Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book is so unlike Hitchcock, I can't believe a reviewer alluded to this great man. Don't get sucked in by the reviews calling this book, a Gone Girl-esque book! This is what sucked me in , and boy was I disappointed. A full cast of sad, loser-y people you'd never want to know, much less read about. There wasn't one female character that was redeeming, unless Rachel's "roommate" counts. Cathy wasn't even really part of the story. She only gave Rachel a place to call home, and provide some uncomfortable moments. As a friend, she was barely that. As for the male characters, they were even more reprehensible. The plot, such as it is, concerns Rachel, recently divorced. She is still obsessed by her ex, his new wife and child, and her old home and neighborhood. She is also becoming or is an alcoholic. Her ex-husband totally screwed her by sleeping with another woman and then dumping her. She is now nearly homeless, and also jobless. She spends her days riding the train past her old home and neighborhood, pretending to her roommate, Cathy, to be going to work and back. This is where she sees something helpful to A recent murder of a young woman. Sounds interesting, right? Wrong. You just keep reading about Rachel's sad, depressing life . Apparently, she blacks out a lot drinking while revisiting her ex, his new wife and her old neighborhood. This happens again and again and again. Her obsession with her ex and his life is so pathetic and annoying that you just want to shake the woman. I mean why would anyone put themselves through this agony day after day? Does she have no real friends or family to turn to who care for her? She knows everything she is doing is wrong, and wants to stop but somehow is totally unable to. Fast forward to drunken nights with a stranger, drunken sleeping with barely know men, riding the train yet again and then finally piecing together a murder she vaguely remembers. Hardly Hitchcockian or even Gone Girl-esque, or even suspenseful. Worse, is that every person she knows in this book is terrible. Mean, petty, uncaring rude,self-involved are the adjectives for all the characters in this book. Rachel herself basically is the punching bag for all those involved in or out of the murder storyline. I won't tell you the "surprise" ending of who the murderer is, but despite the neatly wrapped up ending, it is very unsatisfying.