Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

65 reviews

lyfeinpr0gress's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, Infidelity, Classism, Stalking, Trafficking, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

Minor: Suicide and Domestic abuse

james1star's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This book was rather moyen (French for average… blame Google translate if it’s wrong) in all honesty. It started out great with our ‘main’ character Jess hastily arriving in Paris to live with her step brother Ben for some time but when she gets there he’s seeming disappeared and there’s some concerning clues in his apartment that make her question what’s going on. After sleeping if off she consults the other occupants in the building but no one really wants to help… and can she trust them? … and a mystery ensues. Most of the chapters are from Jess’s POV but we also get ones from Ben, Nick, Mimi, Sophie, and the Concierge who all live in the complex in the current timeframe with flashback moments to the near and more distant past. 

I’d say this book is very well written, it has suspense and a good story arc that builds up to the main twist with others along the way. From the start, I was really intrigued and on the whole it’s an easy, engaging read but it fell flat as the book developed. I liked the high angst and drama with the ‘what’s next?!’ cliff hangers at the end of the short chapters but then it gets rather meh. I think once or twice to build up this tension but then the situation not being as bad as we thought is okay but when it occurs multiple times the reader somewhat loses trust in the storytelling and, for me, become rather uninterested in following on - it’s a little like the ‘boy who cried wolf’ scenario where you don’t really care what’s going to happen as the book moves on because you can already tell it won’t be that bad afterwards. It’s billed as a mystery and yes I would still classify it as such but Jess isn’t really the best (or good in fact) at sleuthing out the clues as to what has happened to Ben. Instead she stumbles across things and continually makes herself known, I guess the reader has to piece things together more so which I get (and liked) but Jess didn’t really fulfil her purpose. 

She’s also again rather meh. I liked her back story and her drive at times but on the whole she was quite irritating. The same goes for the rest of the characters where I did feel for some of them at times but there’s always this barrier up between them and the reader I feel. All are relatively unlikeable and unrealistic portrayals too. I think Ben was my favourite but more the best of a bad-mediocre bunch. A certain character’s sexuality being a plot twist-like part was a bit ‘eye roll’y to be honest, I liked the inclusion of a queer character but to make it a ‘what?!’ moment felt a little crass. At the end things are explained but I still felt like a few loose ends were left and I’m very 50:50 on if it liked it or not, I think some characters got off a bit too easily. 

Overall, I would still recommend this book but it’s moyen, it’s average and I was rather let down. I would be interested in reading more by Lucy Foley as it’s still well written just fell flat so maybe others can deliver where this got lost in transition. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Murder, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Child death, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Cursing, Alcohol, Slavery, Rape, and Police brutality

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

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

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

natgoe's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Violence

Moderate: Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Blood

sleepylit's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

It’s honestly a great story, but it has an extremely slow beginning in my opinion. It took at least ten chapters for me to stop falling asleep in the midst of reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Car accident, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, Suicide, Police brutality, Body horror, Classism, Domestic abuse, Violence, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Vomit, and Trafficking

aoife_03's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, and Trafficking

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Death, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Suicide, and Infidelity

Minor: Addiction, Infertility, Grief, Death of parent, Classism, and Homophobia

skersnick's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Murder, Infidelity, Death, Blood, Suicide, Violence, Deportation, Alcoholism, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

shull3464's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Murder, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Trafficking, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Blood, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

meaghanslibrary's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Hmm I feel like this is more in between a 3.75 and a 4. 

The way I realized the author writes mysteries is with light cliffhangers. The chapters are short and alternate points of view. Each chapter ends with a bit of a longing for wanting more but it’s not so much that you’ll get nightmares or stay up all night thinking about it if you don’t read the whole book in one sitting.

To some extent, I enjoyed that for the health of my sleeping habits. But on the other hand, I think the best mysteries on the ones I couldn’t put down.

The big twist that they were a family really got me that had a lot of shock factor. But after that the subsequent twists I semi expected. For instance the connection between the housekeeper character and the granddaughter seemed the most obvious. The wine cellars being used as a way to pay for women was not surprising. The fact that Ben was still alive was kind of shocking although I did suspect the dad was in fact killed but that Ben probably also was killed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Classism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infertility, Alcoholism, Blood, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Vomit, Alcohol, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Trafficking