Bucket List

My friend Athena posted this on Facebook; I'm filling it out and posting it here. They called it a "bucket list," but some of these, like "cry yourself to sleep" or "get divorced" I wouldn't exactly put on a bucket list. Whatever. The ones I've done are marked with an "X".

Fired a gun
Gone on a blind date X
Skipped school  (Yeah, I was a goodie two-shoes; I don't think I even did Senior Skip Day.)
Watched someone give birth
Watched someone dying X
Visited Canada X
Visited Hawaii (couldn't afford to when my friends went :()
Visited Europe X
Visited Las Vegas (unfortunately a recent Vegas trip was cancelled due to a loss in my friend's family)
Visited Asia
Visited Africa
Visited Florida X
Visited Mexico
Visited Australia (my parents went without me :(. But I can't fault my mom for taking her dream anniversary trip)
Seen the Grand Canyon in person
Flown in a helicopter
Served on a jury
Visited L.A.
Been to New York City X
Cried yourself to sleep X
Recently colored with pencils X (adult coloring books FTW!)
Sang karaoke X
Paid for a meal with coins only X (If fast food counts than I'm sure I have)
Made prank phone calls
Laughed so much you cried X
Caught Snowflake's on tongue X (arrgh at the misused apostrophe)
Had children
Had a pet X
Been skinny dipping
Repelled down a building/cliff
Been downhill skiing X
Been water skiing X
Been camping in a tent X
Driven a motorcycle
Jumped out of a PLANE
Gone to a drive-in movie X
Done something that could have killed you X (in Athena's words: "isn't driving a car something that could kill me?")
Done something that you will regret for the rest of your life (no regrets)
Rode an elephant
Rode a camel
Eaten just cookies or cake or ice cream for dinner X
Been on TV X (I think some of my band concerts were on local tv...)
Been in newspapers X (If honor roll lists or school papers count)
Stolen any traffic signs
Been in a car accident X
Stayed in Hospital (if they mean overnight, I have not thankfully)
Donated blood (I should...my mom does all the time despite a major fear of needles, so I have no excuse)
Payed a fine in the past 12 months X
Gotten a piercing X (only ears...)
Gotten a Tattoo
Driven a standard car X
Ever owned your dream car
Been Married
Been divorced
Fell in love X
Paid for a strangers meal
Driven over 100mph
Worked in a pub
Been scuba diving
Found a dead body
Lived on your own X
Swam with the Dolphins
Parasailing Snorkeling X
Flown over Volcanoes
Visited Alaska
Visited the Bahamas X
Visited Mount Rushmore
Visited Yellowstone

Goodreads Book Review: The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Paula Hawkins' novel The Girl on the Train has been getting a lot of comparisons to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. It's a mystery/thriller narrated from multiple perspectives, provides insight into troubled marriages and characters who aren't who they seem, and has been adapted into a film to come out this October. But whereas Gone Girl's twistedness satisfied on multiple levels, The Girl on the Train for me, while immensely readable, never really rose above the level of beach-read thriller. I'd give it three-and-a-half stars, but since Goodreads doesn't allow for half-stars, I'm rounding down to 3.

The premise of The Girl on the Train is intriguing, and the narrative direction Hawkins takes was ambitious. The novel shifts narration between three different characters and from different time frames. It opens from the perspective of Rachel, the "girl on the train." Here is where Hawkins makes use of the unreliable narration that Flynn used in Gone Girl. Rachel is a young woman who takes a train to and from London every day. As she rides the train, it stops by a house in the neighborhood where she used to live, and Rachel watches the residents: a young, attractive couple who often spend time in their yard or on their patio. She begins fantasizing about their lives and even names them: "Jess" and "Jason." But one day "Jess" (who is actually named Megan) disappears, and Rachel realizes how little she actually knew about her life.

Rachel goes to the police to provide witness to events she saw unfolding in Megan's yard, but as we soon learn, she is not the most reliable witness or narrator: she is an alcoholic prone to blackouts. As the story unfolds, we learn more about Megan and how her path intersected with that of Rachel, her ex-husband, and his new family. And we learn about the secrets that kept in all their lives.

The contrast between fantasy and reality and the drive to live vicariously through other people's lives are interesting themes but ones that I didn't think the novel took far enough. Rachel creates voyeuristic fantasies about "Jess" and "Jason" as a distraction from her pain and loneliness as a recent divorcee, but these fantasies are interrupted early on in the novel when Jess/Megan disappears. As in Gone Girl, characters' lives are built upon layers of secrets and lies, and nothing is as it seems, but this also didn't seem to be explored in as much depth as it could have been.

The train is clearly central to the story, and yet it's symbolism was yet another thing that didn't seem fully explored. Rachel's train rides are the center of her day, providing predictability to a life that has otherwise unraveled. In contrast, for Megan the train she lives so close to reflects her restlessness and yearning for escape. I wish Hawkins would have run with these themes a bit more.

The narrative structure of the novel is one element that did work for me. It's always a risk for authors to use multiple narrators, but each narrator (Rachel, Megan, and Rachel's ex-husband's new wife, Anna) has her own distinct voice, and the pieces of the story come together as new details and perspectives unfold.

In both Rachel and Megan, Hawkins has created characters who, while deeply flawed and not exactly "likable," were complex, layered and compelling. Equally compelling is Kamal, Megan's therapist and an early suspect. A man with a troubled past, Kamal exhibits both deep compassion and a concerning lack of boundaries. Anna, on the other hand, is both unlikable (coming across as smug and self-satisfied in her new life) and flat. And the other main male characters, Rachel's ex-husband, Tom and Megan's husband, Scott, are portrayed as stereotypically controlling and domineering, but there is little exploration of what's behind these traits.

The Girl on the Train is definitely a page-turner, but the promising premise wasn't fully realized for me.




View all my reviews