A review by yvo_about_books
Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith

2.0

Finished reading: August 14th 2021

“Death was only one more adventure untried.”

Spoiler

Guess what? It's unpopular opinion time again! Sigh. I've been meaning to read Strangers On A Train for quite some time now, as it's been referred to in a lot of stories, TV series as well as movies. The plot was already spoiled thanks to this, but I was still curious to see how the original story would unfold. I had high hopes for Strangers On A Train, thinking it would be right up my alley as I love murder mysteries and I've always liked the sound of the plot. Things started out promising enough, with the two characters meeting and the things leading up to the first murder. True, even then I thought things were to elaborated and wordy, and I was getting tired fast of the endless descriptions and thoughts of both Bruno and Guy... But things really went downhill after the first murder. Bruno is basically an alcoholic psychopath and the author does portray this really well, but I got bored of his endless ravings and increasing 'psychopathness' fast. The same goes for Guy; I really couldn't be bothered to read the endless details about what happened after the murder, his daily life and psychological decline as Bruno keeps insisting his part of the deal (that was never a deal in the first place as Guy never said yes). I confess that I started skimreading well before I reached the halfway mark, and I ended up being considerably underwhelmed by this classic. Definitely not one for me! Oh well, at least I can stop wondering about it now.

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