Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

42 reviews

mi_bean'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

krosebooks's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This book had interesting perspectives through the characters. I liked that the chapters were short and the writing style flowed well through out the book, keep pushing me through the book. The mystery side of things I found a little predictable, but I think the author used that on purpose because while I did predict some things I didn't predict everything that happened in the climax. 

Has Salt Burn vibes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

kathlynnsell's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

brookey8888's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was fine, thank for it was different then her other two books. I didn’t find anything shocking and was kind of bored for the most part , but it was interesting enough for me to finish. To be honest I would probably skip this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

books_hay's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Violence and Gaslighting

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Alcohol

kyrstin_p1989's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I almost DNF’d this which I never do because it was so slow — it felt like nothing at all happened for the first 150 pages or so. The end picked up and was actually really good, which saved this book from being a 1 or 2 star. I didn’t see a lot of what happened coming but not because of the mystery, just because it felt like nothing at all was revealed at the beginning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

whitls's review

dark mysterious tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, 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

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