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A review by rubybooks
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
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, and Mental illness