Monday, June 21, 2021

CBR 13 # 14 The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

Did I read The Woman in the Window because I wanted to watch an episode of Netflix's Queens Who Like to Watch (with Trixie and Katya) but I couldn't watch it because I hadn't seen the movie, and I couldn't watch the movie because I hadn't read the book?  I will neither confirm nor deny but, YES I DID.  All this just to watch a 10 minute video of my favorite queens.  Was it worth it?  Well, yes but only because Trixie and Katya are so funny and NOT because the book ( or the movie) was good.

Anna is a child therapist who has not been out of her house for 10 months.  In those months, the only people she sees are her therapist, her physical therapist and the guy who rents her basement, who also does errands for her.  She spends her days spying on her neighbors (sometimes with a camera zoom), helping people out on an online forum for agoraphobes, talking to her separated husband on the phone, and a whooolle lot of drinking.  Then a new family moves in next door and Anna makes a connection with Ethan, the teenage son and Jane, his mother.  But something seems wrong with the family, and one day, through her window, Anna sees Jane being stabbed in her house.  Or was she? 

So goes the usual psychological thriller in the vein of The Girl on the Train in which the readers are being led to wonder, is the nice lady drunk/crazy?  Did she really see a crime being committed?  Why not both? I thought this one was convoluted and just had twists for the sake of twists with no genuine emotional or character development.  Of course, the plot, and the twist is improbable, maybe even unbelievable, but I am very willing to suspend disbelief with these kinds of books if the writing, or the characters are good.  I guess Tana French would be the gold standard for me.  This one does not even get to bronze.

Quick read, did not like it.  Did not like the movie either but loved the Trixie and Katya reaction in Queens Who Like to Watch.  Maybe I should have watched that directly without going through all the hoops I went through.

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