You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Child death, Death
Minor: Child abuse, Rape
I've heard a lot about The Woman in the Window recently because of the adaptation (which I haven't seen) so the audiobook caught my interest when I was browsing. I've been listening to a lot of thrillers lately, so I picked this up to satisfy a craving and have a quick read. There were definitely some twists I wasn't expecting, and even though it took a while to get going, I was really hooked at the end.
The Woman in the Window is told from the point of view of Anna, who is agoraphobic and spends all her time inside. She has a habit of watching her neighbours from the window, and she quickly becomes invested in her new neighbours, the Russells. However, she sees something in her neighbour's house that she is not supposed to. After everyone questions what she saw, Anna soon has no idea about what is real, and what is imaginary. There are a lot of twists and turns along the way as Anna tries to figure out what happened.
Anna is definitely an unreliable narrator - she suffers from severe agoraphobia and is on a LOT of medication (the reason will be revealed) - and I find that it works really well for this book because you genuinely are in Anna's head. You don't know if her narration can be trusted, which makes it more exciting when the facts begin to come together. It also makes it easy for the other characters to discredit her word, which is important for the plot. There's a big emphasis on psychology - Anna is a psychologist, and also has mental illnesses of her own. As for the plot, I was really convinced it was going one way and then it didn't so I was definitely surprised!
I do think the plot was slow-paced at the beginning and it took a while to get going. A lot of it was repetitive, and I get that Anna's character and routine had to be developed, but I think it could have been done more quickly. Some parts of the plot were a bit obvious, but not everything. The whole "unreliable woman" who witnesses something bad seems to be pretty common in books, and I was reminded of The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Girl on the Train. The actual plot of this book I think is not as compelling, which is why even though I liked parts, I didn't fall in love with it. I have sort of conflicted feelings about the ending and I'm not really sure what I think to be honest.
So overall, I didn't completely love it, but there were a few twists I didn't see coming, and that is my favourite thing about thrillers because I love to be surprised. I enjoyed listening to the book, and I read it pretty quickly too, so it was just what I was expecting when I borrowed it. It was addictive, but I doubt I'll feel the need to think about it now I'm finished. The book contains content describing mental illness, taking medication, agoraphobia, alcoholism, drug use, anxiety, depression and death.
The Woman in the Window is told from the point of view of Anna, who is agoraphobic and spends all her time inside. She has a habit of watching her neighbours from the window, and she quickly becomes invested in her new neighbours, the Russells. However, she sees something in her neighbour's house that she is not supposed to. After everyone questions what she saw, Anna soon has no idea about what is real, and what is imaginary. There are a lot of twists and turns along the way as Anna tries to figure out what happened.
Anna is definitely an unreliable narrator - she suffers from severe agoraphobia and is on a LOT of medication (the reason will be revealed) - and I find that it works really well for this book because you genuinely are in Anna's head. You don't know if her narration can be trusted, which makes it more exciting when the facts begin to come together. It also makes it easy for the other characters to discredit her word, which is important for the plot. There's a big emphasis on psychology - Anna is a psychologist, and also has mental illnesses of her own. As for the plot, I was really convinced it was going one way and then it didn't so I was definitely surprised!
I do think the plot was slow-paced at the beginning and it took a while to get going. A lot of it was repetitive, and I get that Anna's character and routine had to be developed, but I think it could have been done more quickly. Some parts of the plot were a bit obvious, but not everything. The whole "unreliable woman" who witnesses something bad seems to be pretty common in books, and I was reminded of The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Girl on the Train. The actual plot of this book I think is not as compelling, which is why even though I liked parts, I didn't fall in love with it. I have sort of conflicted feelings about the ending and I'm not really sure what I think to be honest.
So overall, I didn't completely love it, but there were a few twists I didn't see coming, and that is my favourite thing about thrillers because I love to be surprised. I enjoyed listening to the book, and I read it pretty quickly too, so it was just what I was expecting when I borrowed it. It was addictive, but I doubt I'll feel the need to think about it now I'm finished. The book contains content describing mental illness, taking medication, agoraphobia, alcoholism, drug use, anxiety, depression and death.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Mental illness
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So. Slow. Paced. I couldn't get super into this book, and the action doesn't really start happening until the last couple chapters. It had a good mystery, but I wish it had picked up the pace. I had to force myself to finish it. I also despised the main character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident
Moderate: Child death
Gave up at 30%. Painfully boring with a very unlikeable narrator. I just could not get into this. I considered sticking it out since everyone else was saying the last 100 pages were incredible, but I looked up spoilers online and in my opinion, it’s very meh. Glad I didn’t try to trudge through 300 more pages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Alcohol
Moderate: Stalking, Car accident
Minor: Animal cruelty, Vomit
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is currently my favorite book, I was hanging on every page and I haven’t had a mystery really surprise me in a really long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh, this is the kind of unreliable narrator I LIVE for. I did guess some of the twists, but not the big one at the end, and it was all so well done and so well done executed, I am amazed, wow.
Edit from 9.08.2021: I actually read up a little bit on the author, and he doesn't seem to be the greatest dude, which has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth whenever I think about this book now. And, as often happens with me, in further hindsight, I'm not as amazed by it anymore - it's a good book for sure, but I don't know if we can really class the narrator as unreliable, at least I can't. By the simple premise of the book you can pretty much guess from the start that what Anna witnesses did actually happen and she didn't imagine it - I never really doubted her, it was just a question of how exactly it all went down. So yeah, changing my rating again, as I often do. Oh well.
Edit from 9.08.2021: I actually read up a little bit on the author, and he doesn't seem to be the greatest dude, which has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth whenever I think about this book now. And, as often happens with me, in further hindsight, I'm not as amazed by it anymore - it's a good book for sure, but I don't know if we can really class the narrator as unreliable, at least I can't. By the simple premise of the book you can pretty much guess from the start that what Anna witnesses did actually happen and she didn't imagine it - I never really doubted her, it was just a question of how exactly it all went down. So yeah, changing my rating again, as I often do. Oh well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Medical content
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Gaslighting, Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content, Violence, Stalking
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Car accident, Gaslighting