4 stars out of 5
Okay, I admit I'm not quite as enthusiastic about this one as The Girl on the Train, the author's first, and wildly popular, novel. At the same time, I'm a bit flummoxed by all the negative reviews I'm seeing (as I write this, the book has an average of 3-1/2 stars at Amazon, based on 169 customer reviews - 32% of which are 1- and 2-star ratings. Wow - did y'all read the same book I did?
To a certain extent, I get it. While I honestly enjoyed this book overall, there are a few things that gave me pause (and prompted me to knock it down one star from the enthusiastic 5 stars I gave the author's first stellar effort). I agree, for instance, that there are too many characters - a couple of whom really don't contribute much to the story. I've also grown weary of chapters that shift from character to character and in time frame (although to my great dismay that seems to be the norm now, so guess I'd better get used to it). The story gets a little confusing - who really knew what and when and why it really matters - and all the characters are so flawed and have so many secrets that they all fall short of likable.
Forgive me, though, if all that sounds off-putting, because on the whole it really isn't. Each chapter adds details to the background, peeling back layers that allow readers to learn what's really going on now, what went on in the past and how it's all connected (or most of it, anyway - some secrets, or at least things I suspected were secrets, stayed that way till the end).
Here are the basics: A single mother, Nel, is found dead at the bottom of a part of a river known as the Drowning Pool because so many other women died there. Nel leaves behind a moody, incorrigible 15-year-old daughter, Lena, and a long-estranged sister, Jules. No one knows who Lena's father is (well, except for Nel, and she's not talking). Lena resents Jules and Jules still detests her dead sister, but they agree Nel didn't commit suicide as is the common belief given the surface evidence. An investigation brings in local police officer Sean and his new-to-town partner Erin - both of whom (surprise!) carry baggage from their own pasts. It is learned that Nel was compiling a book detailing the lives and deaths of some of the other women who lost their lives in the Drowning pool - and then everything begins to unravel as clues lead to characters whose lives were intertwined with Nel's.
The ending came as a bit of a surprise, but was it satisfying? Not really - but on the other hand, given everything that preceded it, it seemed fitting. And that, my friends, is good enough for me.
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead Books, May 217); 394 pp.
5 stars out of 5
There's a darned good reason this book is on the New York Times Bestseller List: Simply put, it is totally, utterly one of the most engrossing books I've had the pleasure to read in a long while. It also was an Amazon Best Book of the Month for January 2015 - no surprise there, either - and add me to the list of those who will be happy to see this one get all the honors it deserves.
To describe it as a psychological thriller really doesn't do it justice given the inner- and outer-lapping lives of the six main characters. Where does one begin and another one start? Are any of them real, or are they just figments of one (or more) of the others' imaginations? After all, the book begins with Rachel on a commuter train - the same one she takes every day - stopping at one point at a row of houses in one of which she almost always sees a couple (she's named them Jess and Jason) doing "perfect couple" things on their perfect little deck.
Until one day they don't; Rachel witnesses a scene that shocks her into reality (her version of it, at least) and she's compelled to call the police. From the outset, the story is told through the eyes of three of the main characters: Rachel, who once lived in this same row of houses with what she thought was a loving husband but now is occupied by her ex-husband, his new wife and their baby; his current wife, Anna, and Megan - the "Jess" of Rachel's train-ride imagination.
Then Megan turns up missing, and Rachel - who's more often drunk beyond the point of oblivion, has lost her job and is and still in love with her ex-husband - desperately tries to retrieve long-forgotten memories (if in fact they ever happened at all). The daily train ride quickly turns into a train wreck that's totally unavoidable, with readers being dragged along every mile of the way. And what a heck of a ride it is!
Ever the grammar vigilante, I'm compelled to say that the substantial number of run-on sentences really bugged me, although I admit that once I got half a dozen chapters into this one I really didn't give a damn anymore. And I also noticed that a job interview Rachel's landlady had arranged with a friend was mentioned quickly and then - even though it was pretty clear Rachel got drunk again and didn't make it - never was heard of again. Given the landlady's disgust with her tenant's alcohol abuse, I'm pretty sure she'd have been livid when she found out Rachel had blown yet another opportunity to improve her life. But you know what? I'm still curious, but I really don't care about that, either.
I leave you with this advice: If you have only one book to read this year, make it this one. Wow!
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead, January 2015); 326 pp.
