The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins

Characters
Rachel	Megan	Anna
Tom – ex husband   Cathy – friend, letting Rachel stay with her   Mother   Andy – red-haired man from train	Scott – husband   Ben – older brother, deceased   Dr. Kamal Abdic – therapist   Craig McKenzie (Mac)   Elizabeth (Libby) – baby with Mac, deceased   Tara – friend and cover   Detectives: Riley Gaskill	Tom – husband   Evie - baby

 

For discussion:

NOTE: All pages refer to the hardback edition of the book.

1. Would you move into your husband’s house where he lived with his ex-wife?

2. What were the clues throughout the novel that let you know things were not as they seemed?  What did the author write to deliberately throw the reader off track?  These are the pages and passages I noted:

*Page 27 – Who is “he?”

*Page 113 – Scott was physically intimidating and Rachel thought he could crush her “without much effort.”

*Page 114 – The smell of antiseptic in Scott’s house

*Page 127 – A lot of what Scott said did not “ring true” to Rachel

*Page 230 – “The memory doesn’t fit with the reality, because I don’t remember anger, raging fury, I remember fear.”

*Page 241 – Tom’s relationship with his parents

3. Why did Rachel tell Dr. Abdic so much that she did not intended to withhold on the first visit?

4. Both Rachel and Megan held back a secret about a baby – Rachel unable to have one and Megan’s downing in tub.  Why did they hold this back when it was such an important part of who they were and what happened to them?

5. How did your opinion and thoughts about the characters change as you were reading? 

6. Would you have been as patient as Cathy with Rachel?  Explain your thoughts.

7. One mark of a good mystery is that the reader doesn’t figure it out before the end is revealed.  Did this novel fulfill this quality for you?  Why or why not?

8. Discuss your reading experience.  Were you able to keep the timeline straight and remember who was speaking in each chapter?

9. This book has been called the next “Gone Girl.”  Do you agree?  Which book did you enjoy more?  Why?

*****

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