The Christmas Train



by David Baldacci




Genre: fictionalChristmas novel



Have you ever met a person so determined and ready for adventure? That he starts a trip that starts in Washington D.C and ends in L.A., well that one person may just be Tom. He is a journalist that is trying to write a story of the train. But on the train he encounters many passenger's feelings and events that help him out in writing. But as well try helping him out with his personality, because Tom seems very careless around people that want helping him out and the ones who care about him. He is also a person that has been heart broken various times. When he's involved in a relationship he falls deep in love and when it doesn't work out he doesn't recover so fast. Eleanor is another character in this “magical” train and coincidently ends up on the same train, and is Tom's last love. Neither truly wants to share their feelings with each other, would it be because they still like each one another. The Christmas Train is a Christmas novel full of surprises and a book that any young adult will enjoy reading.


The Christmas Train is filled with the seasonal “Christmas spirit”. In some of the events in the book it sometimes seems as if the train was a person that made the events happen to add up to the “Christmas spirit” in the atmosphere in the train. My favorite quote in the book was when Tom was talking to an elderly priest and he replied. “Well, you picked the right subject to write about. I've taken many a train in my time, and they're always full of surprises.'' The author does a good job presenting the characters personalities because the carelessness of Tom impacted me so much even by just reading the book and not seeing the events happen. For example when Tom doesn't really listen to the passengers that are trying to help him realize that family is the most important thing or at least it should in his life. Almost as if he didn't want to share his feelings with others


There are many books trying to capture readers' attention when talking about family, and love but don't really send the message out in the text. But David Baldacci does a great job on getting it through. By describing the characters personalities and showing, of course the setting it makes reading the book a better experience. But in the first half of the book not many events show up it's mostly just the characters that are mentioned. What leaves the reader thinking about through out the book is if Tom's personality is ever going to change by the learning's of the train's events.

Finally this book is full of events that will capture anybody's heart with love and the “Christmas spirit''. David Baldacci's the Christmas Train is fascinating book for anybody who loves a unique Christmas Story .