The Woman in the Window (2018)

Great who done it but even better with the Did it really happen? twist. As a fan of Hitchcock, thoroughly enjoyed this book. ( )

This was my first book of 2018, and oh boy did it set a high bar. It's A.J. Finn's debut novel (Finn is a pen name for Dan Mallory, the VP and exec editor of publisher William Morrow) but it reads like it were written by the most seasoned author. Every line of this book was sharp, meaningful and exceedingly well-written. The storyline is incredibly twisty and surprising, and I felt really connected to and invested in the protagonist, Anna.

I will read literally anything that A.J. Finn writes next. ( )

“Watching is like nature photography: You don’t interfere with the wildlife”

A fab old-style, whodunit, psychological thriller, full of mystery and potential bad guys at every turn. There’s nothing new here, but I was gripped from the start. I love a gritty page-turner that keeps me up at night, where I keep promising myself just one more page…

I quickly guessed the plot, probably as I’ve read a lot of books like this, but it was still uber fun with many twists – you can’t beat an unreliable narrator with enough wine on-hand to rival Jacob’s Creek.

The only let down for me was the slightly too typical ‘race to survive’ ending – why does the female lead always need to display a sudden weakness? If it’s not stumbling over and shrieking, it’s the failing to suitably kill the bad guy once they’ve gotten hold of a weapon. Don’t we all know to ‘double tap’ by now?!

If you want an exhilarating fast-paced thriller to whittle away a weekend, I’d recommend this – just be prepared to lose some sleep as you will be up most of the night.

Sidenote, can we just talk about the movie adaptation for a mo? What a freaking let-down. Amy Adams was great, but typically Hollywood changed many aspects of the book and created a doozy of a film. The book is waaaaaaayyyyyyyy better! ( )

I've got mixed feelings about this book. I might need more of a break from the unreliable narrator thing. I won't go into a whole lot of detail because there are so many twists and red herrings that I'm afraid I'll give something away and ruin someone's fun.

Because of the issues the protagonist has, I could never be sure about what was real and what wasn't. That forced me to stop guessing and my favorite part of mysteries is guessing.

There were a few bullshit moments but, I think, the biggest of them all was the final reveal. I get wanting to get that "ah ha!" from a reader but my reaction was more "ugh, what the fuck?!"

The resolution and wrap up at the end was okay but by then, I was mostly over it. Which was really too bad because there were several places in the book that I had other things to do and had to struggle to stop reading or listening.

I went back and forth between the ebook and the audio versions. They each had their strengths and weaknesses. The transcripts from the Agora were much better to read with eyeballs but the narrator definitely added some tension and emotion during the more intense scenes.

If you're a lover of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, you'll very likely want to read this. ( )

Some good twists and turns: some surprising and others a bit more predictable ( )