Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

71 reviews

lukewhenderson's review

dark mysterious slow-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

2.0

If you had just pitched me on the premise of this book, I would have expected an exciting, suspenseful read, but this was anything but. The reader is given every secret through the characters inner monologue and Jess, the main character, discovers little for herself or for the reader. It felt like my hand was being held the whole time. 

This book also really wants to be gothic but doesn’t do enough, in my opinion, to make the setting a character like great gothic stories do. The apartment and location could have been switched easily without it affecting the story, so it didn’t feel vital enough. 

Overall, it was a kind of boring book with good ideas, that if written differently could have been satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Trafficking, and Sexism

Minor: Suicide

sharkemoji's review against another edition

3.0

Jess was so annoying I couldn't stand her. I nearly dnfed because of how many “she gave me a look. a look that said [somethjng that cannot necessarily be put into a look]” and “i know her… idk why” or “i know him…. i can’t recall why he’s so familiar” 
but the twist was actually a bit exciting and the actual writing was really good. 

the nick being gay thing / them hooking up was so predictable from page 1 that I was actually disappointed. the Camille/Dominique thing fell super flat and I was not impressed by the "shock" it was supposed to provide. Camille could have moved in with some random dude that we never learned the name of. 
the date rape-esque scene in the middle was literally awful. i dont care that she didn't actually get date raped it was just so out of place and unnecessary. would have liked to see mimi do something more in line with anything she had already done (as she isnt a drug girl...so it was just...weird) to show her being like. crazy. idk. 
i liked the twist of jaques being buried in the garden!!!! that was super exciting i loved nick's reaction to the initial body and then the reveal that it was his father. amazing

  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

kkopacetic'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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Addiction, Drug abuse, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Bullying

Moderate: Abandonment, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Misogyny

lwoolfolk's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Infertility, Trafficking, and Stalking

kimberleysreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcoholism, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Slavery, Alcoholism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Rape, Alcohol, Cursing, Death of parent, Vomit, Abandonment, Car accident, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Drug use, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture

melliebean28's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

That ending... Was not expecting that at all. I love multiple POV setting and this delivered in the best way. The breadcrumbs left in each chapter and pov were so well put together.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Child abuse, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Suicide, and Sexual assault

wylda_bee's review

dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Incest, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Rape, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Confinement, Self harm, and Violence

knkoch's review

sad 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? Yes

1.0

Ahh, I think this will end up being the last Lucy Foley book I read. Her style seems pretty consistent to me, from The Guest List to this, but her whole oeuvre is just not for me. I liked the structure of this mystery slightly more than in The Guest List, but otherwise, I had a lot of issues with this book which in general aren’t worth outlining extensively.

The main issue is that I find her characters are near universally grim, shallow, and slimy. They’re the sorts of people I don’t want to understand better. And none are clever! None of them show presence of mind, resourcefulness, or intelligence. I found myself almost rooting against positive outcomes for any of them because it would have been more interesting than watching them slowly plod towards the truth. 

I think what drew me to these books were the settings, emphasized by gorgeous cover design. But that’s not enough to sustain a whole story, unfortunately.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Trafficking, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Addiction

There are lots of other CWs to note for this book, but the casual ranging to obsessive alcohol consumption bothered me particularly.

midnightbelles's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

This kinda dragged and I didn’t love the split perspectives at times but it was pretty interesting to see how everything unfolded and to piece together the mystery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Addiction, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Cursing, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Gore, Infertility, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

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