Title: The Woman in the Window
Author: A.J. Finn
Publisher: HarperCollins
[Synopsis]
What did she see?
It’s been ten long months since Anna Fox last left her home. Ten months during which she has haunted the rooms of her old New York house like a ghost, lost in her memories, too terrified to step outside.
Anna’s lifeline to the real world is her window, where she sits day after day, watching her neighbours. When the Russells move in, Anna is instantly drawn to them. A picture-perfect family of three, they are an echo of the life that was once hers.
But one evening, a frenzied scream rips across the silence, and Anna witnesses something no one was supposed to see. Now she must do everything she can to uncover the truth about what really happened. But even if she does, will anyone believe her? And can she even trust herself?
[My Rating]
The Woman in the Window is an intense, suspenseful thriller which I hugely enjoyed, from the very first page to last. The characters, though odd in their own ways (main protagonist Anna certainly has her quirks, and at times I was a little frustrated at her decisions, but I loved reading about her anyway) made for really great reading; there are plenty of characters whose integrity come into question, which I loved – in fact, even Anna, whose eyes we see the whole story through, made me doubt her at times. I felt bad doing so, because that’s exactly what everyone else is doing, but she’s certainly not helping herself – and there’s some strange underlying themes which can be a little uncomfortable to read about, but which only intrigued me more!
The story itself is slightly surreal at times, with strange things occurring and lots of ‘half-truths’ and ‘sort-of-seen’ things from Anna’s point of view to confuse the reader as you try and work out what is really happening – is she uncovering something very important in her neighbourhood or is it actually all in her head? Again, I loved this element of uncertainty; it only made me want to read on and try to work out what was happening…
I sort of guessed some aspects of the story, but there were also some fun twists and surprises along the way. I ended up racing through this in no time and would certainly like to read more from Anna.
Overall I found this a hugely absorbing and fun read which I couldn’t put down! The pacing is just right and I feel it definitely holds its own among the various heavyweights in this genre; it’s different enough to stand out but with enough mystery and twists to keep it classed as an excellent psychological thriller!
[Rating: 4/5]
Many thanks to HarperCollins for providing a copy of this novel on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.