Here is a rarity - the book I read without a joy or pleasure.
Generally I always enjoy reading and in many cases love to immerse myself in a completely fictional world - one of the best things I have read this year was "Shōgun" and it kept me completely spellbound and fascinated with Japan for quite some time. But I do need to find something likable in the book, be it the evocative descriptions, characters, the writing style or simply gripping story. I knew Paula Hawkins as author of "Gone girl" which I haven't read but saw a very interesting movie, this particular novel was all over the place few years ago and somehow I got impression it must be very successful and probably interesting crime thriller since I see it in every single bookshop around the world. Successful yes, but not for me.
"The Girl on the Train" is psychological thriller told from perspectives of three different women who seemingly have no connection at first glance. Later when the story unfolds, it turns out they are very connected indeed. Since I read in the evenings, after work (which means after midnight) and most of the time I am just relaxing before falling asleep, no wonder something went terribly wrong with my concentration - at certain point I noticed that something is wrong with names and characters, like perspective is all confused but I assumed the authoress is playing with our attention. Halfway trough the book I came to realise (to my biggest annoyance) that every chapter has plainly stated name of three different women, it wasn't one person at all. Honestly, I have no idea how I missed that point, perhaps I must have been very tired. Hawkins weaves her story skilfully and that's all OK but unfortunately I just couldn't warm up to a woman she chose as main protagonist - Rachel is a desperate (and depressing) alcoholic who just can't get over the divorce and chapter in and out she rolls around drunken, not remembering what happened previous night and wondering where this bruises and blood came from. Since Rachel is very important part of the story, its not possible to skip her chapters and I became painfully aware that I am saddled with extremely unlikeable main protagonist all trough the book. This was not a pleasure at all. Its Hawkins book and she did what she probably thought it was good idea but I just didn't care for someone so obviously self-destructive, morose and beyond help. Basically Rachel roams around pretending she goes to work but in fact she was fired for drunkenness months ago, has no money and no perspective, thinks only about her ex-husband and how she will get sloshed secretly in the evening. Her friend/landlady patiently suffers trough Rachel's vomiting and bleeding all over the place. There is a fairly interesting plot but Rachel annoyed me so much that I sighed with relief when I finally finished the book.
So far, from the top of my head, this was the third time I ploughed trough the book with extremely unlikeable main protagonist - Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assassin" and Umberto Eco's "The Prague Cemetery" also had one, but they are completely different writers so at least there was stylistic beauty to them. Hawkins is a crime writer with one eye turned towards Hollywood so in my mind this is no better than paperback pulp fiction + cases of missing wives gets repetitive + I am already allergic on stories with subjects like this, seriously if I ever see or read another crime story with police involvement and CSI digging under the victim's nails I will just give up, I don't find it entertaining or interesting or anything worth my time. If I am on deserted island, I would not touch another book by Paula Hawkins.
This one seriously annoyed me.
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