The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

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“I love ports. I love the smell of tar and sea air, and the scream of the gulls. Maybe it's years of taking the ferry to France for summer holidays, but a harbour gives me a feeling of freedom in a way that an airport never does. Airports say work and security checks and delays. Ports say... I don't know. Something completely different. Escape, maybe.”

I was very excited to read this book as I had heard that it was very much like The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The main character, Lo Blacklock, is very much like the main character in The Girl on the Train. Highly anxious, dealing with depression and attached at the hip to anything containing liquor, she finds herself on a Scandinavian cruise ship after a traumatic event a week before. She’s meant to take the cruise and review it for the paper she works for, but her trip soon turns into a somewhat lackluster who-done-it mystery.

Honestly, I was bored. I had to force myself through it and I kept getting annoying with Lo, who couldn’t quite think clearly at any given moment. I even tried to put myself in her shoes, but I still wouldn’t have gone about some things the way she did. I found it hard to relate to the main character and so it was tedious to deal with her throughout the novel.

The surrounding characters weren’t very memorable. The writing itself was okay. I found the execution and reveal that Paula Hawkins presented in her debut novel was much more invigorating and thrilling than anything in The Woman in Cabin 10. Overall, I’m glad I finally read it, but I won’t be keeping it on my bookshelf for long.

What’s next? I’ll be reading and reviewing Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere...stay tuned!