The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins
★ Top 25 book of 2014 · #22 on Best Books of 2014
On her daily commute, Rachel watches a seemingly perfect couple from the train window, until she witnesses something shocking. She shares it with the police and becomes tangled in the lives of everyone involved in this debut psychological thriller.
Best for: Thriller fans who enjoy psychological suspense and Hitchcock-style tension
The Girl on the Train is #22 on BookWard's Best Books of 2014, out of 66 2014 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Girl on the Train is about
Every morning, Rachel rides the same commuter train, and every morning it halts at a signal beside a row of comfortable suburban houses. From her seat she watches one couple eating breakfast on their deck. She has named them Jess and Jason, and she feels she knows them. To her their life looks perfect, a lot like the one she recently lost. Then, in the single minute the train stands still, she sees something shocking. She goes to the police with what she knows and finds herself tangled in events and in the lives of everyone involved. Paula Hawkins's 2014 debut is a tense, dark psychological thriller that asks whether Rachel has helped or harmed.
The Girl on the Train on the Best Books of 2014
The Girl on the Train came out in 2014. Of the 66 books first published in 2014 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #22 on our Best Books of 2014 list.
Why it made the list: 832 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.6 out of 5 (97 ratings); 60 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2014 list
- The Obstacle Is the Way Ryan Holiday, #20
- Everblaze Shannon Messenger, #21
- We Should All Be Feminists Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #23
- Maybe Someday Colleen Hoover, #24
See all Best Books of 2014 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2013 Best Books of 2015.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 635 want to read it, 60 are reading it now and 137 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.6 out of 5 from 97 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 80 | 55% |
| Reader love | 6 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 85 | 20% |
Questions about The Girl on the Train
When was The Girl on the Train published?
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was first published in 2014.
Was The Girl on the Train one of the best books of 2014?
The Girl on the Train is #22 on BookWard's Best Books of 2014, out of 66 2014 books that cleared our data bar. 832 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.6 out of 5 (97 ratings); 60 are reading it right now.
Why is The Girl on the Train on the Best Books of 2014 list?
832 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.6 out of 5 (97 ratings); 60 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2014
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before Jenny Han, #1
- The Long Haul Jeff Kinney, #2
- Surrounded by Idiots Thomas Erikson, #3
- Zero to One Peter A. Thiel, #4
- After (After Series, Book 1) Anna Todd, #5
- All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr, #6
See the full Best Books of 2014, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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