The Woman in the Window by A.J.Finn

e-Audio, 427 pages

Release Date: January 2, 2018
Published by: William Morrow 
Read from: February 2-16, 2018
Stand-alone
Source: Library
For fans of:  Realistic Fiction, Sparkly Covers, Debut Author, Adult, Diversity Disability, Thriller

     Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.
     Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.
     What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.
*This book is part of the adult mystery/thriller genre! I have featured it in The Crime Scene as a way to feature the few Adult and New Adult titles I am beginning to read in this genre! There’s not much of a difference, however the scenes may be more graphic and there may be more explicit scenes in some of them.”  

*MY THOUGHTS*

     For the past couple weeks I have been on this Adult Thriller binge and have started listening/requesting all the things. And when this one started getting hot in the blogosphere, I knew I had to request this one too.
     Anna Fox does not come out of her house. She spends her time drinking wine, watching old movies, and talking to her husband and child. She has another hobby that one day gets her into a bit of trouble…. Spying on her neighbors. One night while Anna is spying on her new neighbors, she sees something that turns her entire world upside down. What is real and what isn’t? And how does she know what isn’t?
     I really enjoyed the concept of this book. Granted I don’t want to find out about my neighbors spying on me, but I really loved finding out about Anna and how she accidentally sees what she sees. I really liked the way the mystery is played out as well. For the life of me I could not figure out who that person was until the very minute Anna did too!
     However, I am so over this idea in adult thrillers that the only way to make the narrator unreliable is to make sure they are an alcoholic or super high on some kind of meds. The Woman in Cabin 10, Girl on the Train, and this one are only a few of the thrillers I’ve read, and they all start out the same. Makes me not want to read them anymore. (I think I DNF’ed The Woman in Cabin 10 for this exact reason smh) Can we PLEASE find some other way to make the narrator unreliable? (Also if you read adult thrillers and know of some where the narrator is found to be unreliable but in ways other than being drunk or high, please send them to me!)
     As for the mystery, I thought it was pretty solid. Although I figured out who the culprit was super early on, (probably on 6 out of 11 discs) I wasn’t exactly sure what had happened or how they had done it. It seemed a bit predictable, but then once you get comfortable and think you know everything, YOU DON’T.
     I decided to review this one here because there is a teen in this book. There is a lot of interaction with him as well so I can see this being a good crossover book for older teens interested in this type of thing. (I say this because I would have more than likely read this when I was a teen, but keep in mind I didn’t discover YA until I was in college with Twilight.)
     The writing style itself was good, but nothing to write home about. It was easy to follow and definitely made me question and doubt my theories all the time. It also starts off pretty slow, but when things get going, they don’t slow down.
     Although there were some things I did not care for, there were also some pretty great things about this too. It always gave me a really exciting drive to and from work and at one point made me happy to sit in the car for an extra 5 minutes to finish that part of the book. I can’t wait to see what Finn does next!

Overall, I give this

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Diverse Book Blogger. Diverse YA Librarian. Wonder Woman enthusiast. Bookish Blerd. "GryffinClaw" Geek extraordinaire. Pitbull mom. She/her linktr.ee/take_me_awayyy