The Woman in the Window
A.J.Finn
Book Review
Anna Fox has not left her home for ten months now. She has been living alone in her New York apartment, too scared to step outside. The only connection she has to the real world is through her windows. Anna sits by her window every day and watches her neighbors doing their everyday activities. When the Russells move into the neighborhood, she is instantly drawn to them. A picture-perfect family of three, reminding her of what she once had.
One evening, when Anna is through her pills and too many glasses of merlot, she hears a frenzied scream from across her home. She witnesses something through her kitchen window, something no one was supposed to see. She has to uncover the truth about what had really happened.
But even if she does, will anyone believe her? Given her medical conditions and her drinking problem, can she even trust herself?
Read to find out.
“Watching is like nature photography; you don’t interfere with the wildlife.”
- -A.J.Finn, The Woman in the Window.
We are introduced to Anna’s unusual world from the very first page of the book. We see her neighborhood through her eyes. We see her watching her neighbors through her camera, which makes the reader curious.
Within three to four chapters, I connected with the protagonist of the story, Anna.
We get to know about her drinking problem and her habit of taking prescribed pills with a glass of wine. This made me pity her and wish that she would take it easy on herself. The author portrayed Anna as a weakling and the character development throughout the book is slow but powerful.
“It curls away from me, like blood in water.”
- -A.J.Finn, The Woman in the Window.
The book was slow paced at the beginning like a slow roller-coaster ride up through Anna’s life and things pick up pace when Anna hears the scream. It was from this moment that the book was unputdownable.
Even though we get introduced to quite a lot of characters in the beginning, this book revolves around two to three characters. The characters were written with utmost detail which shows the author’s skills.
This book is so engaging that you might not want to miss on little details.
I absolutely loved how the author fooled me as a reader but it just made me love the book more.
“My shadow stretches along the carpet, as though trying to detach itself from me.”
- -A.J.Finn, The Woman in the Window.
There were dialogues and scenes included from black and white thriller movies which made perfect references to the situation that the main character was in.
Usually in thriller novels, the endings are mostly what I anticipate. This book, however, had so many twists and turns that the ending was totally unexpected, which made me appreciate the book even more.
I loved the last line of this book and it is a perfect ending given how the book started.
“Sometimes I’ve got too many thoughts at once. It’s like there is a four-way intersection in my brain where everyone’s trying to go at the same time”
- -A.J.Finn, The Woman in the Window.
To be honest, I never knew about Agoraphobia before which is the medical condition that the protagonist suffers from. This book made me learn about it more and I’m glad to know about it now.
This was the first time I read A. J. Finn‘s work and it happens to be his debut book. I am more than happy to check out his future projects.
This story has been made into a film which is yet to be released.
I would rate this book 4/5. This is my honest and unbiased review of this book.
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