The Woman in the Window

 

“And I stand there in the dark: cold, utterly alone, full of fear and something that feels like longing.”

Summary
Anna Fox is a prisoner in her own house. Captured by her mind, by the illness that isn’t going to let her go outside. She relieves the boredom by drinking wine, watching old movies… and by spying on her neighbors. Well, not spying. Observing. That’s why one day she became a witness to something she was never supposed to see.

Writing
I felt like the writing was a little bit inconsistent. It was beautiful and lyrical in one moment and then just plain and simple in the next. It was becoming progressively more and more annoying.

Characters
Anna is an alcoholic and agoraphobic (I don’t know enough about this disorder to be able to say if it’s an accurate representation or not) middle-aged woman. And that’s… all? I spent so much time inside her head while I was reading this book and still, nothing about her is even remotely interesting. And I don’t mean that she is supposed to be a superhero with amazing powers. I mean that she is  incredibly two-dimensional. She feels flat and lifeless. It’s like her disorder is her entire personality. I think that it’s a very cruel and hurtful way to create a character. People are so much more than the illness they struggle with.

Plot
It’s  a pretty decent mystery thriller. I mean, when it actually starts – which doesn’t happen until around page 130 (really, you can skip the first 100 pages and you are not going to miss a thing). I didn’t guess what was going on almost until the end, which is good enough for me. Also, Anna being such an unreliable narrator made this story much more suspenseful. For a good chunk of the story I was pretty much constantly confused. I enjoyed that a lot.

Overall
Yes. It’s another mystery thriller where the main character is an alcoholic woman who has a mild obsession with other people’s lives. But this one actually has a few nice surprises and plot twists that are not easy to guess. It’s definitely not the best book out there, but it’s a pretty enjoyable read.

 

You can find this book on Goodreads and Book Depository