people.
I loved this book, it brought to light a lot of the things people dont speak about, domestic violence, alcoholism, loosing babies, affairs, and eventually murder, it brings alot of truths into a small book with a great story, and it hit hard when reading through it to think that women, and men, go through their lives in situations similar to the book, not so much the murdering side although it does happen to wives, ex-wives, ex-husbands mistresses and the like. I definitely 100% put forward this book for anyone who is a fan of mystery, murder, interested in people's lives and stories and can sit and read a book and not want to put it down because i didn't want to put it down at all. If it wasn't for me being busy at some points this weekend, i would have finished it earlier, but alas i was busy and finished it in 4 days, its a record for me in all honesty!!!!
Half of what ive wrote in this blog isn't even the full story its the briefest of briefts i have ever written about a complex story line, and i dont think i could of explained it any better, its the best individual book ive read in a while.
I've seen the trailer for the up and coming film, it has an amazing actress as Rachel in it, i hope she lives upto the role, i hope the whole film lives up to my expectations i know films made from literature dont sometimes, i just really have enjoyed this book and i hope to enjoy the film just as much. Just remember, the films are never as good as the books!
Hope you enjoyed my review, next is the biggest one yet. 11.22.63.
Stay rad!
mkm
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