Oh man, oh man. This book really creeps up on a person. I had heard good things from friends and it won a 2015 GoodReads award for Best Thriller so I shouldn't have been surprised. It was a little slow going at first and the only thing that kept me going is the fact that the library waiting list was 10 months long. But it gets to a point where you can't put it down, so not all was lost.
Rachel is an alcoholic who suffers from blackouts. She has been having a rough couple of years. Her husband has left her for another woman and they had a baby she desperately wanted. She's living with a roommate that hates her drinking. And even though Rachel lost her job, she still takes the train into the city everyday so the roommate doesn't kick her out of the house. She is obsessed with her ex and often makes drunken phone calls, shows up at their house, etc. Her daily ritual on the train is to look at the houses in the old neighbourhood and make up fantasies about the couple living a few doors down from her old house. Something bad happens and fantasy wife with the perfect marriage goes missing. Rachel knows something about that night but her blackouts make her memory spotty and untrustworthy. The cops don't take her seriously and all she wants is a drink, back together with her ex-husband, a baby, and another drink again.
So, I think the reason I found it slow going at the first was because I didn't find these characters very likeable. I could empathize with what Rachel and Megan were going through but it takes almost the whole book to really understand who these people are. Once you get there, it is totally worth it.
So I guess it was a good thing that I had to wait 10 months to check this one out of the library.
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