Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

32 reviews

kcarney86's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Police brutality, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, and Outing

rachelpacz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Classism, and Deportation

angorarabbit's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Context: I wish I could remember the review that made me want to read this, I thought it was going to be more mystery and less thriller. 

 

TLDR:  I got hung-up on the foster care stuff, your mileage may vary. 

 

The plotting was pretty tight for the most part with a few plot holes that didn’t matter very much. The central mystery was interesting and fresh. Most plot twists were a surprise. 

 

My main problem came with the characterisation. The foster care system does heavy lifting in explaining Jess and Ben. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if there weren’t some important plot points that for someone somewhat familiar with the system are just plain unbelievable. I don’t know how much experience Ms Foley has had with the system but she might have benefited from an experienced beta reader.It’s rather like a non-Roma writer with a main character who is Roma and not having some Roma readers to advise them on Roma life. Just saying, “oh, they were in foster care so they are like this” is lazy. 

 

The ending felt like Ms Foley found her deadline approaching and her editor wanted a happy ending for all rewrite. Anyone surviving foster care could tell you that there never is a happy ending for everyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

the foster care system

wickedgrumpy's review

emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

...Yet another thriller that I did not enjoy.  It was filled with characters that had one main facet which was being awful.  Would not recommend.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

halflingnana's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Death of parent, and Murder

_ami_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The amount of times I visibly gasped in excitement and disgust is great, with the twists that I half expected and didn't see coming at all. It's just brilliant. And the audiobook with the various of voice actors switching for each POV??? My god, chief's kiss.

Bury me with this book like how they buried that body.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Fatphobia, Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Police brutality, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Deportation

chaos_and_chapters's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Pregnancy

emilywemily6's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I didn’t like this book as much as the other Lucy Foley book I read. It felt so long with nothing happening for most of the book. At the beginning, the general vibe was eerie and suspicious, but as truths came to light for some reason the tone and atmosphere was less and less sinister. I guessed the culprit(s) early on, though didn’t know how everything fit together. The author did a good job at fitting lots of details together that seemed unrelated. I was unsurprised by the big reveals of the whodunit and while the twist at the end was unexpected, it wasn’t satisfying- it was more like, “oh, okay, that makes more sense I guess.” I haven’t read a lot of mysteries or thrillers, but this one felt predictable, especially as the pieces of the puzzle began sliding together. The dual timelines and memories in the narratives were a bit confusing too, especially the closer we got to the crime and the memories and present day were only a couple of days apart. Overall, an alright book, but nothing stood out to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Deportation

kyrstin_p1989's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I almost DNF’d this which I never do because it was so slow — it felt like nothing at all happened for the first 150 pages or so. The end picked up and was actually really good, which saved this book from being a 1 or 2 star. I didn’t see a lot of what happened coming but not because of the mystery, just because it felt like nothing at all was revealed at the beginning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

melliebean28's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

That ending... Was not expecting that at all. I love multiple POV setting and this delivered in the best way. The breadcrumbs left in each chapter and pov were so well put together.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Trafficking