The girl on the train - anyone bored of this genre now?

[susannahmoodie]

I mean domestic psychological thriller with slightly unhinged female protagonist and inevitable "twist, "in the same ilk as Gone Girl, Before I Go to Sleep, Into the Darkest Corner, anything by Penny Hancock or Erin Kelly or Harriet Lane.....

has it had its day? Disclaimer, I haven't finished Girl on the Train yet so maybe it will improve but I'm just a bit bored??

Also given main character is 34 not sure Girl in title is appropriate? Or am I just a misery guts?

I liked it but you're right about the "girl" in the title.

I'm just glad the "cupcake" or "career girl from big city retreats to village idyll and finds her true self" genres are not as prolific now.

If there is a lot of hype about something I will occasionally buy them cheap on kindle for easy holiday reads, but I am invariably disappointed. I can't help feeling that all the best plot twists have been done now, so they are left with just the crap, unbelievably ridiculous ones now, and the books end up being formulaic and a bit dull.

I actually really enjoyed the girl on the train, though I do think all of the female protagonists came over as the same person. Also, Scot and Tom seem very similar in the end. I think the author needs to work on her characterisation. But I loved the book all the same. I also like Gone Girl (except for the flimsy ending), and loved before you go to sleep too.

I loved the train one until the ending which was really rubbish.

Yes. Bored to tear with the genre & the shite writing.

I really need to stop reading crap & get on with the long, long, list I have of better stuff.

Yes me too. The stuff I really enjoy and feel rewarded by reading is more historical and weighty....loved the signature of all things by Elizabeth Gilbert last yer for example.

I like those types of books. They are easy reads at the end of a busy day at work. I also loved The Signature of all Things. I like a mixture of different types of books.

only time ive ever asked for a refund on kindle! just not written well enough to warrant the day spent reading it. for me 'i let you go' was the better read and having read both in the same week i am now done with the genre. finished the Miniaturist this morning, much more satisfying. and i want the prose to be rich and beautiful, really didnt get that from Train.

Oh yes I loved the miniaturist too!

Nah, I love them.

They aren't wonderfully written but sometimes I just want a book I can escape in and makes me want to keep turning the pages to see what happens.

I like reading them after I have read a heavier book.

I enjoyed it read it quickly but will be avoiding this genre for a while too.

U2TheEdge

They aren't wonderfully written but sometimes I just want a book I can escape in and makes me want to keep turning the pages to see what happens.

Woah keyboard disappeared. What I meAnt to type was agree with u2 that the storyline, to me, is more important than the prose. I want something to happen rather than page after page of a description of a sunset which is supposed to represent the protagonist's inner turmoil. I realised this about three weeks into my degree in English! I thought Romanticism would be the end of me - fucking torture!

Completely agree! I can't be doing with pages and pages of description and purple prose. Give me a fast moving storyline any day.

Sometimes it is nice to read an easy book. Thought Girl on a Train, good and easy to read, did not want to put it down though. Loved Before you go to Sleep. Thought Gone Girl was too much hype and predictable.

I do want to read all the Bronte sisters this year, keep getting distracted by easy to read hyped novels. I must focus and chose my first Bronte, or shall I re read Tess of the D'Urbevilles?

I haven't read this one but expect I will. I love a nice page-turner and just enjoy the entertainment.

I have just read I Let you Go and Girl on a Train in one week. I agree that I Let You Go is the better written book, though both were entertaining and had that easy-read, want to see what-happens-next quality.

I've got to say though that Girl on a Train was very predictable and I am getting a bit sick of these types of books where the women are all pathetic, weak and abused by the men, who are all bully-boy violent weirdos of one description or another. And as someone else said, the characters merged into one and there just seemed to be one template. Men = abusive bullies, women = pathetic, damaged, controlled by the men.

They are all getting a bit samey. and the trouble is I've read so many now that I'm expecting a major make-you-gasp twist at some stage so now I'm finding the twists are a let-down! Time to get stuck into another genre, I guess...but I have enjoyed them!

I just finished SJ Watson's Second Life. Follow-up to Before I go to Sleep. I have reviewed it on the 50 books challenge thread. Oh my goodness, if you are looking for unhinged female protagonist...... Makes the characters in Gine Girl and Train seem quite normal.

Thanks for this. I really loved Before I Go to Sleep so will Download Second Life.

I liked Girl on the Train.

Not so keen on The Ice Twins, which I've just finished and which seemed to be a bit 'shame the bad mother' throughout. And it had a really implausible explanation about what happened on a pivotal night in the events of the book that I just didn't believe in. I think the author had a few ideas about where to go and didn't know which to take, forgot where she'd gone with the book and so she floundered about a bit and it all went out of shape. She did still manage to do a good bit of mother-shaming though, she didn't forget that

I do like a good threatening, stalkerish, don't-know-who-to-trust book and I can be quite forgiving of the weaker bits if most of the book stands up. As someone else said, they are preferable to the cupcakes and career girls type of books that were all over the place just recently.