"The Woman in the Window"

“The Woman in the Window”

Written by A.J. Finn

Reviewed by Diana Iozzia

Sadly, “The Woman in the Window” absolutely did not live up to my expectations. The premise of this psychological thriller is that an agoraphobic woman, named Anna Fox, starts to notice suspicious behavior in her new neighbor’s home.

We are introduced to Anna, who shows us that she has had stalking patterns before. She has been watching many of her neighbors, even taking photographs of them. Anna has a strange past, leading us to suspect that her husband and daughter are hallucinations, right from the get go. Anna talks to herself, drinks too much, and will not leave her house.

Anna befriends Jane, the wife in the family who lives across the street. She also befriends her son, who likes to stop by and bring snacks. One night, Anna sees Jane outside, bleeding, with a large metal object in her chest? Anna runs outside and is taken to the hospital, after she suffers a major panic attack. At the hospital, she is told that Jane is fine, and she was never injured. Her husband brings himself and Jane into the room. This woman is unfamiliar and not the Jane that she expected. Anna begins to suspect everyone, but there is one person she does not...

One of my main problems with this book is the lack of interesting characters. Anna is an unreliable narrator. She is constantly complaining, acting strangely, and making weird decisions, like sleeping with her creepy tenant. She does not seem to really understand that she is her main problem. In addition, it felt very tedious to read all of the messages she sends to strangers in an agoraphobia chat room. It did not feel necessary; we did not receive any new information.

 Finn tries to pad his characters with snippets and familiar details. We notice that he clearly wants this book to be reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”. I am a massive Jimmy Stewart fan and a massive Alfred Hitchcock fan. However, references to this movie and most of his movies are on every single page. It feels a little too informative. This book feels a little too detailed in many circumstances.

I think, for the most part, I could enjoy this author, if he wrote a book with a different type of premise. His dialogue is still intriguing enough, the plot eventually built enough suspense, and I felt it was a worthwhile read. However, I know there is a massive scandal around the author, due to his deception about his healthcare, sources, and job experience. We’ll see if he’s been black-balled enough to never write another book. I rated this book a 3 out of 5 stars.