Thanks to NetGalley for the free advance copy of The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue in exchange for an honest review. It’s out now, so you can - and should - get it!

The Paris Express, a terrific work of historical fiction - takes place over one 7.5-hour train ride that actually occurred on October 22, 1895. The novel begins just before the train pulls out of the station at 8:30 am from Granville, on the Normandy coast, bound for Paris. On board in the first, second and third class carriages are the passengers from all walks of life that anyone might encounter on such a journey - but one of them is not what they seem, and the journey holds unknown dangers for all on board - including the crew, who must keep the train running on time at all costs.

In my opinion, this is Donoghue’s best novel since her iconic “Room.” With a great cast of characters, propulsive speed and meticulous timing, especially during the last critical leg of the journey, I stayed up way past my bedtime racing to the finish.

Five stars.

This is not your average “strangers on a train” story.

Set over the course of a single train ride in 1910, The Paris Express delivers a story that feels like a locked-room mystery without the murder. Donoghue traps us in a first-class carriage between two women with very different lives and one very big secret. What follows is a razor-sharp examination of class, deception, trauma, and the masks we wear—especially when we’re trying to survive.

At its heart is a tense conversation between an upper-class woman and a seemingly ordinary governess, but nothing is as it seems. The atmosphere is claustrophobic in the best way, building a slow-burn suspense with every stop.

The book max almost had too many characters and it was really hard to keep track of l everyone. It was really just a little slice of lice of the characters on the train, and I thought that many would die at the end but the train crashes and no one on the train dies. It felt a little anticlimactic.

This novel was not what I expected. I didn’t enjoy this as much as previous books by Donoghue. The Paris Express what maybe happened during this tragic and disastrous train accident in Paris, but it never quite grabbed me, I felt like some was missing. Ultimately a well written book, just not for me..

This cast of characters was so rich! The way their lives were woven together was so rewarding, weaving in and out of the carriages and railway staff. The pacing was relentless, but not aggressive; I could feel it building and building and the last 20 pages were excellent!

Unfortunately, this wasn't a great read for me. I appreciate the time and effort Donoghue put into the research for this book; however, I generally found it a touch uninteresting.

What Donoghue does well is take the events of one day and transform it into enough dialogue and detail to fill an entire book. There are enough characters and plot lines to keep the story moving, though each chapter only comprises a few hours at most.

Still, I didn't fully feel that the events of the novel necessarily warranted an entire novel. There's a decent amount of suspense and build-up throughout the story, yet the ending felt anticlimactic and disappointing.

Finally, there were several passages and scenes that felt either too graphic (a descriptive sexual encounter), or simply uninteresting (lengthy descriptions of the mechanics of the train).

1.5 rounded up

This review and rating pain me to write, as I’ve loved the three other Donoghue books I’ve read deeply (Room, The Wonder, and The Pull of the Stars.) I rated those past books 4-5⭐️s and they live rent free in my brain. I was so excited for this advanced read from NetGalley but unfortunately, it was such a slog for me.

Based on the real life photographed train crash in 1865, Donoghue casts a wide net of characters that she places on the journey from Granville to Paris. Some were historically real humans who were not on this train, others were. All different ethnicities, classes, and genders experiencing this horrific crash together.

There were too many characters for me to keep track of or even care about. Donoghue did a ton of historical research and the way she highlights racism, classism, and antisemitism is effective. But I think this novel was too ambitious in scope. I kept thinking how the structure of another historical fiction novel about a tragedy that I read last year was way more impactful for me (The House is On Fire by Rachel Beanland.) The blurbs of this book call it “thrilling” and “propulsive”, but I completely disagree sadly. I found this glacially paced! I found the Author’s Note at the end of the book documenting who was real vs fictional more fascinating than the novel itself. 😬

✨Content Warnings: Pregnancy, Sexual Content, Death, Medical Content, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Homophobia, Racism, Child Death, Antisemitism, Suicidal Thoughts

✨Themes: Social Inequality, Politics, Fate

✨You May Like This If You Enjoyed:
🫠

This historical fiction was a miss for me. I enjoyed the tension of the story, but the characters did not captivate me at all. I felt the structure was a good idea, but the characters did not have the amount of depth, nor did I care about any of them in the end. It was just an okay read for me.

Very interesting book. I like how they talked about different classes and how the train was going through to Paris. And they talked about different stops in different times and it was interesting because it gave a picture. How the train was gonna ride in Paris. Everybody had a story to tell on this train. It was a very interesting book. Because it showed you how people reacted to different things in this book. Great book

What a fascinating group of characters! So many stories and interesting backgrounds. Enjoyed the characterizations, and discovering the final resolution.

Let me start by saying that I loved the premise of the book, and found it started out well. Unfortunately, pretty immediately, The Paris Express became unexciting and monotonous. The descriptions of what it was like on the train, during the period, were very interesting but became too lengthy and too numerous. I loved the explanation of the segregation process of the different cars and how they were filled with passengers. For example, "Third class is always placed at the front of the train as so as to catch the brunt of the coal dust and of course so that in the event of a head-on collision, those in the cheap seats will do their duty of getting crushed before their betters." Hearing about how VIP's actually waited at the side of the tracks for their personalized, glamorous, railroad cars to be attached (to separate themselves from the lower classes) was a wild discovery. How privileged those individuals were to expect the staff to hook their private car to the middle of the train with blatant disregard to the train's timetable. The onboard environment really had its own societal structure, encompassed by its own class hierarchy. The conversations between the passengers were also an inside look into societal norms of the time. The reader learned how immigrants were viewed, how education and beauty were esteemed, and how unwed mothers and unmarried women were looked down upon. I loved the "human coffee pot" and how that description created a beautifully crafted picture in my mind of how patrons drank from the coffee Pedlar's machine during the ride. Unfortunately, although there were glimmers of positivity, my overwhelming feelings were not so favorable.

The story became too crowded with simultaneous timelines from too many different characters. I don't enjoy feeling like I must take notes to keep characters and sub-story lines straight in my head. It became too much work. Usually, I really enjoy a historical fiction novel, especially when based on true events, but this one missed the mark for me.

Thank you, Net Galley and Summit Books for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a locked room setting like a train for a book like this, and Donoghue successfully pulls it off. The characters were weird and memorable, but you do need to care a bit about trains!

This character study and suspense-filled slice of life was a page-turner of an historical novel.

I found that I needed to be alert to a very large cast of characters….perhaps a few more than I usually juggle in one novel. But, this was an interesting snapshot in time….the entire book takes place on one day’s train journey. The writing was almost cinematic, and the story would make a great film.

This historical fiction novel is based on an actual train disaster that happened in 1895 at a Paris rail station. The event is infamous in that there was only one casualty and for the incredible pictures captured by a lucky photographer who happened to be onsite. The photos depict the engine of the train hanging out of an upper level of the station after derailing and crashing through the station.
While I enjoy historical fiction based on events that I know little about (I have never heard of this event), I found this book to be mostly dry and boring. I do appreciate all the research done by the author and this is described in her author’s notes at the end. Most of the characters were actual people on the train and she embellished their stories but I thought that there were just too many characters and none of them could be developed well. The possibility of a bomb onboard, even though there was never evidence of this, made the story a little more interesting but overall, the book just jumped around too much to be engaging. The writing style was not for me.

Excellent descriptions of life back then. The pacing seems to be off; it took me a while to read. Thsnks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

The Paris Express
By Emma Donoghue

I am a fan of Donoghue's books. I like her writing style and the subjects she writes about. This book, based on a true story about a train wreck in Montparnasse, France on October 22, 1895, while interesting, is not one of her best.

The author spends a large portion of the book introducing a large cast of characters who have little in common other than being on this train. We meet everyone from the driver to the various train employees; a Russian émigré; a young girl planning on blowing up the train; a woman who is due to give birth imminently, hoping to arrive in Paris before the birth; a 7 year old boy traveling alone who falls asleep and misses his stop; various upper class travelers and deputies traveling to Paris to rejoin the government; and others too many to keep straight.

Additionally there are a number of plot lines which add to the sense of confusion and seem unnecessary. For example a male-male encounter in the bathroom at a stopover seems superfluous to the story.

Thus I would say that I was somewhat disappointed with this book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for his ARC.

"The Paris Express" races along on finely built tracks, but the narrative train is overstuffed and by the time it derails you may find yourself wondering if anyone ever punched your ticket. I'm a huge fan of Emma Donoghue's writing, and she has a great approach to historical fiction in general. This book, however, is trying to do too many things at once. It focuses on a well-known 1895 train derailment at Montparnasse and visits with numerous passengers as the express train barrels toward its destination. Unfortunately, there are so very many narratives happening that you never feel fully invested in any of them.

A sweeping historical novel about an infamous 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station.

Donoghue is one of my favorite writers and she doesn't disappoint..

Based on an historical disaster in 1895 that went down in history, The Paris Express is a captivating read and the interconnected cast of characters perfectly captured with great detail. Well done.

Take a deep dive into train travel during the late 1800s, the Montparnasse train derailment, and French anacrchists with Emma Donoghue's newest historical fiction. Great characters from all walks of life but the sheer number of characters can sometimes get confusing - a full list and desription of each character at the front of the book could be helpful.