The Woman in the Window

A brief synopsis:

Dr. Anna Fox, a child psychologist, is agoraphobic. Separated from her husband, she lives alone in New York City, unable to leave her home. She spends her time watching classic films, drinking a lot of wine, playing chess online, and her favorite pastime, spying on her neighbors. When a new family moves in across the park from her, she becomes obsessed with them. While watching their house, she sees something terrible happen. But why does no one believe her?

What I enjoyed:

The first twist. I really didn't expect it. It was about three quarters through the book, and after finding it out, I couldn't stop reading until I got to the end. And that's why I got four hours of sleep last night, thank you very much, A.J. Finn. I am admittedly kind of a snob when it comes to mysteries or thrillers. Having grown up with Nancy Drew, then moved into Mary Higgins Clark stolen from my mom's collection, I now as an adult find mysteries and thrillers overwhelmingly predictable for the most part. Maybe it was because I was so tired when reading this, but I really didn't anticipate this one. I gasped and was so excited that I hadn't guessed it. It was kinda bizzare, which I loved. That was definitely, I think, the best part of the whole book.

Something I also really liked was the sneaky little Easter egg of the title itself. I didn't realize it until I was done reading it. But the protagonist, Anna, is a huge fan of classic black and white movies. They're talked about and quoted a ton in the book as Anna is always in the house and watching at least one a day. The Woman in the Window is also the title of a classic mystery film from 1944. :)

What I didn't enjoy:

The first three quarters of the book were slow. Not excruciatingly slow, but slow enough that I was like, “Can we please just get to the point?” There's a lot of lounging about the house, watching old movies, drinking wine. Like, lots of wine drinking. I'm unsure if the author was trying to show us how unreliable a narrator Anna was because she was drunk all the time and mixing it with pills, but I got that in the first few chapters. It was totally unnecessary to constantly talk about it for the entire rest of the book. It took away from the plot and was boring. (And also made me feel a little like the author thinks we're simpletons that are unable to latch on to a concept.)

I feel a little guilty saying this because maybe if I had read this one first, I would have liked it more, but this book was SO similar to The Girl on the Train that I was bored. It's SO similar, I was a little blown away. I actually just did a reread of Girl on the Train because my husband was reading it for the first time and it had been years since I read it so I read along with him. Because of that, it was very fresh in mind. Female narrator is unreliable because of alcoholism, sees something terrible happen, no one will believe her, she can't remember if it's real. Yikes. They're almost the exact same plot, y'all.

Recommend for:
Huge fans of The Girl on the Train that want to read more like it. Or someone who likes a light mystery but rarely reads them. I for sure do not recommend this to anyone who is an avid mystery reader. This is one that if you've read one, you've read them all.