From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

The Woman in the Window

A.J. Finn

Start date: April 2, 2018

Finish date: April 30, 2018

Discussion: Books of the Month

Why we're reading this: April Adult Crime/Thriller/Suspense BOM
[close] April Adult Crime/Thriller/Suspense BOM

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 163 topics — 23,363 comments total

Books of the Month

* The Names by Florence Knapp - Sep 25 Adult / Non-Fiction BOM (starts 16 Sep)
By Moderators of… , Challenger-in-Chief · 11 posts · 69 views

last updated Sep 05, 2025 04:38PM

* The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - Sep 25 Theme BOM - South and South East Asia (Starts 5 September)
By Moderators of… , Challenger-in-Chief · 31 posts · 66 views

last updated Sep 10, 2025 04:48PM

showing 10 of 26 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Nov 03, 2017 Kirsten rated it really liked it

Shelves: reading-with-catherine, made-me-cry

Wow! Can you get whiplash from a plot twist? If so, I may have to file a claim against this publishing company for not putting a warning on this one!

Unlike Gone Girl which did not deserve all the hype it got, this one totally does!

This book reminded me of the type of movies the main character is fond of. There are multiple red herrings, and a totally unreliable narrator. But, it makes her sympathetic, and it moves on a great pace!

I highly recommend it!!

Additional comments

I forgot to mention th ...more

25 likes · Like · see review

Mar 06, 2018 Amy rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2018, _own-home-library, rec-ig-blogs-friends-other, _own-ebook

EDITED (February 2019) - I am going to change my rating from a 4 to a 1 and my support of this book and this author - see New Yorker Magazine article that outlines why I've made this decision. I'm not comfortable supporting him or his book after learning this information.

I often struggle with thrillers these days … I used to be a big thriller reader but I’ve read less and less over time. My reason for this change is that I’m often frustrated by how formulaic they often are. At some point, I get ...more

19 likes · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2018 Stormi (StormReads) rated it did not like it

I have come to the conclusion that if everyone I know love's a book that is very hyped, then I am not going to like it. :(

Anna Fox became an agoraphobic after an accident she had about ten months earlier. Before that she was a psychologist for children, now she cancels other agoraphobics online. I found this rather strange since she has the same problem. She comes off as a bit of a staker to me but she has nothing much to do but look out the window at her neighbors.

She gets some new neighbors an I have come to the conclusion that if everyone I know love's a book that is very hyped, then I am not going to like it. :(

Anna Fox became an agoraphobic after an accident she had about ten months earlier. Before that she was a psychologist for children, now she cancels other agoraphobics online. I found this rather strange since she has the same problem. She comes off as a bit of a staker to me but she has nothing much to do but look out the window at her neighbors.

She gets some new neighbors and this leads her to spying on them and then one day she hears a scream but Ethan the teen in the house whom she has talked to on occasions tells her nothing is wrong. Then after a while she sees the woman who lived their Jane Russell with blood all over her front and something that looked like a knife sticking out of her.

Nobody will believe her because there is no evidence of any foul play and it doesn't help that she drinks and is on medication. She won't let it go though and keeps trying to figure it out.

What I liked:

Though they didn't really surprise me all that much there was a twist close to the end and then I am sure a lot were surprised by the ending. I had already started leaning towards that being what happened but just not sure why so it wasn't like a huge OMG twisted ending but it was good.

What I disliked:

I believe I am figuring out I am not a fan of unreliable narrators. I know a lot are fans of this and that is probably why they liked this and I didn't.

Anna is a professional and I get that she had a tragic thing happen to her but she knows not to take her medication with alcohol, and can we say she drinks a ton of wine! I mean I think it's the only thing she ever drank in the whole book about four bottles a day! Then she gets mad when nobody will believe her and think she is a bit crazy.

The story drags on and it starts off so slow and repeats itself over and over. I know that she is a reclusive person and so all she does is drink and look out the window or watch movies but a whole book about it, snoozefest! I almost DNFed it but I decided to keep going to find out what the twist at the end was and I will admit to skimming probably close to the last 40% to get to the twist.

I just really didn't like this book and I took my time in writing this review because I didn't want to be to ranty, but I just don't understand why so many people love it! I feel like I am missing something as this is the second anticipated read that I have just not liked at all and everyone else loved. I think I am done with hyped books for a while. :) I can't recommend this one. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2018 Ashley rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery-crime, once-upon-a-book-club, 2018-bestie-challenge

nice fast read, although the start was a bit slow but once it got going was really hard to stop. I kept wanting the main character Anna to stop mixing her boozey ways with her medicine because it's like dang girl you even know it could cause issues in this situation!! I called a few of the twists, like the one with her family, but the other big ones I didn't see, and I enjoyed it! ...more

Like · see review

Feb 08, 2020 Kelly rated it really liked it

Shelves: own-or-borrowed

Could not put this book down! I am a sucker for short chapters. I can always ‘read one more’. I got to what I thought was the big reveal with 100 pages left and wondered what could be next. The hits just kept coming!

I don’t know if I will be able to watch the movie, but the casting looks great, and I am very glad to have read the book.

Great debut!

Like · see review

Aug 10, 2023 Olympia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Window

Why did I wait to read this book? Wow what. A page turner! There was a surprise at every turn of the page! You never know who your neighbors are!

Like · see review