Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Het appartement by Lucy Foley

74 reviews

angorarabbit's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

1.75

Context: I wish I could remember the review that made me want to read this, I thought it was going to be more mystery and less thriller. 

 

TLDR:  I got hung-up on the foster care stuff, your mileage may vary. 

 

The plotting was pretty tight for the most part with a few plot holes that didn’t matter very much. The central mystery was interesting and fresh. Most plot twists were a surprise. 

 

My main problem came with the characterisation. The foster care system does heavy lifting in explaining Jess and Ben. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if there weren’t some important plot points that for someone somewhat familiar with the system are just plain unbelievable. I don’t know how much experience Ms Foley has had with the system but she might have benefited from an experienced beta reader.It’s rather like a non-Roma writer with a main character who is Roma and not having some Roma readers to advise them on Roma life. Just saying, “oh, they were in foster care so they are like this” is lazy. 

 

The ending felt like Ms Foley found her deadline approaching and her editor wanted a happy ending for all rewrite. Anyone surviving foster care could tell you that there never is a happy ending for everyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug use, Addiction, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Classism, Child abuse, Blood, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Bullying, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Trafficking, and Suicide

the foster care system

gracedunne's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Police brutality, Alcoholism, and Blood

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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

heidipretzel's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Murder, Stalking, Sexual content, and Trafficking

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Addiction, Blood, and Police brutality

duwella's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Mental illness, Police brutality, Alcoholism, Blood, Sexual assault, Rape, and Suicide

lyssjonesie's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual violence and Trafficking

Minor: Police brutality

katierosecrane's review against another edition

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

brookey8888'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? 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

anilourengo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

We follow Jess, who left her life in England to live with her brother Ben in Paris. When she arrives to Ben's apartment in Paris, she notices he disappeared, he isn't returning her calls and left the apartment without his wallet. So, she is convinced that something happened to her brother, and she won't stop until find what it was and where he is. She must start on his brother building, which seems to be full of weirdos. 

Unfortunately, is full of French bias, not because they are French are all promiscuous or are sexually driven... Mixing mystery with sexual content was definitely not my ally. With a big variety of personalities, I imagine a murder and identify the killer from the beginning, so most of the time I was really confused with all the sexual content, that for me was not necessary at all... Nevertheless, I didn't expect the twist at the end... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Blood, Alcoholism, Murder, Drug use, and Stalking

Moderate: Addiction, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death of parent, Infertility, Infidelity, Confinement, and Miscarriage

Minor: Self harm, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

suchallie's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

Overall a good read, different from the other two I’ve read by this author. The structure was interesting. The twists and turns often outed themselves just before they happened and it picked up far too much in the last 40 pages compared to the slow burn of the rest of the book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Infidelity, Alcohol, Murder, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, Blood, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, Police brutality, Vomit, and Classism

Minor: Suicide and Domestic abuse