Reviews with content warning for Murder - Het appartement

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Het appartement by Lucy Foley

330 reviews

morganeua's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

For some reason, I never felt myself get invested in this book. It might be because so many of the characters were hiding themselves for so long, I never felt like I could identify with them. It could also be because the book is set in Paris and the reader is supposed to suspend their disbelief in the English text, which the author aids by occasionally tossing in some French words in italics. But the italicized words felt a bit silly because it was always very basic things that even an English speaker probably understands. The plot is cleverly woven, but the book just didn't hit me emotionally.

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itscarleesmith's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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notlikethebeer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.25

This was a good, fun read that kept me hooked. To be honest, I found the earlier twists stronger than the later ones, although there were great moments sprinkled throughout - parts of the ending really had me questioning myself! I really enjoyed seeing how all the puzzle pieces fitted together.

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thecryptsleeper's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

I‘ve read three books by Lucy Foley at this point and this one sadly is not a stand out by her.

A common theme in her books is a murder mystery with multiple perspectives that all unravel the story as they share more of their POVs. For this book, it felt very convoluted and there were simply too many characters that were incredibly uninteresting to hear from.

Something special in The Guest List (my personal favorite so far) and The Hunting Party that was missing from this book was the atmosphere. Lucy can write beautiful settings and make you feel very unsettled by her characters and the surrounding location, but I didn’t feel that except only briefly for a second toward the middle. The book felt claustrophobic without exploring that feeling, something I feel she should have done to make it feel much more impactful considering the setting is in an apartment building where everyone around the main character is a suspect.

Despite disliking almost the entire book, the ending was still enjoyable to read and did a good job of repairing at least a tiny bit of my opinion about this book.

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angorarabbit's review against another edition

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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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