Melinda J. Irvine

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I saw all the rave reviews and Stephen King giving this book the thumbs up I bought it right away. But I confess I’m a little disappointed (not because it’s a terrible book) it just didn’t live up to my expectations. It took me ages to get into the story and [again] if it wasn’t for Stephen King’s ‘unputdownable‘ on the front cover I probably would have tossed it aside before I reached 1/5.

Being a psychological thriller it has all the suspense and plot twists you’d expect. There were some surprises of course and for a time it did really have me in it’s grip, but overall I found the protagonist very similar to The Girl On the Train (boozed up chick, not sure what’s real and what isn’t). Actually I found the whole alcohol thing a little implausible.

Like can someone drink drink 4+ bottles of wine and then play a decent game of chess or be able to distinguish clear details of what’s happening in a room across the street at night? Add to that a bucketload of medication with memory loss as a side-affect, chances are they wouldn’t remember anything after the 2nd or 3rd glass. So for me, the plausibility of how much Anna was drinking/medicating and still functioning/rationalising kept pulling me out of the story.

The book had a lot of good points though, the chic references to Hitchcock thrillers and their cinematic sirens, and pouring out the protagonist’s back story sip by sip. Kudos to Finn for a cool debut novel, but I’m glad I didn’t pay more for than $2.99 for it.

Have you read it? I’d love to know if the plot twists left you puzzled or if you saw through all of them. Also do think I’m being a bit too picky about the boozy lady?

© 2018 Melinda J. Irvine

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