Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

62 reviews

_ami_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

5.0

The amount of times I visibly gasped in excitement and disgust is great, with the twists that I half expected and didn't see coming at all. It's just brilliant. And the audiobook with the various of voice actors switching for each POV??? My god, chief's kiss.

Bury me with this book like how they buried that body.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Cursing, and Blood

Moderate: Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Addiction, Death of parent, Death, and Confinement

Minor: Suicide, Slavery, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Deportation, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Fatphobia, and Infertility

bessadams's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Infidelity, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Sexism, Police brutality, Sexual content, Drug use, Drug abuse, Deportation, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Suicide

larareads's review

dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Homophobia, and Police brutality

kkopacetic327's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Addiction, Drug abuse, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Bullying

Moderate: Abandonment, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Misogyny

davinmotion's review

dark mysterious sad 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

This is my first book by the author. After reading through other reviews and taking the opinion of a friend, I’m surprised I enjoyed this book. I think the “dark” of the house is what intrigued me so much. I enjoy that it all comes together and I’ll admit that I didn’t guess the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexism, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Suicide

Minor: Police brutality, Cursing, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, and Trafficking

james1star's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This book was rather moyen (French for average… blame Google translate if it’s wrong) in all honesty. It started out great with our ‘main’ character Jess hastily arriving in Paris to live with her step brother Ben for some time but when she gets there he’s seeming disappeared and there’s some concerning clues in his apartment that make her question what’s going on. After sleeping if off she consults the other occupants in the building but no one really wants to help… and can she trust them? … and a mystery ensues. Most of the chapters are from Jess’s POV but we also get ones from Ben, Nick, Mimi, Sophie, and the Concierge who all live in the complex in the current timeframe with flashback moments to the near and more distant past. 

I’d say this book is very well written, it has suspense and a good story arc that builds up to the main twist with others along the way. From the start, I was really intrigued and on the whole it’s an easy, engaging read but it fell flat as the book developed. I liked the high angst and drama with the ‘what’s next?!’ cliff hangers at the end of the short chapters but then it gets rather meh. I think once or twice to build up this tension but then the situation not being as bad as we thought is okay but when it occurs multiple times the reader somewhat loses trust in the storytelling and, for me, become rather uninterested in following on - it’s a little like the ‘boy who cried wolf’ scenario where you don’t really care what’s going to happen as the book moves on because you can already tell it won’t be that bad afterwards. It’s billed as a mystery and yes I would still classify it as such but Jess isn’t really the best (or good in fact) at sleuthing out the clues as to what has happened to Ben. Instead she stumbles across things and continually makes herself known, I guess the reader has to piece things together more so which I get (and liked) but Jess didn’t really fulfil her purpose. 

She’s also again rather meh. I liked her back story and her drive at times but on the whole she was quite irritating. The same goes for the rest of the characters where I did feel for some of them at times but there’s always this barrier up between them and the reader I feel. All are relatively unlikeable and unrealistic portrayals too. I think Ben was my favourite but more the best of a bad-mediocre bunch. A certain character’s sexuality being a plot twist-like part was a bit ‘eye roll’y to be honest, I liked the inclusion of a queer character but to make it a ‘what?!’ moment felt a little crass. At the end things are explained but I still felt like a few loose ends were left and I’m very 50:50 on if it liked it or not, I think some characters got off a bit too easily. 

Overall, I would still recommend this book but it’s moyen, it’s average and I was rather let down. I would be interested in reading more by Lucy Foley as it’s still well written just fell flat so maybe others can deliver where this got lost in transition. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Murder, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Child death, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Cursing, Alcohol, Slavery, Rape, and Police brutality

gillianengelbrecht's review

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicide, Drug abuse, Deportation, Cursing, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Blood, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Minor: Physical abuse, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Gore, Trafficking, Self harm, and Pregnancy

bookcheshirecat's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Body shaming, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Domestic abuse, Suicide, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Rape, and Police brutality

emilywemily6's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

I didn’t like this book as much as the other Lucy Foley book I read. It felt so long with nothing happening for most of the book. At the beginning, the general vibe was eerie and suspicious, but as truths came to light for some reason the tone and atmosphere was less and less sinister. I guessed the culprit(s) early on, though didn’t know how everything fit together. The author did a good job at fitting lots of details together that seemed unrelated. I was unsurprised by the big reveals of the whodunit and while the twist at the end was unexpected, it wasn’t satisfying- it was more like, “oh, okay, that makes more sense I guess.” I haven’t read a lot of mysteries or thrillers, but this one felt predictable, especially as the pieces of the puzzle began sliding together. The dual timelines and memories in the narratives were a bit confusing too, especially the closer we got to the crime and the memories and present day were only a couple of days apart. Overall, an alright book, but nothing stood out to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Blood, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Alcohol, Violence, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, and Police brutality

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Grief

Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, and Deportation

kimberleysreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcoholism, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Slavery, Alcoholism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Rape, Alcohol, Cursing, Death of parent, Vomit, Abandonment, Car accident, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Drug use, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture