Oh my God I don’t think I have ever been this behind (6!) on reviews and I apologize in advance for forthcoming onslaught of Caitlin_D opinions.
“My dear girl, you cannot keep bumping your head against reality and saying it is not there.”
Dr. Anna Fox lives alone in New York City. A traumatic event has left her paralyzed with fear; she can’t leave her house and her husband, along with their daughter, left her. She used to be a child psychologist but she now spends her days day drinking and chatting in agoraphobe chat rooms. She spends her evenings drinking more and watching old movies.
A new family, the Russells, move in across the street and the teenage boy introduces himself to Anna. Sooner after the Russell family moves in Anna, who also fills her time spying on the neighbors, sees Mrs Russell get stabbed. She calls the police but when a different woman, confirmed by Mr. Russell and their son to be Mrs. Russell, is found alive the police have no reason to believe Anna. She begins to feel like she is being watched but her drinking, prescription meds and her overall psychiatric state don’t make her the most reliable witness.
“As Shaw also said, alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life. Good old Shaw.”
You may not have read The Woman in the Window yet, but I assure you that you have read The Woman in the Window before. Have you read The Woman in Cabin 10 or Girl on the Train? Then you have read The Woman in the Window and probably a better version of it…
I probably shouldn’t have read a female driven thriller with an unreliable narrator so close to rereading Gone Girl, this is my fault, but Finn’s novel just doesn’t offer anything new on the ever popular genre.