Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Paris Apartment

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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bookcheshirecat's review

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

2.5

“It’s not about where you came from. What kind of shit might have happened to you in the past. It’s about who you are. What you do with the opportunities life presents to you.”

➽ This was my first Lucy Foley book and I'm unimpressed! The Paris Apartment is about Jess, who's down on her luck and hoping to stay a few days with her half-brother in Paris. When she ends up arriving at his apartment, Jess finds out that Ben's nowhere to be seen and might be missing. Something isn't right with the apartment complex and she plans to find out what happened to her brother. This book was painfully boring. Even the multi-cast audiobook couldn't save it. I didn't find the multiple POVs compelling and some perspectives were so offputting. The mystery was bland and I didn't find any of the characters memorable. I remember one of them being a teen girl and it was strangely vulgar at times. The author also did a thing where she left her scenes on a huge cliffhanger but then the next chapter is so underwhelming. She wants to convince you that something horrible is happening to the character, but it always turns out fine and more like a misunderstanding. After the first couple of times, it got on my nerves so much.

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aliteracja's review against another edition

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mysterious 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? Yes

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kyrstin_p1989's review

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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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ash_the_cryptid02's review

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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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved this book!! The first half was a bit slow, however it was very entertaining. There were some uncomfortable moments, but as a whole it was a great read. So many twists and turns. I also really liked the main character, she felt very real. If you like murder mysteries, I HIGHLY recommend this book!

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melaniesmolter's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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