Jessica Mesquita Mesquita itibaren Gmina Narewka itibaren Gmina Narewka

His masterpiece, I'm sure. McEwan does characters like nobody else. A guy book.

On a hot and crowded train, strangers are jammed against each other. Helen is on her way to see her sister to tell her an awful secret, while Kerm is on his way home from his grandfather’s funeral. Noisy school kids and students fill the train and three of them in particular are about to cause a whole load of trouble. Helen and Kerm have never met before, but they are about to get thrown together in a way they never expected. I picked up Strangers on the 16:02 because I often wonder about other passengers when I’m on a train. Sometimes total strangers strike up conversations and you can almost learn their life history if the journey is long enough. Sometimes it’s the book they’re reading that gains my attention. Other times I just look at somebody and wander what their story is. So I thought Strangers on the 16:02 would be an interesting read. The story follows three of the passengers in particular, bringing them into each other’s lives. Each one not realising that this train journey won’t be an ordinary one. We get to know some background of the main characters, of what leads them to be on that particular train. The ending left me wondering what happened next. I found it slightly irritating, but then thinking back you don’t know what happens to people once they get off the train and carry on with their lives, do you? Still, I thought the story could have been wrapped up a little better, but that could be just me wanting more. Despite the ending, I did enjoy this book. The suspense builds up though-out the short book and culminates in the scene at the end. Throughout the train journey, you almost feel like you’re in the train observing the passengers, though I’m quite glad I wasn’t on that particular train! The idea of Quick Reads books is that they are quick, fast-paced and easy to read. This makes them suitable for people who don’t read much for whatever reason (whether they have difficulty reading, don’t have the time or would just like to get back into reading but don’t know where to start). Quick Reads books are also inexpensive at just £1.99 each. Something I noticed with these Quick Read books is that the text in them is slightly larger than that of most novels. This is definitely a good thing and useful for those who are either not use to reading or who have difficulties reading. Obviously, I’m probably not the type of person who these books are aimed at, but I liked the idea and thought I could squeeze one into my reading schedule (and I did with ease). Would I pick up another Quick Reads book? Definitely! Even famous authors such as Ian Rankin, James Patterson and Val McDermid have written Quick Reads books, as well as celebrities such as Rolf Harris and Gordon Ramsey. So there’s plenty to choose from!