Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

35 reviews

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

Minor: Pedophilia, Suicide, Abortion, and Domestic abuse

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

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

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

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

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

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

prairieraven's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, Confinement, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Blood, Body shaming, Classism, Cursing, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, and Drug use

siobhanward's review

mysterious 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? Yes

2.5

 The whole time I was reading this, all I could think about was the Nancy Drew computer games from the mid 2000s - aka Jess just wandered into people's private spaces and snooped around without ever really getting caught or facing consequences. Some of the twists were cool, but so many of the characters and plot lines were underdeveloped to the point that it felt like a long novella more than a novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

tashtasher's review

dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, and Trafficking

Minor: Classism