The Girl on the Train

by Paula Hawkins
Sept 21-Oct 11

I think this book got a lot more hype than it deserved. Everyone is trying to compare their husband-is-the-suspect-in-his-wife's-disappearance to Gone Girl, and that's just not going to work. The suspense didn't quite get there. The characters weren't interesting enough to care about – unless loathing every single one was the author's goal. And while the book started off like gangbusters and was definitely a quick read, the plot soon became eye-rollingly (is that even a word?!) predictable. I've often said that I am not a fan of suspense and whodunit novels, so to be fair, I can understand why people like this. It's quick, easy to read, and hits all the casual reader requirements. I need something with a little more depth. I have a friend who gets annoyed with the term "beach read" because he hates the assumption that just because you're on vacation you need to read something dumbed-down or shallow. Not true! I prefer to be literally challenged. Others prefer to fly through a book for the sake of numbers and pop culture, and that's OK; I'm just not one of them. Call this a beach read if you will...

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

See what I mean?! I can hear your tongue clicking!

Aaaaand, off the soapbox. Girl on the Train has book-turned-into-blockbuster-movie written all over it. Let's just hope that NPH turns down any and all offers to play a single character.


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Eight Hundred Grapes

by Laura Dave
September 3-16, 2015

Synchronization (actual definition): to represent or arrange (events) to indicate coincidence or coexistence.

Synchronization (novel's definition): A "clever" attempt to make an underwhelming story deeper than it really is.

That's the first problem. Trying to make an irrational runaway bride with a normal, only slightly effed up family seem like the next great work of literature. And an author who used the word synchronization like it's an epiphany. At least that's how I interpreted it. The second issue was that the entire book was. Written. In Sentence. Fragments. This got monotonous and distracting after only a few pages. Used properly, this technique can be fun and expressive, but in Eight Hundred Grapes, I'm sure English teachers everywhere were clutching at their grammar textbooks.

“You have to grow about eight hundred grapes to get just one bottle of wine. If that isn’t an argument to finish the bottle, I don’t know what is."

In truth, I'm not sure I can give this book the fair review that every book deserves. I read it so long ago that I barely remember it (nearly two months is a long time in avid-reader days). But to dismiss something so completely in that length of time speaks to the depth of the story – forgettable.

Overall, nothing of note. A light story with potential, but just too shallow.

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