Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Woman in the Window

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

74 reviews

keijiwolf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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zoemain's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

The plot twists were phenomenal… but was it worth how slow the book was? I kid you not, only 4-5 events take place in this book and the first one is on page 126. Up until then, and between each event, the book was so dire. It was simply Anna drinking wine, having the most bland conversations, exercising, watching movies and playing chess for about 75% of the book.

A couple other things I didn’t like: the constant movie quoting, the huge deal that was made out of an earring on David’s (Anna’s tenant) nightstand that ended up being forgotten about and having no meaning, Anna being rude and suspicious of David when it was uncalled for, how slowly Anna took action, how Anna didn’t check her photos for evidence sooner and how Anna’s agoraphobia seemed to turn off every time it was be convenient for the author for her to go outside. Oh, and the dramatic, far-fetched fight at the end of the novel was ridiculous.

I can put all of the previous paragraph’s listed annoyances aside, but I won’t recommend this to a friend solely because of the snail pacing.

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ksomers's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If you like this genre this book will probably be a 5/5 for you! I liked that the plot twists had enough clues sprinkled throughout the book that helped keep suspense without giving the ending away AND without the plot twists feeling unbelievable.

I felt like the female detective and the psychiatrists actions don’t totally make sense to me. The main character was suspected of having a very serious episode of hallucinations and the psychiatrist did very little to intervene. He can’t exactly just show up on her door step and he had left multiple messages but she could have been suspected as a danger to herself or her neighbors and it didn’t seem to be taken seriously enough by the police or her psychiatrist. The police brought the neighbors into the house to talk with Anna but not the psychiatrist? Also the female officer kind of felt like she was there to exist but didn’t act as though she cared about the situation. She actually came off annoyed that this woman either witnessed a murder OR was having a psychiatric episode. The officer would need to believe one or the other but I have a hard time believing that she would think that Anna is making it up for fun? Which is how her character read which didn’t make sense to me.

I loved the film scenes being used throughout the book - it built tension and echoed some of Anna’s suspicions and fears.

I wish we saw more of Alistair deteriorating after Ethan kills his mom. we only really saw him get violent with Anna once in desperation and then Anna mentions him drinking a beer on the couch. I would have liked to see more of that through Anna’s eyes watching the house but also that’s hard because we only have her point of view so I’m not sure if there would’ve been a believable way to do more than what AJ Finn did.

Definitely would recommend this book ESPECIALLY if you’re in a reading slump! I couldn’t put it down.

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grave_liminal's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Would have been rated higher, around 3 stars, however, the author is a disgusting person. Many people have dropped their ratings on his actions alone. However, the storyline for the book is practically stolen from a movie titled Rear Window. If you are unfamiliar with old films, you will miss out on a lot of references and they get old after a while.

For a 430 paged book, the true tense thrill didn’t start until around chapter 92 (roughly about 50 pages until the end) out of 100 chapters. This entire book focuses on the main character’s grief, denial, and severely irresponsible drinking problem. This book is also almost entirely single-location based on the character’s agoraphobia. While the book itself can keep you wondering who’s the murderer, some find it predictable. I also found myself being correct about most of the plot twists. The action in the story is very minimal and slow paced. If it weren’t for wanting to know who the killer was, I would have DNFed it for the pure waste of half the book.

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