Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

57 reviews

rokinjaguar's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed the writing, characters, and mystery. It really held my interest and felt smart and just well-done. There was a

roofie scare

I didn’t love and there was too much sex in the story imo, but other than that I really enjoyed it and would be interested in reading another book by this author!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Deportation

throwback682's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Somewhat of a love it or hate it type book. I wish I could rate it on how much I enjoyed it (3.0) vs. how much I think many others might enjoy it (4.25). I saw five star reviews written in excited all caps, and a one star that said they wish they could fight the book next to a Burger King dumpster LOL. 

As others said, I think it kind of dragged on. Some of the twists were predictable - but I find it hard to believe the reviews where people said they predicted ALL of them. The ending did really shock me. Part of me wishes I’d read Cliff’s Notes of the first half of the book and listened to the second half. 

For a long time I thought perhaps the family secrets had something to do with

Nazis. Because of Nick’s comment in the Cave about the Gestapo, the mysterious origins of Sophie and the concierge. etc.

I’m not sure if that was intentional or just me?

The audiobook narration seems to be where I differ from most reviewers. I found this book corny at times, and the acting was EXTRA corny. I rolled my eyes at Sophie’s going on and on about how thin and put together she is, but listening to Mimi speak was 10x worse. I don’t see why one actor can’t do all the characters: in fact, the actors DO play multiple characters. When Nick speaks in Jess’s chapters, Jess’s actor voices his quotes, not his actor. That could’ve been done through the whole thing. It just felt really cheesy in an already kind of cheesy book. [I had the same problem with the audiobook for the Hunting Party.]

The audiobook recording includes a podcast interview of the author at the end, and honestly, hearing some analysis of the book improved my opinion of it somewhat. I don’t think there are any spoilers in it? So I might recommend folks listen to that before they listen to the book itself perhaps? 

NOTHING in this book was the bisexual representation we wanted.

Three members of the same family fucking or trying to fuck the same guy was… Yeah, corny, like I said. And then Nick, who’s already fooled around with Ben, also almost sleeps with Ben’s sister? But oops he’s actually completely gay and it’s only because she reminds him of her brother. Eye roll. And yes I knew way before the “reveal” that Mimi’s roommate was f**king Antoine’s wife. Nice try.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Minor: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Abortion

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

jenna_justi2004's review

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

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

5.0

Ohmygod so good. Like the best read of the year so far. Multiple point of views, each complicated and confusing  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

bringmybooks's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Wow, that's, uh, that's a lot

B̷R̷I̷N̷G̷ ✨ 𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪 ✨ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

I told my friend that I had never read any of Lucy Foley's books but had borrowed The Paris Apartment and The Guest List from the library - she told me she much preferred The Guest List (and most other people seem to feel the same way) - so I thought, "Ok, well then I'll read The Paris Apartment first, so it can only go up from here!"

And, well, let's hope it goes up from here. This one was very middle of the road for me, a lot a lot a lot a lot of content warnings (some unnecessary, imo) but there were a couple of twisty twists so I guess that's fun. 

It's hard to say "Oh, I don't think you should read this," because it's a fast paced, quick read, and if you super enjoy that kind of suspenseful thriller book I think you might like it. But at the same time if someone asks me to recommend them a suspense / thriller book, this isn't the first (or second .... or third) one I would go for.

Now on to The Guest List...!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

tori2629's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this book a lot! I listened on Audiobook, and the pacing and progression kept my interest from start to finish. Sure, I guessed one or two things early on, some of the details were not super subtle, but that said, I'd say three main "reveals" were still surprising to me. None of the characters were particularly "likeable", but in this case, I didn't mind. I honestly liked it just as much as The Guest List, and I have her other books on my To-Read list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Trafficking, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Classism

neurospicyreader's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I'm stuck between 2 and 3 stars. It was fine, but I didn't really connect with the story. I finished it quickly because I had to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction

lillyrose97's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

alisonfaith426's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Trafficking, and Classism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Confinement, Grief, and Abandonment

kt2e56's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

An interesting set up! Unfortunately, some shoddy performances (Mimi and The Concierge both stand out) and some truly baffling “twists” with a laughable amount of plot holes sort of takes away from what could have been an interesting mystery. 

I think hiring actual French voice actors (or in the case of The Concierge, an Albanian voice actor) would have helped quite a bit.

I also don’t believe for a second that there was any chemistry or romance between Jess and Theo so that was pretty funny to have them just fuck randomly in a bathroom.

Speaking of Jess, she was Bella Swan levels of bland which was extra apparent when other characters would try and describe her as “fiery” or “brave” or “in love with danger.” She’s quite literally none of those things? She’s just a blank slate protagonist that spends all of her time moping.

Another chemistry issue was between

Sophie and Mimi. By the end, suddenly Sophie is supposed to be a warm, doting, devoted mother? Even though for 99% of the book she doesn’t mention having children (step or otherwise) and Mimi goes on and on about her issues with her father but also never once mentions that she has a mother that she’s super close with? Really? I think the author picked the family twist without putting any actual effort into executing it realistically because it really just doesn’t hold up. At all.

This was a big disappointment for me. I’ve seen it hyped up and it really did have me interested in those first few chapters but it just seemed to spiral out of control from the author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Blood, Death of parent, and Gaslighting