By Paula Hawkins
Genre: Suspense/thriller meets lost love (most similar to Gone Girl, one of my personal favorites)
Age range: 16-adult due to strong drinking/sex and emotional problems. You can read it younger and would probably like it, but I couldn’t in good conscious recommend it to someone younger
Major Themes: drinking, relationships, take a walk in their shoes, family, murder-mystery
Smiles book rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Aaaah…. I’m still dying a little bit on the inside. This book was so good. So much suspense and plot twisting throughout! This review is going to be hard to write without spoilers, so I’m going to have to keep plot description vague. Even the main conflict is a surprise (I didn’t read the back or a review before starting) so I want you to have the same WTF!?!?! moment that I had. So… Here’s why it got a four star review
The Characters: Mixed emotions here. I personally wasn’t a huge fan of the main character, somehow I didn’t sympathize with her until the very end. That might be because I’m only a teenager (you will find out why I say that if you read it) or just because I’m heartless (just kidding…?). Despite this, I think she was characterized really well so it wasn’t for lack of good writing that I didn’t like her. I bumped it down a star for this lack of sympathy, I like to feel attached to my characters, but like k said this is a personal preference and plenty of other people would give it a 5, I’m sure.
Besides just the main character there are so many others, Jason, Jess, Megan, Scott, Tom, the therapist, Cathy, Anna- each with their own unique personalities that make them seem super realistic, despite the unrealistic parts of the book. I just loved how much I felt like the characters were my neighbors and friends… And exes… And killer.
The Plot: This book centers around a woman who watches people’s lives from the train every day on her way to London, and what happens when one of the people that she often watched went missing. Similar to Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, this book isn’t a basic “find-your-killer” story. I know I’m probably beating a dead horse, but there was so much going on, and so much suspense. There wasn’t a single chapter when I was bored, i finished a 350 or so page book in 3 days, and I had homework and stuff going on then too. If you want a book that manages to incorporate description and character development into a killer plot (no pun intended).
The style of writing: From page one, Hawkins unique writing style makes this book one that you will not want to put down. Her style will definitely make this a book that will be remembered for a long time to come.
So please, please go out and buy this book. I promise you that it is worth it, it was amazing!!
Write Through the Night 