Woman in the Window is pretty much Girl on the Train meets Rear Window

I read a lot of books this summer and fall, oh who am I kidding I read all the time. I’ve run into fantastic books, good books, bad books, boring books and books so horrendous that I’d throw it in the trash. (I actually did throw a book in the trash because it was so bad I didn’t want to be guilty of some poor soul getting their hands on it if I donated it to the library but that’s another review for another time.) Woman in the Window is a mystery thriller. Its about a woman named Anna Fox who suffers from agoraphobia which is by Google definition, a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.  Anna Fox barely ever leaves her home and spends her days drinking wine and watching old films, and spying on her neighbors. One day she see’s something bad happen to one of the new neighbors. I have to be honest I’m a sucker for a good mystery/thriller book and the movie version with Amy Adams comes out next year. This idea written on paper was an interesting idea, but not everything was executed very well. If you want to know any spoilers, keep scrolling down to know.

The Plot

The plot like I said above hooked me in however like I said above not everything was executed well. Anna Fox is a child psychologist and at the moment she has no plans on leaving her house because of something terrible that happened in her past. Anna is also separated from her husband Ed and their daughter Olivia. We find that out in small snippets it will talk about the main plot and then out of no where we’ll randomly go back to why Anna is the way she is in the first place. It also seems to take forever to get from point A to point B. It also seems to be mentioned at  every moment that Anna takes her medication with wine A LOT!

Compare and Contrast to Rear Window and Girl on The Train

Anna also watches old movies too. This book is similar to Rear Window for the fact that Jimmy Stuarts character L.B. and Anna Fox are both trapped in their homes for different reasons Anna being the agoraphobic lady, and L.B. had a broken leg. Both spy on their neighbors. Rachel in Gone Girl also like Anna, spy on people, and Rachel also drinks too much and is divorced from her husband. Only difference is Rachel is at least on a train spying.

Characters

Anna falls into the Girl on the Train and Gone Girl category even, because all of those characters fall into the unreliable narrator category as the truth comes out. We find out somewhat later Anna’s estranged husband and daughter have been dead this whole time from a terrible accident she caused, and she had only been listening to recordings of their voices to help them cope. I do like the fact that Anna was having an affair and trying to repair their marriage without making excuses for her or trying to make her sympathetic and giving her an out to cheat.

Alastair Russell seems like a suspicious fellow but of course there is more that we don’t know obviously.

Ethan Russell he’s a sensitive teenage boy who wishes to get away from his parents especially his father.

The Climax?

It would be too predictable if the husband were the killer right? I mean I knew that even while I was reading. One of many things could have possibly happened. Perhaps Alistair did kill his wife and the woman Anna has never seen takes over? His wife faked her death for whatever reason? Or maybe that sweet teenage boy Ethan was the murderer? That doesn’t make sense does it? If you guessed that Ethan was the killer congratulations you are the winner! Honestly it was predictable but I guess its because I’ve read a lot of mysteries. What was weird was he was pretending to be an online friend of Anna’s and that was how he got her passcode to her phone. What?? I mean I know teenagers can be mischievous and yes they can impersonate whoever they want (really anyone could) but you lost me with a teenage boy pretending to be a grandma with the name GrandmaLizzy. What is new is that the woman who we thought Anna saw get stabbed was not Jane Russell but Ethan’s biological mom. Anyway they confront each other, Anna ends up killing him in self-defense and at the end she conquers her fear and steps outside without the umbrella in front of her.

Is it worth your time?

Honestly it wasn’t so bad that I had to throw it in the trash (I couldn’t since I checked it out from the library) but it wasn’t that good either.  I think this book could have been great if chunks were taken out because the story took forever to keep going and to keep my interest. Not to mention it gets tiring hearing about Anna drinking all the time. I did like the fact that it was a nod to Rear Window. I do like the fact that Anna enjoys old movies and braves going outside in the end. If you have patience for books like this where the plot is slow more power to you. In my opinion I would just wait for the movie and this is coming from someone who loves books. When the movie comes out and when I watch it I will do a book vs movie comparison review and let you know if theres a winner, a loser or if they’re both the same.