Reviews with content warning for Death - The Paris Apartment

an absolute page turner. i only ever put this book down when i was forced to! loved the first person voice from multiple characters.

the pace was medium throughout, with the end resolution coming in waves rather than all in one bite.

timeline was a bit difficult to follow in some instances, as each chapter is no longer than a few pages before the POV switches again.

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abbyynormal's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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tdawgg07's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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morganeua's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

For some reason, I never felt myself get invested in this book. It might be because so many of the characters were hiding themselves for so long, I never felt like I could identify with them. It could also be because the book is set in Paris and the reader is supposed to suspend their disbelief in the English text, which the author aids by occasionally tossing in some French words in italics. But the italicized words felt a bit silly because it was always very basic things that even an English speaker probably understands. The plot is cleverly woven, but the book just didn't hit me emotionally.

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thecryptsleeper's review

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

I‘ve read three books by Lucy Foley at this point and this one sadly is not a stand out by her.

A common theme in her books is a murder mystery with multiple perspectives that all unravel the story as they share more of their POVs. For this book, it felt very convoluted and there were simply too many characters that were incredibly uninteresting to hear from.

Something special in The Guest List (my personal favorite so far) and The Hunting Party that was missing from this book was the atmosphere. Lucy can write beautiful settings and make you feel very unsettled by her characters and the surrounding location, but I didn’t feel that except only briefly for a second toward the middle. The book felt claustrophobic without exploring that feeling, something I feel she should have done to make it feel much more impactful considering the setting is in an apartment building where everyone around the main character is a suspect.

Despite disliking almost the entire book, the ending was still enjoyable to read and did a good job of repairing at least a tiny bit of my opinion about this book.

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