The Girl on the Train

by Paul Hawkins

I apologize for my absence over the last few weeks. Apparently having a baby is a lot of work! Why didn’t anybody tell me?! I would like to say we’re back on track, but, well, we’ll see…

I read this book last year. My wife flew through it in a weekend and I quickly picked it up after her. It was a perfect suspense read between other more thought-provoking books. Let me say- female authors are crushing the psychological thriller genre. Gillian Flynn. Lauren Beukes. Now Paula Hawkins. I’m sure there are a slew of others I haven’t gotten to yet. These ladies know how to keep me on the edge of my seat. (Who am I missing friends?) This book has stuck with me since I read it last year.

“It’s possible to miss what you’ve never had, to mourn for it.”

“I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts.”

“Hollowness: that I understand. I’m starting to believe that there isn’t anything you can do to fix it. That’s what I’ve taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps”

“There’s something comforting about the sight of strangers safe at home.”

“I’m playing at real life instead of actually living it.”

“But I did become sadder, and sadness gets boring after a while, for the sad person and for everyone around them.”

“I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.”

“There’s nothing so painful, so corrosive, as suspicion.”

“And I’ve just got to let myself feel the pain, because if I don’t, if I keep numbing it, it’ll never really go away.”

“I have to find a way of making myself happy, I have to stop looking for happiness elsewhere.”

Sticky Books are those that you just can’t get out of your head. They stick with you long after you have put the book down and have moved on to something else. These are some of my Sticky Books. I don’t enjoy reviewing books myself. I find I am either full of far too much praise for the book because I know how difficult it can be to write a book, or I am far too negative about a book because, well, I guess I was just in a bad mood. So instead of reviews, I have pulled some of my favorite quotes from each Sticky Book.

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