YMMV / The Woman in the Window (2018)

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The laconic, completely plot-irrelevant romp between Anna and David. There is no buildup to it whatsoever, and it never comes up again afterwards.
• Cliché Storm: Many criticisms of the book point out its rehashing of story elements seen in other books of the genre (e.g. an alcoholic/mentally ill, Unreliable Narrator female protagonist who sees something she shouldn't have), such as The Girl on the Train and The Woman in Cabin 10 — right down to its title. Even the numerous plot twists have been derided by some as predictable or overdone.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: With the release of this book, A.J. Finn (real name: Dan Mallory) himself has been outed for his extensive history of lying to his audiences about his health—and that of his family members—as a means of garnering sympathy and bolstering his career. Combined with the accusations of The Woman in the Window ripping elements from other movies and books in the genre, this novel's runaway success has also drawn considerable backlash, to the point of alienating several would-be readers.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The book's main conflict doesn't start to rear its head until roughly 120 pages in.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: The other half of the controversy surrounding this book is its uncanny resemblance to the film Copycat, right down to having nearly the same basic premise and even sharing some of its twists. It has also been accused of plagiarizing Saving April by Sarah A. Denzil, despite Mallory's claims that he wrote The Woman in the Window before Saving April was published. As detailed above, The Woman in the Window is also yet another book in a string of domestic thriller novels with rather cut-and-paste heroines.

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