I finished reading The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins about a week ago, and while the rest of the book was good (per say), I hated the ending

When Rachel first survives being hit in the head I start losing interest.

And then she and Anna (and Anna’s child) escapes and Tom dies. It’s… Dissapponting.

I don’t know why; maybe I didn’t like Rachel a lot. I mean I didn’t quiet enjoy the characters-- esp compared to how much I enjoyed MC in other books and I defo didn’t connect and the first person POV pulled me out bc I didn’t feel like I was there y’know.

I would have preffered if Megan died and Tom kind of force Anna into silence and Scott get in trouble and Dr Kamal get killed. I don’t usually want such dark endings in books but for some reason it seems like the only satisfactory end to this book.

What’s are your thoughts?

  • YakSlothLemon@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I ended up coining the term Amnesia Ex Machina for this book… “well, 50 pages left, her memory will be coming back anytime now.” The thing is, I’ve had a lot of reason to apply it since. It’s such a weak plot device. Gone Girl worked with an unreliable narrator because she was unreliable because it was deliberate, but we’re seeing so many unreliable narrators who have addiction issues/mental issues etc. and that can be fine unless it’s being used to stretch a 10 minute mystery into 250 pages.