Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

39 reviews

amyowen's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Took me awhile to get into it, but once fully immersed the story is amazing! Full of twists and turns some of which you don’t expect. Towards the end, my jaw dropped! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

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

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

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

books_hay's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Violence and Gaslighting

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Alcohol

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: Alcoholism, Death, and Murder

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

throwback682's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Somewhat of a love it or hate it type book. I wish I could rate it on how much I enjoyed it (3.0) vs. how much I think many others might enjoy it (4.25). I saw five star reviews written in excited all caps, and a one star that said they wish they could fight the book next to a Burger King dumpster LOL. 

As others said, I think it kind of dragged on. Some of the twists were predictable - but I find it hard to believe the reviews where people said they predicted ALL of them. The ending did really shock me. Part of me wishes I’d read Cliff’s Notes of the first half of the book and listened to the second half. 

For a long time I thought perhaps the family secrets had something to do with

Nazis. Because of Nick’s comment in the Cave about the Gestapo, the mysterious origins of Sophie and the concierge. etc.

I’m not sure if that was intentional or just me?

The audiobook narration seems to be where I differ from most reviewers. I found this book corny at times, and the acting was EXTRA corny. I rolled my eyes at Sophie’s going on and on about how thin and put together she is, but listening to Mimi speak was 10x worse. I don’t see why one actor can’t do all the characters: in fact, the actors DO play multiple characters. When Nick speaks in Jess’s chapters, Jess’s actor voices his quotes, not his actor. That could’ve been done through the whole thing. It just felt really cheesy in an already kind of cheesy book. [I had the same problem with the audiobook for the Hunting Party.]

The audiobook recording includes a podcast interview of the author at the end, and honestly, hearing some analysis of the book improved my opinion of it somewhat. I don’t think there are any spoilers in it? So I might recommend folks listen to that before they listen to the book itself perhaps? 

NOTHING in this book was the bisexual representation we wanted.

Three members of the same family fucking or trying to fuck the same guy was… Yeah, corny, like I said. And then Nick, who’s already fooled around with Ben, also almost sleeps with Ben’s sister? But oops he’s actually completely gay and it’s only because she reminds him of her brother. Eye roll. And yes I knew way before the “reveal” that Mimi’s roommate was f**king Antoine’s wife. Nice try.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Minor: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Abortion

midnightbelles's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

This kinda dragged and I didn’t love the split perspectives at times but it was pretty interesting to see how everything unfolded and to piece together the mystery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

shull3464's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jenna_justi2004's review

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

Ohmygod so good. Like the best read of the year so far. Multiple point of views, each complicated and confusing  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

bringmybooks's review

dark mysterious sad 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

2.75

Wow, that's, uh, that's a lot

B̷R̷I̷N̷G̷ ✨ 𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪 ✨ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

I told my friend that I had never read any of Lucy Foley's books but had borrowed The Paris Apartment and The Guest List from the library - she told me she much preferred The Guest List (and most other people seem to feel the same way) - so I thought, "Ok, well then I'll read The Paris Apartment first, so it can only go up from here!"

And, well, let's hope it goes up from here. This one was very middle of the road for me, a lot a lot a lot a lot of content warnings (some unnecessary, imo) but there were a couple of twisty twists so I guess that's fun. 

It's hard to say "Oh, I don't think you should read this," because it's a fast paced, quick read, and if you super enjoy that kind of suspenseful thriller book I think you might like it. But at the same time if someone asks me to recommend them a suspense / thriller book, this isn't the first (or second .... or third) one I would go for.

Now on to The Guest List...!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

neurospicyreader's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I'm stuck between 2 and 3 stars. It was fine, but I didn't really connect with the story. I finished it quickly because I had to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction