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A review by sucitta
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
3.0
***!MILD SPOILER WARNING!***
There are no big reveal spoilers in this review.
I read this one pretty quickly and the only reason for that is, I just needed to know if my theories were right (some were; some weren't) because I was increasingly frustrated for most of the book. Most of my frustration came from the lack of me rooting for the female characters; I think the only one I would actually root for is Cathy, maybe Rachel. I just wanted SOMEONE to shake some sense into Rachel and tell her not to hang all her hopes on MEN. I was even more frustrated with Anna always referring to Rachel as "fat Rachel" when she's the goddamn mistress in the situation. This was very much pitting women against each other when it should've been Rachel, Anna, and even Megan kicking their significant others to the fucking curb where they belong.
Of course the story keeps you going until the very end, and that's about as much as I can say for it. That's really why I gave it 3 stars, because I really couldn't put it down. I'm just once again disappointed that we have another story where instead of female characters having any kind of agency and holding their own, you have MEN tearing them down, or constantly pitting them against each other. I'm not even condoning the cheating that was rampant here, but for fucks sake not once did Rachel get ANGRY THAT HER HUSBAND FUCKING CHEATED ON HER. She just pined for him all the fucking time. She had valid fucking reasons for being depressed but she had a shitty as fuck husband demeaning her, manipulating her, telling her that her thoughts and feelings didn't matter. AND HE STILL SAID THIS SHIT EVEN AFTER THEY SEPARATED.
Honestly I'm just overwhelmingly disappointed with the treatment of the female characters here, and that this story really could've been something, but it wasn't. This just feels like the Lifetime movie version of Gone Girl.
There are no big reveal spoilers in this review.
I read this one pretty quickly and the only reason for that is, I just needed to know if my theories were right (some were; some weren't) because I was increasingly frustrated for most of the book. Most of my frustration came from the lack of me rooting for the female characters; I think the only one I would actually root for is Cathy, maybe Rachel. I just wanted SOMEONE to shake some sense into Rachel and tell her not to hang all her hopes on MEN. I was even more frustrated with Anna always referring to Rachel as "fat Rachel" when she's the goddamn mistress in the situation. This was very much pitting women against each other when it should've been Rachel, Anna, and even Megan kicking their significant others to the fucking curb where they belong.
Of course the story keeps you going until the very end, and that's about as much as I can say for it. That's really why I gave it 3 stars, because I really couldn't put it down. I'm just once again disappointed that we have another story where instead of female characters having any kind of agency and holding their own, you have MEN tearing them down, or constantly pitting them against each other. I'm not even condoning the cheating that was rampant here, but for fucks sake not once did Rachel get ANGRY THAT HER HUSBAND FUCKING CHEATED ON HER. She just pined for him all the fucking time. She had valid fucking reasons for being depressed but she had a shitty as fuck husband demeaning her, manipulating her, telling her that her thoughts and feelings didn't matter. AND HE STILL SAID THIS SHIT EVEN AFTER THEY SEPARATED.
Honestly I'm just overwhelmingly disappointed with the treatment of the female characters here, and that this story really could've been something, but it wasn't. This just feels like the Lifetime movie version of Gone Girl.