Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

21 reviews

jenna_justi2004's review against another edition

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

tori2629's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

I enjoyed this book a lot! I listened on Audiobook, and the pacing and progression kept my interest from start to finish. Sure, I guessed one or two things early on, some of the details were not super subtle, but that said, I'd say three main "reveals" were still surprising to me. None of the characters were particularly "likeable", but in this case, I didn't mind. I honestly liked it just as much as The Guest List, and I have her other books on my To-Read list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Medical trauma, Drug abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Confinement, Infidelity, Drug use, and Mental illness

julied'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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

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

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: Slavery, Trafficking, Misogyny, and Mental illness

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death of parent, Drug use, Fatphobia, Blood, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

sfeldmann's review against another edition

SPOILERS

I think my soul just died before the new year. My lord, I try not to rant too hard on author’s works because they are someone’s blood sweat and tears, but this book was just not good. 

You meet the characters and honestly, none of them are people I’m invested in or want to root for. They don’t have any redeeming qualities about them. I got to the 60% of my audiobook and called it. Like after Ben kissed Mimi and then later he reveals he was listing after her mother?! I just could not continue that weirded me out more than any bloody gore ever could. I was just so uncomfortable. 

I just can’t with this book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcoholism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Sexual assault

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Self harm, Sexual violence, Stalking, Addiction, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Grief, Kidnapping, Vomit, Abandonment, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Rape, Gun violence, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Medical content, and Pregnancy

cfarrokh's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

_inge's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

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

3.75

Yet another Lucy Foley book I devoured in two days. I love how she’s able to set a tense atmosphere from the first pages, even a cat jumping up suddenly feels really creepy. This book has a different premise than The Hunting Party or The Guest List, in that we do know who’s murdered

(although it turns out we don’t after all)

so we follow mostly Jess as she investigates. We get the viewpoints of other characters too, but Jess’ sections is where the plot really progresses. It felt more like a typical crime novel this way. The author tried to keep tension throughout this book, though the lack of any quieter moments meant this dwindled after a while. The middle section feels a lot less tense than the first and last sections of this book. Still, this was a really enjoyable read. Everyone’s flawed (and very frisky for some reason) and the personalities felt very vibrant.

I do wish the concierge would’ve been explored further. Where’s she off to, and why would the family even need one in the first place? For this genre and the constant tense atmosphere I expected a very dark ending. This ending was a lot more positive, and came very abruptly. I don’t know how Jess managed to find finances for a trip abroad, or a studio to say the least, and why would Ben even want to stay after all that’s happened? Wouldn’t it have been nice to stay together for a while longer?

Still, all in all I had a really good time reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Suicide, Sexual content, Trafficking, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Vomit, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Murder, Drug abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

beckyremillard's review against another edition

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? Yes

3.5

Jess is trying to escape her old life in England, so she calls her brother, Ben, to ask to stay with him in Paris. However, he’s not there when she arrives the next day and his apartment isn’t exactly what she expected. 

The story is told from the perspective of Jess, as well as others who live in the building (Nick, Sophie, Mimi) and the concierge. 

I thought this book was well written, but it was very slow and not very shocking. Everything was laid out so I was able to predict it before we were told. 

Except Ben in the maid’s chambers. I didn’t know where he’d be but I wasn’t expecting her to come across him then.

 

Even though it was slow, the end seemed a bit rushed. 

I really liked the author’s other books but this one just was just okay to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Murder, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Trafficking

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

criticalbooks's review against another edition

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Alcoholism, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Cursing