The Women in the Window
By A.J. Finn
William Morrow Paperbacks, 9780062678423, March 2019, 464pp.
The Short of It:
If you enjoy unreliable narrators then you will be entertained.
The Rest of It:
The Woman in the Window is another book that everyone seems to have read. When it first came out, I took an immediate interest in it but then, for whatever reason it got pushed down to the bottom of my list. THEN, there was the controversy over its author. But when my local used bookstore had a copy sitting on the shelf, I grabbed it.
Dr. Anna Fox is a psychiatrist but suffers from agoraphobia. The reason for her agoraphobia is not revealed until much later in the story, but she spends her days watching old, black and white movies, spying on her neighbors from the safety of her home, and drinking buckets of Merlot. Just like every Hitchcock movie you’ve ever seen, she witnesses a crime. But when she reports it, no one believes her because she comes off as a drunk, mentally unstable woman. Which by all counts is not wrong.
There is more to the story, of course. I figured out the twist pretty early on but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book overall. I will say this, why so much booze? There is a booze reference on every page. Anna’s condition was enough to make her the unreliable narrator of our dreams but the constant mention of Merlot drove me absolutely nuts and reminded me a lot of the protagonist from The Girl on the Train.
The movie trailer looks really good:
It was a fun read. Deception everywhere. An unreliable narrator who drinks FAR too much but I liked her. I can see why so many picked this one up.
Source: Purchased
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Book Chatter 
That’s pretty much how I felt. The twist was easy to figure out but the book was still fun. There is some controversy around the author.
Yeah, I knew about the author and his lies. He has a new book coming soon.
I haven’t read this one or heard about the controversy, at least until you told us about it.
I don’t really care if an author is bonkers unless he or she supports something I do not or his or her actions directly impact someone in a negative way. So this guy being off his rocker is okay by me. LOL.
This one hooked me when I read it. I would want to see the movie as I suspect it will have a Girl on the Train feel for some reason.
To me, that movie trailer looks a lot darker than the book! Looks good.
Amy Adams! She seems like her in the trailer. I guess Anna Fox drove me a bit nuts with her ineptness and boozy haze … but I guess I enjoyed the thriller aspect of it enough. Good for a winter read.
It wasn’t even that the character drank a lot that bothered me, it was the author’s way of putting it. Every page had something about the red velvet quality, chugging, sluicing, etc. Like, a love affair with booze. If I were a drunk I would just drink and not think about it’s lovely color. LOL.
Amy Adams. She looks off her rocker in the trailer.
I’d forgotten about all the alcohol in the book! I liked it, but kept thinking about Hitchcock’s Rear Window.
It’s funny because Rear Window was the only movie not mentioned by the character. Oh gawd, the wine. The red velvet texture catching her attention, the shimmer of red out of the corner of her eye, it sluicing down her throat. Gah!
I’d like to read this one. The unstable part is the quirky bit which makes it interesting.
I agree. Unreliable narrators can be very enjoyable.
I found this a little boring and predictable. I liked the old movies referenced but the booze was a bit much for me too.
I figured out the twist early on and the drinking made it seem drawn out as one day blended into the next. The entire story took place over a week or so. I think it could have been written in a more engaging way but for what I wanted at the time I picked it up, I was happy. The movie looks way better.
There’s a movie? I should check it out. I think this would work better as a movie.
I think the movie comes out this May.
We discussed this one in our mystery group last year. It was soon after the stuff about the author came out and so we discussed that as well. Our question was whether we could like a book written by an author that we weren’t fond of or disliked their actions. We decided that we could. Most really liked this book, me among them, though it did remind me of The Girl on the Train. I will say that I struggled again with the alcohol and self-destructive nature of the main character. However, I know that is a personal thing because of issues that my sister had. He has a new book – interesting. I’ll have to watch for that.
I grew up in a family of alcoholics with a history of self medication so although I am not a fan of drinking, I don’t have a problem with it in literature but this was way, way over the top. A person would not be standing with that much alcohol and drugs in their system.
The only time I would NOT read someone’s work is if they were an obvious jerk, hurt people or things directly or a flat our racist. I think an author being “off” or a liar would not put me off much.