The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins ------------------------ 4 Stars

So, unless you've been under a rock, you've probably heard of Paula Hawkins exhilarating The Girl on the Train.  But, is it as good as so many have said?  Short answer: yeah, pretty much.

This is one of those books that my former High School English teachers would have referred to as "airport trash."  Don't despair, they were snobs with literature.  Yes, the book has few redeeming qualities.  Yes, you won't read it and think to yourself about the beauty of the prose.  Sure, the characters are fairly unrealistic and little time is spent rounding them out.  But, boy oh boy, this is one fun book to read.  It's truly a page turner; nearly impossible to put down.  My wife read in 3 days, while I took 4.  Sure, it might be "airport trash" but this book blog always basis the rating on one main criteria: is it entertaining?   The Girl on the Train certainly is.

Basic premise: there's the girl... on a train.  Oh, you want more?  Well, she's kind of nutsy and she starts seeing some things while on the train and starts getting involved with some people, and she likes to drink and not remember much.  That's about all you need to get going, really. 

The book  is quite a fun read.  Hawkins does a great job of getting you into it early and it's pretty easy to see why it's been so enjoyed by many people.  It's a simple and fast read.  The plot is easy to follow.  It's chock full  of exciting and juicy dialogue.  Of course, it has some drawbacks.  As mentioned earlier, this book pulls no punches about what it's going for.  It's not going to be anything more than a quick and easy read that keeps you entertained and constantly guessing.  There is no existential question or any real deep thought in it at all.  But, again, as long as you know what you are signing up for, it's a good ride.

The comparison between it and Gone Girl (my review of it here) are obvious and apt.  Both books follow similar arcs and have similar female protagonists.  Both books keep making you think something else might be happening and you're never quite sure what's going to transpire next.  Both books are wildly entertaining.  For my money, Gone Girl is better.  It's a smarter novel and there's more depth to the story and characters.  The Girl on the Train is a really good knock off but not quite the real McCoy.

Not sure if you are looking for much more but, at this point, go pick it up if you have not read yet.  Again, it's quick, fun, and you won't regret the time not spent on something that would really be more illuminating; you'll be enjoying this one too much to think about that :)

The Girls: A Novel - Emma Cline ----------------------- 4 Stars

As some of you know who have read my blog, I love a good mystery and especially have enjoyed these female led, sort of crazy stories, that started with Gone Girl.  I sort of liked Flynn's other book, and very much enjoyed the knock off, The Girl on the Train. Joining the same ilk as those books is Cline's, The Girls. Although a bit different set up and plot, same storyline -- some people are crazy!

So this one is about a girl growing up in the late 60's in the Bay Area of California. Like, seemingly every book now, it does the jumping back and forth thing where the main character is now much older and is living her life while reflecting back to  many years ago. The crazy part: she was, more or less in a Charles Manson like cult one summer. And that summer, the cult did something bad...read the book to find out more!

In general, I found this book very entertaining and enjoyable to read. First, it's a very good plot and very interesting story. There was never a dull moment and once one strand of time seemed like it was getting a bit boring, the author would switch to the other. Also, impressively, the book maintained your interest without any real fireworks. Unlike that drunk girl on the train, this book was pretty even keeled throughout. Second, I really enjoyed the main character. Cline does a fantastic job of really making you feel the angst and apprehension of this young teen girl struggling with her parent's divorce and how to fit in socially. The allure of the cult seemed perfectlwhen considered in the context of the other parts of her life. Three, the book does a fairly nice job of making you feel what life was like in the late 60s. While not overtly part of the plot, the author does a fantastic job of making you really get into the setting. Finally, the book is, in many ways, a mystery novel. While it's not quite a 'whodunnit', and you more or less know what's going to happen, the author increases the excitement about events as the book moves on.

Of course, there are areas this novel could improve. While I did like the pace in general, there are parts were it gets to slow.  There are some parts where there seems to be a monotony to the chapters and it almost seems like the same events are going on again and again. I also felt the "future" character was a bit underdeveloped and did not really get a sense how the events in her past really affected her. While the author did a very nice of explaining and, having the reader feel what her life was like now, I was surprised there wasn't more connection between the earlier parts of her life and where she was in the present.

In general, I think The Girls is a real good read and fits in well to the genre I described at the start. If you like that type of book, you'd probably enjoy this as well. I do think that this book also could appeal to other readers as well. It's a very well written book, and the first Cline has penned, I believe. I suggest giving her a shot.

The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley ------------- 3 Stars

I read The Hunting Party was a great "who dunnit" story from the other side of the pond. And, while I was actually pretty engaged with the book (which ultimately saved the rating), I thought the story was a mess and pretty frustrating by the end.

The book is a few years old and it fits in that genre of what I've read too much of lately: mystery type novels, often involving a death, with a bunch of potential characters who may be guilty. This one reminded me so much of a mix of The Girl on the Train (much better; review here) and Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (yes, a classic). Like Girl on the Train, alcohol and other devices made it difficult to know what was reality and what was a person's misremembering - what a simple (and maybe lazy) way to confuse the reader. The setting was a secluded farm in rural Scotland with about 8 potential murderers, which reminded me so much of the 10 suspects on the island in Christie's book. 

I really did think the story was a mess. Besides having 7 or 8 different narrators, timelines jumped all over the place. And, while some replaying of scenes from different POVs made it more interesting, some were repetitive and/or didn't provide any new information. The characters were also really oddly shaped. Some had great depth and others minimal; again, all with different timelines sharing that information. I won't even go into the ending, but it was a let down for me.

On a positive, it's an engaging read, especially for the first half when things were making a bit more sense. Many chapters left the reader curious what was going to happen next and the author didn't strike out totally with the back and forth descriptors of things. I did find myself often wanting to continue reading the next chapter; though, oddly, I didn't find myself wanting to continue to read the book after I put it down.

Ultimately, I've read a number of books of this type that were simply better; more creative, more logical with better formed characters and plot. However, you could do a lot worse this summer if picking this up. It's an easy read that likely will hold your attention and it might remind you about all the ways some other books are superior.

The Woman in the Window - A.J. Finn ---------------------------- 3.5 Stars

The Woman in the Window was being marketed as your next Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train. While it certainly follows a similar blueprint - mystery novel with some death mixed in and not sure who's for real or not - it didn't live up to the standard set by either.

Interestingly, I read Gone Girl first, then The Girl on the Train, and now this. And after each, the rating has gone down a half point. It started at 4.5, then 4, and now 3.5. Perhaps they are all equally good and I am tiring of the story line or genre? Or, perhaps, much more likely, the books aren't as good as the original Gone Girl (which was Gone Girl).

Quick synopsis - really drunk lady in New York looks out her windows a lot because she doesn't ever leave her house (due to mysteries you'll need to read to find out) and sees stuff in other apartments, including, wait for it, a murder!

So, seems like a pretty interesting premise and it is actually. The book had a great start and kept me enamored for at least the first 150 (of 400) pages. The problem with the book, is that it's not nearly enough action. Unlike the other two mysteries mentioned above, the action is limited. Really, this book is much more about anxiety and the challenges of the main character (drunk lady). While there was a pretty good OMG ending, the book could never really get me fully invested or excited like the other two did. Please don't get me wrong, its a solid, entertaining read with some great twists that I did not see coming but if you are looking for then next Gone Girl, probably best to keep looking... but read this if you are bored.

The Flight Attendant - Chris Bohjalian ------------------------ 2 Stars

The Flight Attendant is a very popular book that has recently been made into a dark comedy series of the same name on HBO. I figured I'd enjoy due to the large amount of positive feedback and interesting plot. Unfortunately, for me, it was a huge flop. Let me do my best to explain.

To start with the positive, this book has an interesting and somewhat engaging plot. A flight attendant wakes up in a hotel room with a dead (more or less) stranger next to her and does not know (or remember) what happened to him. A pretty good set up the reminded me a lot of The Girl on the Train (review here) or The Woman in the Window (review here). All have a similar formula - something crazy and unexpected happens and the unreliable narrator is an alcoholic type woman.

This actually might be my first problem with the book. Clearly this type of narrative plot has been used before (and, as I believe, much better) with past novels. Perhaps if this was the first time I had seen this device used, it would have been more engaging. However, the lack of plot originality was a problem.

Another problem I occasionally have with fictional books is how realistic they may or may not be. While I know this book is fictional and not real, the book could be told in a way that is based in reality or is more fantasy. While this book makes clear it attempts to base itself in a reality of the world we live in, I found numerous things occur that seemed unrealistic. Perhaps, most notably, the work of the main character's lawyer. While I am not a lawyer, I feel like I have enough experience with them to know that they tend to be professional and focused. Not drama maniacs who curse often and belittle their clients. The lawyer in this book is where I felt the novel "jumped the shark" from being based in reality to something else.

Finally, and perhaps most frustrating, the book is simply slow and not engaging. In the other novels mentioned, the action was packed from start to end and the exposition left the reader wanting more. Not here; rather, I was shocked at how dozens of pages could go by without anything noteworthy happening (other than the author talking about the significant anxiety the main character had over and over). I feel like some of the other challenges could have been overlooked had the story been more engaging. Again, it just seemed like it was following an overused script that I've seen too many times.

I'm sure this book is well liked by many others. Perhaps I just have a skewed and too negative a viewpoint. So, you should it read it and decide for yourself. However, if you do, please be wary of my concerns and don't be surprised if you are under engaged by this novel.

Carousel Court - Joe McGinniss, Jr. --------------------- 4.5 Stars

So, how time flies. 8 years ago, I read and reviewed Joe McGinniss Jr's first novel The Delivery Man. I knew him briefly from playing some basketball while living in D.C.  Anyway, the book was pretty awesome and well worth reading if you have not picked it up. However, I would recommend you read his newest book first.

Carousel Court came out earlier this year and is a fantastic read. Similar in many ways to his first novel, it's gritty, drug induced fun for the whole family. And this one really is about a whole family. Newly married couple moves to California with a young child and quickly goes under water on their new home. As they struggle to figure out what to do, their marriage begins to unravel and both find their own outlets to maintain whatever sanity they have left.

As I rate books on entertainment value, this one is a knock out. Gripping and hard to put down, I flew threw it in about a week. It was a kind of a mix of Gone Girl and Girl on a Train but seemingly more realistic. The author does a fantastic job describing the history of the two main characters in engaging ways while still keeping the pace of the novel moving forward. Also, he has a great knack for quickly moving from a description about a scene, that includes intimate details to help visualize, to out of control drug use and violence.

The book also hits closer to home than the last. Not that my marriage is falling apart and am behind on mortgage payments, but I can relate to the loss of one's 20s and the "grind" of work and kids on a daily basis. Again, the author does a good job of framing, albeit probably an outlier of a situation, what many in some parts of country are struggling with too often.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was an engaging and entertaining read, and it's wonderful to see the author continue to hone his already impressive skill set further.  Like this last book, it would get an "R" rating, but the story is a good one and characters quite interesting. I only wished he would write books more often than every 8 years (though, if there always this good, I can wait!).