Anna has been locked inside her New York home for way too long: she faces a psychological condition that prevents her from leaving her safe space. When a new family, the Russells, moves into the house next to Anna’s, the woman finds comfort in observing their daily lives. But one day, Anna spots something she shouldn’t from her window, something that terrifies her. And now she has to dive deep into her memory to figure out what is real and where the danger comes from.

Anna Fox is a lonely New Yorker suffering from agoraphobia, a psychological condition in which she feels an extreme and irrational fear of being in outdoor spaces. Unable to venture into the outside world, she spends most of her time day drinking lots of wine, watching old noir movies, playing online chess, popping pills, chatting in an online support group, recalling her happier days, and spying on her neighbors through the windows.

Anna used to have a happy life, a family, and a job as a psychologist. But ever since she went through a mysterious accident, she lost everything and got mentally unstable, so she locked herself in isolation. She still talks to her husband and daughter on the phone and, unable to leave the house, she gets a little help from her basement tenant David, and occasional visits from her psychiatrist and physical therapist. Anna also keeps a Nikon D550 camera, which she uses to keep an eye on her neighbors.

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Through her house windows, Anna is able to surveil a few townhouses around the neighborhood. One day, she notices that a new family seems to be moving into the house across the way from hers. The Russells – father, mother, and a teenage son – seem like the perfect family, the kind of family Anna herself used to be part of. The woman wastes no time in finding out everything about that family: their names, professional occupations, and even the price they paid for the house, everything with the help of a search engine.

When Ethan, the Russells teenage boy, shows up at Anna’s door to deliver a gift from his mother, she sympathizes with him, shows him her DVD collection, and lends him one of her movies. Then, Anna receives the unexpected visit of Jane Russell, Ethan’s mother. The two of them talk and drink together in a nice and pleasant encounter. But one night, Anna hears a scream coming from the Russells’ house, so she grabs her camera and heads to the window just in time to witness something she cannot believe has occurred. Now, the woman in the window needs to fight her memory to uncover the truth about what really happened that night. And even if she does figure out the truth, will people believe her? Will Anna believe and trust herself?

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The Woman in the Window is a suspenseful novel written by A. J. Finn, an American writer who saw his masterpiece become a Netflix movie adaptation, released earlier this year. In this twisting psychological thriller, nothing is what it seems. It is simply impossible to put this book down before its end, it is the kind of book people read in one sitting. In the best Hitchcock style, this book is definitely nail-biting and worth reading!

Published by HOLR Magazine.