Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

34 reviews

wickedgrumpy's review

emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

1.25

...Yet another thriller that I did not enjoy.  It was filled with characters that had one main facet which was being awful.  Would not recommend.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Police brutality, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Violence, Vomit, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Grief, Sexism, Trafficking, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, Blood, Bullying, Body shaming, Child abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Infertility, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, and Suicide

chelle22's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Violence, Abandonment, Deportation, Sexual content, Suicide, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Stalking

emoxxecologist's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

This book was pretty crazy and suspenseful throughout, up to the end. 

Jess goes to see her brother in Paris, but when she gets there, he’s nowhere to be found. Starting off, I know something isn’t right about this. Throughout the story we are given clues to what may have happened to Ben and who might be responsible through different character POVs, all of whom are living in this complex. One by one, their flaws and motives begin to surface as Jess is poking around and asking questions about Ben. But it turns out that none of them can be trusted. 

I probably blew through this one way too quick, but it was really good. I love a good thriller/mystery, and this one ticked all of my boxes. The plot wasn’t obvious even though there were clues- I wasn’t sure who was responsible for Ben’s disappearance up until the end. The illicit activities of some of the characters weren’t a surprise because that is a plot device in so many books now. The human trafficking is unfortunately common in all countries in modern times, but how it links back some of the women in the book was unexpected. Foley did a great job of bringing everything full circle and wrapping it up for us with a neat little bow at the end. 

Question- Am I the only one thinking that Ben was dead the whole time? I swore at the end they were going to find a dead body up in that attic! I did not expect him to be alive!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexism, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Stalking and Rape

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

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

kiwichill's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

Many twists and turns which kept me in suspense.  The audiobook is narrated by different people for each character which enhances the experience 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Racism, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Alcohol, Cursing, Murder, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Classism, Domestic abuse, Outing, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Alcoholism, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Vomit, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Excrement, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, and Suicidal thoughts

fiercereadsfiction's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Murder and Sexual assault

Minor: Toxic friendship

chip8401's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Addiction, Murder, Sexual content, and Trafficking

sleepylit's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

It’s honestly a great story, but it has an extremely slow beginning in my opinion. It took at least ten chapters for me to stop falling asleep in the midst of reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Car accident, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, Suicide, Police brutality, Body horror, Classism, Domestic abuse, Violence, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Vomit, and Trafficking

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