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The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

Thriller

The Woman in the Window

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Each year thousands of members vote for our Book of the Year award—congrats to The Woman in the Window!

Debut

We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, A.J. Finn, on your first book!

by A.J. Finn

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Quick Take

A shut-in spends her days spying on her neighbors. One day she witnesses something terrifying ... Or does she?

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Fast_Read

    Fast read

  • Illustrated icon, Psychological

    Psychological

  • Illustrated icon, 400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Now_a_Movie

    Now a movie

Synopsis

For readers of Gillian Flynn and Tana French comes one of the decade’s most anticipated debuts: a twisty, powerful Hitchcockian thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she witnessed a crime in a neighboring house.

It isn’t paranoia if it’s really happening ...

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.

Twisty and powerful, ingenious and moving, The Woman in the Window is a smart, sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock.

Why I love it

Pretend you haven’t already read that the screen rights sold before it even hit bookstores, or that the author received a seven-figure advance. And ignore the comparisons—you knew they were coming—to Girl on the Train and Gone Girl. The Woman in the Window is a great psychological thriller that lives up to the months of hype it’s been getting.

Anna Fox, once a successful child psychologist, lives alone in her Harlem townhouse spying on her neighbors, mixing psychotropics with red wine, watching old films—Hitchcock’s Rear Window, which this book is loosely based on—and chatting on message boards. Early on we learn that Anna suffers from agoraphobia (fear of crowed spaces), brought on by a traumatic incident, rendering her unable to leave her home without having a panic attack.

When a new family moves in across the street from her front window, Anna begins watching them through her Nikon. Then, one night, she sees a terrifying crime occur in one of their bedrooms. But here’s the twist: Anna, who has been drinking and popping those aforementioned pills all night, can’t prove that what she saw really happened. And no one, not the police or her neighbors, believes her.

Debut author A.J. Finn is already an old pro at characterization. When Anna finally ventures outside and her mental state spirals out of control, we’re right in that terrifying spiral with her. It seems like every thriller these days features an unreliable narrator—and Anna Fox is one, too—but unlike many recent thrillers, The Woman in the Window’s plot twists are genuinely surprising, and not just shocking for shock’s sake. Film buffs, too, will love the references to Hitchcock and other classic films.

With each short chapter, Finn leaves you wanting more. I read this one in one sitting, then couldn’t help but draw shut the curtains in my apartment.

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Fast read
View all
What the Wife Knew
Dearest
Grief Is for People
Pretty Boys Are Poisonous
The Intern
Dark Corners
The Last Word
It Starts with Us
Daisy Darker
Bomb Shelter
The Paris Apartment
The Golden Couple
Reckless Girls
The Collective
Rock Paper Scissors
Razorblade Tears
How Lucky
Infinite Country
The Hunting Party
Pretty Little Wife
One by One
Winter Counts
The Night Swim
What You Wish For
Big Friendship
All the Stars and Teeth
You Are Not Alone
Truth Be Told
The Family Upstairs
What Happens in Paradise
Permanent Record
Hello Girls
Mind Games
The Turn of the Key
You'd Be Mine
The Other Woman
Golden State
An Anonymous Girl
For Better and Worse
November Road
The Anomaly
The Perfect Mother
The Oracle Year
Not That I Could Tell
The Woman in the Window