Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

60 reviews

karen_lo's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I loved the book! 
Very fast-paced. I loved how you could read the character's different perspectives and how they were feeling—slowly discovering the truth! 
And so many plot twists! 100% recommendable for a mysterious, fast-paced book! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Misogyny, Suicide, Trafficking, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Sexual content, and Abandonment

juliette_95's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

nodogsonthemoon's review

dark mysterious 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? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

uranaishi's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Homophobia, Rape, Medical content, Abortion, and Pregnancy

applejacksbooks's review

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? No

3.25

Oh wow, so my brain has had a thing for mystery/thrillers recently and this was the next one on the list. So overall, I think it was a fine book. The twists and turns throughout the story weren't totally predictable, but I do find that I thought the story lines with timeline was a little disjointed at times. When it was clear that a flashback was taking place they worked really well, but there was a few times that I didn't think it did and it added to the confusion of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide

emilyepew's review

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

2.5

I finished this book about a month ago and I've thought of it on and off since then. In that time, I came to the conclusion that I did not enjoy this book. I need to preface this by saying that this is the first and only Lucy Foley i've ever read so my observations are based purely off this book.

Anyways.

My main problem with this book is how the women were portrayed in it. Of the nine main/secondary characters, five of them are women and ALL but one of them, the main character Jess, were portrayed poorly. I didn't immediately notice the issues with this story. However, once Camille was brought in the issues became extremely clear. Camille is basically, in other words described as a whore. She is described as having someone new in her bed every night, of always being in skimpy clothes, of behaving in ways that will make men want to sleep with her. And this i all that we learn about Camille. While Camille is a secondary character, we are given literally no other information than that she is a party animal on a question to sleep with everyone in Paris. She is a sex object.

Mimi, who is a main character and Camille's roommate is portrayed as this sad little virgin. However, she is often portrayed as only thinking about sex. Most of her actions regarding Ben are motivated by her desire to sleep with him. There is literally no other motivation that is given or indicated. The only reason she is present in this story really is that she wanted to sleep with Ben. And it also feels offensive that Camille is her roommate slash friend, as it feels like a lazy way of producing an odd couple dynamic of the girl who sleeps around and the girl who doesn't. Also Mimi continually pushes the narrative of "omg how could I NOT have had sex yet" even though she is literally 19 years old. This is overall a harmful narrative to push as if there's something wrong with you if you are in the same position.

The whole plot of the novel also hinges on the sexual exploitation and abuse of women. The problem with this is that there is literally no commentary made about the actions of the men involved in the club where these women are being exploited

beyond "omg very bad". 

Sophie as well is a terrible characterization of an older woman. Her main value throughout the entire book is that she is still sexually appealing. One could argue that this is a result of her past, however I personally feel that it is tired and stale for a woman's whole focus to be on aging well. Like at this point, this trope needs to be retired.

Overall, the way Lucy has written these women in this book is pretty dated and just overall really disappointing for a book that was released in 2022. Again, I have never read another one of her books so I don't know if this is the case throughout her backlist, however, seeing as this is her newest book, I'm going to guess that the rest of her books are pretty similar. Either that or she's become more sexist in her writing. Either way, Lucy Foley desperately needs to read some thrillers and learn that women can have motivations for their actions other than sex and beauty.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad 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

4.75

If there was now diversity, this would have easily been 5 stars. I loved the story and the twists. Most were predictable but there was one in particular I didn’t think about and was shocked by. The story felt like a mix between Only Murders in the Building and Twin Peaks

(the secret club/trafficking aspect)

I think this would be a really fun aspect for the author to play off of (Jess solving ~mysteries~). 

The main gripe I have other than lack of diversity is the protest portion of the story. It doesn’t add anything interesting to the story nor is it necessary (imo).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

diegolopez's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective 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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Infertility, Sexual content, Blood, Trafficking, Stalking, and Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Infidelity, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Police brutality

thefaultismine's review against another edition

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Biphobia, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

rharris86dc's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  It was dark and twisty, with an air of mystery that ran through to the end.  I had a feeling that there would be a plot twist, based on the heavy foreshadowing, but I was still pleasantly surprised that I wasn't able to figure it out on my own.  
I stayed up late to finish, because when I got to a certain point, I couldn't stop and needed to know what happened next.

I did have one issue with the text: after Jess finds out the big secret, the wording she used really irked me.  It was something along the lines of "they made they money from women selling themselves."  When in fact, the women were NOT selling themselves, they were BEING sold, which is a huge difference, and amounts to human trafficking.  I'm kind of appalled that that was not a bigger issue and plot point; it did feel very glossed over, and I think it should have been addressed more seriously.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Trafficking