Paula Hawkins wrote The Girl on the Train over the course of six months in 2014. Hawkins, an Oxford-educated journalist and writer, drew on her experience as a reporter in London to structure the novel and describe its locations. Drawing immediate comparisons to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Girl on the Train had similar performance, debuting at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2015, and remaining there for 13 consecutive weeks. However, Hawkins’s novel reverses the power imbalance of Gone Girl by centering on the point of view of women. The novel was adapted into two movies: first in 2016 by DreamWorks in English, and then again in 2021 by Reliance Entertainment in Hindi. This guide cites the Riverhead (an imprint of Penguin Random House) 2016 trade paperback edition of the novel.

The Girl on the Train thematically explores the impact of trauma and substance use disorders on memory; the desire for a different life in a suburban dystopia; and the way abusive men pit women against each other.

Content Warning: The source material contains descriptions of emotional and physical abuse, alcohol use disorder, racism, and infanticide. This type of content appears in most chapters and is discussed in most of the analysis included in this guide.

Plot Summary

The Girl on the Train moves between three point-of-view narrators: Rachel Watson, Megan Hipwell, and Anna Watson. Rachel’s narration begins in 2013 as she commutes on the train into London from the suburbs. Despite having lost her job in public relations due to her alcohol use disorder, Rachel continues to take the trains she used to ride and fantasizes about the neighbors of her ex-husband, Tom Watson. Tom, his new wife (Anna), and their baby live near Megan and Scott Hipwell. After fantasizing about their happy life, Rachel is upset when she sees Megan kiss a man other than Scott (who turns out to be her therapist, Dr. Kamal Abdic) on her terrace that faces the train. Rachel drinks heavily and blacks out that night.

Rachel spends much of the novel trying to recall the events of the night Megan was murdered. This quest is interrupted by many moments of recalling her marriage with Tom. When they learned she was infertile, Rachel began abusing alcohol. Tom exploited this weakness and planted false memories about the times Rachel blacked out from drinking. He manipulated her into believing she was violent and cruel. Only at the end of the novel, through a long process involving freewriting, therapy, attempting to be addiction-free, visiting locations she was at while drunk, and talking to other people who witnessed her actions while drunk, does Rachel recover her memories. Memories of Tom abusing her during their marriage are uncovered alongside memories of Tom hitting her before getting into a car with Megan the night of her murder.

Megan’s perspective, starting about a year before Rachel’s into 2012, also juxtaposes the past and the present. While working as a nanny for Tom and Anna, Megan begins having an affair with Tom. After a year of sleeping together, Megan becomes pregnant with his child. Megan’s emotionally abusive husband, Scott, becomes physically abusive when she tells him about the affair.

Before Tom murders Megan, she works with a therapist, Kamal. In her sessions with Kamal, as well as in moments of private reverie, Megan recalls the death of her brother, accidentally becoming a teenage mother, accidentally killing her first child, and how the baby’s father abandoned her. Megan decides she wants to try again at being a mother and keep Tom’s baby. While Megan attempts to have an affair with Kamal, he only kisses her. When Tom tells Megan to get an abortion, she becomes angry and aggressive, and he responds by killing her.

During Megan’s murder investigation, Rachel visits Scott to tell him about seeing Megan kiss Kamal. One night, they get drunk together and have sex. When Scott learns that Rachel lied about knowing Megan from her old art gallery, he becomes aggressive and locks her in a room. After releasing her, Scott doesn’t speak to Rachel again, even when she tries to apologize.

Meanwhile, Anna offers a different perspective of the same time periods as Rachel. She thinks about her past as Tom’s mistress and how she stole him away from Rachel. However, motherhood is not what Anna expected, and Rachel’s continued presence in Tom’s life upsets Anna. She initially believes Rachel might have killed Megan and thinks Tom cheats on her with Rachel. However, she discovers Megan’s phone in Tom’s gym bag, which reveals their affair.

When Rachel tells Anna that Tom killed Megan, Anna sides with Tom, as he is holding their baby. Tom nearly kills Rachel, and Anna does not try to stop him. However, once he gives her the baby back, Anna prepares to call the police. Rachel, in self-defense, stabs Tom in the neck with a corkscrew. Anna ensures that the corkscrew goes in deep enough for him to die and then tells the authorities that Rachel killed Tom in self-defense. The police, after suspecting both Kamal and Scott in Megan’s murder, accept that Tom is the murderer and Rachel is free to go.

The novel ends with Rachel, sober, taking a trip to the beach, as Megan had dreamed of doing, and traveling north on a train.