The Girl on the Train
By, Paula Hawkins

Life is still flying by and I still feel like I’m running to catch up. I’m hoping that with in 6 months things will slow a bit and I can catch a breath. I know everyone says life only continues to speed up, but I’m making a conscious effort to say “no” to more things and being more protective of our home and family time. We all like to be on the go and have lots of exciting things to do, but I’m feeling the stress it’s placing on me and the rest of the family.

Hopefully we will be able to move in the next few months (it’s been off and on in the works for 4 years, I’m really hoping this is the right time for us!). With that we hope to have a bit more room and a bit more land. There will be different tasks and a new to do list, but with a bit of yard and space to learn and explore outside in our own space, it will give us a lot more home time! One of the homes we are considering even has a pool… so we will have lots of home time in the summer and probably lots of people coming to us too! It would be fantastic! So please put your name on the short list!!!

But on to the book…

I did enjoy this read. In fact I enjoy every read that I review. I’m getting better at being willing to shelf a book that isn’t doing it for me. If I’m not into it and it’s not speaking to me then I learning to shut it and walk away! If I start a book I prefer to see it through to completion, but since I don’t have unlimited time, I’m only going to read what I enjoy or what is speaking to my heart and soul. I don’t have time to force feed myself something that it’s sticking. It isn’t worth it!

Anyway… I digress… again…

This book was definitely darker then what I usually read. I don’t usually opt for mystery and I don’t like a lot of suspense that could potentially give me bad dreams. I have enough to worry about, I don’t need more to up my stress level!! In life, I’ve felt like I’m in a darker slump. I’m worried more, stressed more, not as happy and often feel like I’m struggling to keep my head above water. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed this book as much as I did.

There are three women seeing the same event from three different perspectives. And as the reader, you kinda don’t fully trust any of them. They all have their quirks or downfalls or struggles of their own that taint their perspectives. All three of these woman were desperate in one way or another. They were clinging to a man/men to try and hold their worlds together and it didn’t work out for any of them.

There is nothing Christian about this book at all, and yet I felt like it was a great depiction of the depravity of man. We seek for this perfect something and we hunt the world over and grasp at the things we think will give us that satisfaction and yet in one way or another they always fail us. This was quite obvious to me reading this book, and yet no answer was given. For me I saw my need even more for Jesus. I saw how even in my dark times and my struggles I have a bright and shining Hope to turn to. My darkness in this world is nothing as despairing as the ladies in this book.

This story also made me so thankful for my insane life, my serving husband, my crazy children, our limited finances, my tiny house, my dear friends, my faithful church and my HUGE God. I can be tempted to focus on what I think is hard in this life, but my hard is SO much better than the hard of each of these women portrayed in the book. This also raised my spirits, a reminder I have much to be thankful for.

I really don’t think this book was written to bring these things to light, but it was super obvious to me. I’m so glad I read it, although I will probably never read it again!

If you pick it up, please let me know what you think! I’d love to hear!