Review: The Girl who Reads on the Metro - Christine Feret-Fleury

Review: The Girl who Reads on the Metro - Christine Feret-Fleury - October 2019

After four DNF's I needed a book to read as nothing seemed to be keeping my attention. The title of this book attracted me to it. I loved the title as I am the type of girl who you would find reading on public transport. The book is set in France where we meet Juliette whom catches the Metro every morning to work and on her way observes people and what they are reading and she likes to make stories up about the people she sees in accordance to the books they are reading from the old woman reading a cookbook - she was a famous chef when she was younger. Juliette is in a dead-end job working as a real estate agent in a small company. On her way to work one morning, she spots a little girl running about and she follows her to a second-hand bookshop. It is in the bookshop, she meets the owner Soliman and his daughter Zadie and learns about the art of being a "passuer". Passing books onto strangers, but in a way by watching them first and then finding the perfect book to suit them. As the book goes along, Juliette eventually quits her job but not before leaving the staff with a book of their own and moving in with Soliman to help him with the shop. Several tragedies happen throughout this book and it does have a heavy Suicide aspect to the novel. I have classified this book as a women's fiction as it was very difficult to pinpoint a genre for the book as it's not really romantic or suspenseful. It definitely is a book that you will have to read with an open mind and perfect if you are a book lover yourself as it touches on that extra mile of matching people with perfect books which is something that is a passion of my own which made me love the book. I also really identified myself in Juliette as I am sure many other bookworms who read this story will find themselves either a Juliette or a Soliman. The Girl who Reads on the Metro was definitely written with that European feel to the novel as well, very much like the arty/festival films that they produce.