The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

★★★★

"The holes in your life are permanent.  You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps."

Rachel is in her late twenties and her life has taken a turn for the worst.  Recently divorced, she has taken to heavy drinking and now lives with an old friend from college.  Rachel lost her job, but still takes the train into the city everyday so that her roommate won’t know that she is out of work.  Everyday, she takes the same train route and sees “Jess and Jason” having breakfast on their porch.  Rachel has made up names for the couple and sees them as having the “perfect life.”  Only a few doors down lives her ex-husband, Tom, with his new wife and daughter.  One day, Rachel sees “Jess” kissing a man on her porch that isn’t her husband and it is soon reported that she has gone missing.  Rachel soon learns that “Jess and Jason” are really Megan and Scott.  Wanting to help the police find Megan, she reports what she saw and finds herself suddenly involved with their lives.   

            As the search for Megan continues, flashbacks show that her life and marriage to Scott were not as perfect as them seemed.  Tom’s wife Anna also plays a part in the story when the police find out that Megan had previously helped out with babysitting their daughter.  Rachel learns that the lives of herself and the other two women are more connected than she had realized.  When Megan turns up dead, Rachel is determined to help Scott figure out who the murder is.  The more tangled up that Rachel gets in the investigation, the more secrets she learns about Megan’s past life.  But, Rachel’s drinking problem often causes her to forget things and she is far from a reliable source.  She may know something about the murder, but the police (and readers) question whether or not they can trust her.

I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t put it down.  It had a rapid and intriguing storyline that kept my interest until the very last page.  Many reviews that I read of the book stated that the book was the “new Gone Girl.”  I read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn a few years ago and would have to agree: both books were compelling, suspenseful, and had wonderfully written characters that I hated and loved at the same time.  My only concern with the book (and the reason I gave it four stars out of five) was that the three voices of Rachel, Megan, and Anna felt too similar to me.  I sometimes found myself forgetting which narrator I was reading because they seemed too alike.

The Roald Dahl Treasury by Roald Dahl

★★★★★

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely place.  Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

"As I grow old and just a triffle frayed

It's nice to know that sometimes I have made

You children and occasionally the staff

Stop work and have instead a little laugh."

These stories are so much fun!  The treasury includes excerpts from novels as well as short stories, poems, recipes, and letters.  And the illustrations are wonderful as well.  I read a few of Roald Dahl's books when I was younger - Matilda and The Witches were my favorites.  I remember seeing this book when I was worked as a page at the Germantown Community Library, but I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing until now.  

We also read:

Revolting Rhymes (1982)

Dirty Beasts (1983)

Rhyme Stew (1989)

Vile Verses (2005)

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

★★★★

"Sometimes people are beautiful.

Not in looks.

Just in what they say.

Just in what they are."

"Maybe everyone can live beyond what they're capable of."

Ed Kennedy is a nineteen-year-old cabdriver with little ambition who spends his time playing cards, drinking coffee with his dog, and being madly in love with his best friend Audrey.  His life is uneventful until he stops a bank robbery.  Shortly after, he starts receiving playing cards in the mail that direct him to deliver messages to people in his town that he has never meet before.  As Ed makes his way through each of the messages, he does small things that make a big difference in the lives of those around him.  He meets a lot of wonderful and interesting people during this time, but is still no closer to figuring out who is sending him the messages.  With each message, Ed also learns a lot about himself and beings to make changes in his own life as well.

Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief remains one of my favorite young adults novels so I was excited to read this book as well!  It was very different, but I enjoyed I Am the Messenger.  I thought that the characters were very realistic and liked the series but comical writing style.  I felt that the storyline was a bit of a cliché, but I appreciated the unique way that the author developed the plot by introducing various characters that were chosen to receive Ed’s messages.  Each person that Ed helped not only got a message from him, but gave an important message to the reader as well.  The story was very complex and moved along fairly quickly.  

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

★★★

" 'What sexual preference do you hope she has?' 'Happiness - isn't that cool?' "

Weetzie Bat is a free-spirited young girl growing up in the late 1980s that doesn’t have very many friends at school until she meets Dirk. After Dirk tells Weetzie that he is gay, the two search for boyfriends, which they refer to as “ducks.”  When Weetzie fines a magic lamp, she makes three wishes that come true shortly after: a boyfriend for her named My Secret Agent Lover Man, a boyfriend for Dirk named Duck, and a house for them all to live in.  They are all happy together, but Weetzie wants a baby and My Secret Agent Lover Man objects and instead wants to focus on his career making movies.  Weetzie, Dirk, and Duck decide to all make a baby so they won’t know who the father is.  My Secret Agent Lover Man leaves after he learns of the plan and Weetzie gives birth to a baby girl that they name Cherokee.  A woman the group refers to as “Lanka witch” shows up with a baby that she claims is My Secret Agent Lover Man’s daughter.  The four friends name the girl Witch Baby and decide to raise her with Cherokee.

I read this book a few days ago and I still can’t decide what I think about it.  It was very different and disturbing at times, but the author wrote in an simple, but beautiful and engaging style.  I appreciated that the author was able to step outside of the normal comfort zone and write a book that did not follow traditional lifestyles of expectations of the characters.  I think that aspect that bothered me the most about this book was that the characters did not give any thought to life-changing decisions that they were making.  I kept thinking of how the four characters were going to be responsible, both financially and mentally, for raising two very small children.  It was a very unique book and I would recommend it to older readers with caution.