GONE GIRL VS.
GIRL ON THE TRAIN
A Fair
Comparison?
When I finished reading Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins
and left my review on Amazon.com, I noticed how many people had compared it to
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. Until then, I hadn’t been aware of the critical
buzz concerning their similarities.
I enjoyed both books. Suspense is
what I read almost exclusively, and I read both books eagerly. I read Girl on
the Train nearly a year after reading Gone Girl, but only months after seeing
the movie of Gone Girl. Did I make a mental comparison between them? I did, but
only as far as recognizing that both books had a central theme of a missing
woman.
That similarity in theme, for me, in
no way detracted from my enjoyment of the book I read second, Girl on the
Train, so the negativity with which they were compared surprised me.
Let’s be honest. If you are a constant
reader of suspense like I am, you know that the old saying about new ideas
holds true. Mark Twain said it best:
There is no such thing
as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them
into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and
curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations
indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been
in use through all the ages.
Each book
dealt with the idea of a woman missing in a new and unique way. The creativity
of the authors is what kept both books on the bestseller list for so long. Girl on the Train’s huge success is
proof of Twain’s literary wisdom.
What
we can learn from this as authors.
1.
Don’t be afraid to use an old, established plot
if you like, but Develop a new,
creative twist, remembering Mark Twain’s mental kaleidoscope.
2.
Timing
Two things: A new book can
ride the wave of an earlier, successful one, as Girl on the Train did, and that
can be sales magic. But publish too soon and your book could drown in that
wave. Best to hold off until the other book has died down in popularity.
3.
Characters
are everything To pull off
a book like Girl on the Train, the characters have to be new and unique,
nothing like the ones from the predecessor. It is our characters that make or
break a book’s popularity, and interesting characters are even more vital when
writing a book with a popular theme.
4. Title While both titles include
the word, girl, each is unique and catchy. I loved the title, Girl on the Train. The title alone made
me curious about what was inside.
So the title too, by having a similarity, put the book on the popularity
wave. Take time to think of a catchy title.
My only complaint about these two
books, (and my issue really isn’t about them), is
whenever a book (or a movie!) gets such lavish praise as
these two did, by the time I got around to reading them, it was impossible not
to be somewhat disappointed. Nothing could have lived up to all the hoopla
surrounding them. Does that mean too much publicity be a bad thing? I would
love to have that problem for my next book!
Dear Readers,
There have been a lot of good suspense books out lately. So
much that reading is distracting me from my writing. I probably need to set a
timer when I read, but I excuse my literary distraction by telling myself how
much I’m learning when I read!
Keep writing, reading, and have a wonderful end of summer.
Marla
