Well this will be a fun movie.

I am not usually an avid reader of anything remotely thriller/domestic suspense related, but this was the biggest book in the world for a long time for a reason. My book club chose this as our October read and it really was a great, unnerving thrill ride.

Anna Fox is an agoraphobic 39 year old woman living alone in a fancy New York brownstone. She is on a litany of medications for her mental health and partakes in alcohol far too much for someone in her position. She has no real close connections, aside from her family (who is not living with her due to her condition), and she spends most of her time watching old movies and her neighbors, in equal measure. When the Russell’s move in across the way, she keeps a interested eye on them until she sees something she shouldn’t, but with her mental health issues and alcoholism, are we even to believe what she saw was real?

As with all thrillers, I find this book difficult to write about as there are so many possibilities for spoilers. However as also with most thrillers, I feel like the fact that there is a “twist” isn’t that much of a spoiler, as it’s a trope of the genre. So yes, this book has a twist. There’s a few surprises through the course of the book, and I bought into every single one. I think the author plotted this book insanely well, and even things that I considered interesting but small details ended up playing a role at some point. It’s like the author took the best parts of domestic thrillers than came before, and sprinkled them all together to make this book. The character of Anna is intriguing and sympathetic to a point, and the entire time I was reading I imagined what a good movie this would be. It looks to be coming out in May of 2020, so we’ll see how well it works as an adaption.

Reading the New Yorker article on the author is a must. Ooh boy, it’s a mystery in an of itself. I don’t know if I like the author as a human being, but man, he knows how to write a fun book. My book club LOVED it, which is hard to do in a group with markedly different ages and backgrounds, but sometimes a good, creepy thriller just exceeds everything else. Definitely would recommend this for a book club, and for anyone in general.

Title: The Woman in the Window
Author: AJ Finn
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 429
ISBN: 9780062678416

Three Descriptors: Atmospheric, tense, fast-paced

Read Alikes:
Girl on the Train by Paula McLain
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
Watching You by Lisa Jewell
The Break Down by BA Paris
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware