Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

28 reviews

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: Alcoholism, Death, and Murder

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

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

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, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

crystalleighwrites'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

3.5

An interesting exploration in multiple first person pov narrative. The first half felt very slow and some of the “secrets” were telegraphed early on so suspense was taken out of those. 
Picked up in second half. Overall, a good read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Infertility, Suicide, Blood, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

zosiablue's review

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

3.5

OK first, there a scene where two characters make out after being tear gassed and I'm upset because this happened to me IRL and I was saving it for MY novel! It's really bizarre to kiss someone who's just been tear gassed! Anyway,

Fun enough! Paris, weird Succession-style family, Eyes Wife Shut-esque night club, a whippet named Benoit, lots of incidental French, murder, mystery, pastries. Agatha Christie locked room style like Foley does well. I would like a whippet, a croissant, and a cigarette now please.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Slavery, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Suicide

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

t_scottreviews's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

4.5 Stars
CAWPILE = 7.93

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

julied's review

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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

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

franklola's review

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Confinement, Infidelity, Mental illness, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Deportation