" Anna Fox lives alone, a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors... "

Predictably Anna sees something she shouldn't, and from that point we join her in her very large and empty home. This was one of those books I was delaying reading as it had so much hype, and I wasn't sure it was for me as I don't always go for stories with the 'unreliable narrator' trope - but with the Netflix film looming and a suggestion from a friend to Buddy read it, I decided it was time to pick it up.

I came at it with no expectations and must say I was very pleasantly surprised! I guessed most of the twists and reveals unfortunately but I was still able to enjoy the build up of tension and the writing was good and engaging. There were enough characters to keep things interesting but not too many to get confused or messy, and I was reluctantly drawn in quite quickly into Anna's life. I say reluctantly because for some reason I had already decided I wasn't going to like this cliche story of a 'woman who drinks too much and isn't believed' BUT I did. Maybe it was the buddy read itself which helped but I can't take away the fact this is a well written book with crafty twists and interesting characters - albeit some predictable ones. I enjoyed the Netflix film too by the way, I felt they did it justice!