Suspense | Book Chatter

By Noah Hawley
Grand Central Publishing, Hardcover, 9781455561780, May 2016, 400pp.

The Short of It:

A plane goes down. There are only two survivors, one of which is unable to remember the plane’s final moments due to a head injury. The mystery of what happens on board slowly unfolds.

The Rest of It:

Plane crashes fascinate me. There’s always so much to learn. Passengers confined to a tiny space thousands of feet above ground with absolutely nowhere to go, the complexity of the instruments, the flight crew and yes… the passengers themselves. I didn’t need much prodding when a copy of this book became available.

This is a riveting read. It reads like a mystery and there’s plenty of suspense to keep you guessing. What exactly happened on that plane? Hawley’s passenger lists includes some well-to-do passengers, two young children, an artist who boards last-minute but is pretty much a stranger to the rest of the cabin, the flight crew and the bodyguard assigned to protect one of the families on board.

I really enjoyed this book. There have been some books like it in the past few years but the storytelling in this one seemed effortless and the pacing was just right.

I recommend it.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Girl on the Train
By Paula Hawkins
(Riverhead Hardcover, Hardcover, 9781594633669, January 2015, 336pp.)

*No Spoilers*

The Short of It:

A nosy woman on the train witnesses something odd and decides to look into it further.

The Rest of It:

This book is a lot of fun. Lots of page turning, plenty of twists and a classic unreliable narrator. Good stuff.

Rachel is an alcoholic and has lost her job. She rides the train all day to keep her roommate from knowing that she’s now unemployed. Her train happens to pass by the house she once owned with her husband, Tom. Tom is now married to Anna and they live happily in what was once her home. Rachel’s train ride through London is often spent tipping a bottle back. Seeing her old home and sometimes even catching a glimpse of the other woman, is enough to make her drink and drink she does. So much so, that what she sees is often not remembered later.

That memory thing becomes a problem early on.

Yes. It. Does.

Rachel’s daily observances include a couple that she’s come to know as Jess and Jason, names she’s made up to give them substance. She watches them interacting on the balcony of their apartment, and she’s dreamed up a back story for them. But when Jess does something out of character for her, and then a crime is committed, Rachel takes it upon herself to investigate.

As you can imagine, things get out of hand. Rachel sticks her nose into their lives and in the process, ends up involving her ex-husband and his wife. Both, really want nothing to do with Rachel but out of obligation, aware of Rachel’s raging alcoholism, Tom tries to look out for her when he can, which infuriates Anna.

Tension mounts as the story unfolds and when you get to those last few chapters, you can’t help but turn the kids away, let your dinner burn, etc. The ending needs to be read uninterrupted. Don’t tell me that I didn’t warn you.

But, honestly, Rachel’s antics were a little tiring. Just when I started to grow bored with her, some critical piece of info would surface and then I’d be flipping pages again. I suppose that’s a sign of true suspense because there was no way I was going to put the book down. I knew that from the start. Does it deserve the hype? Yes, I think so. If you pick it up for pure fun, you will enjoy it quite a bit. If you pick it apart and compare it to other books, you might find fault with some of it but really, who has the time for that?

Read it, because it’s fun and it’s a great distraction from all the crap going on in the world today.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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