Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

286 reviews

jmdressel's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

an absolute page turner. i only ever put this book down when i was forced to! loved the first person voice from multiple characters. 

the pace was medium throughout, with the end resolution coming in waves rather than all in one bite. 

timeline was a bit difficult to follow in some instances, as each chapter is no longer than a few pages before the POV switches again. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Trafficking, Stalking, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Vomit, and Deportation

ernis's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

3.5

A few great twists but the ending felt lackluster.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Trafficking

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.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Murder

thecryptsleeper's review against another edition

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.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Trafficking, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

the foster care system

aharper's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Trafficking

Minor: Deportation

lee_s's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Trafficking

marissanbullis's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Trafficking, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Drug use, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

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.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

emo_erudite's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

This book was pretty crazy and suspenseful throughout, up to the end. 

Jess goes to see her brother in Paris, but when she gets there, he’s nowhere to be found. Starting off, I know something isn’t right about this. Throughout the story we are given clues to what may have happened to Ben and who might be responsible through different character POVs, all of whom are living in this complex. One by one, their flaws and motives begin to surface as Jess is poking around and asking questions about Ben. But it turns out that none of them can be trusted. 

I probably blew through this one way too quick, but it was really good. I love a good thriller/mystery, and this one ticked all of my boxes. The plot wasn’t obvious even though there were clues- I wasn’t sure who was responsible for Ben’s disappearance up until the end. The illicit activities of some of the characters weren’t a surprise because that is a plot device in so many books now. The human trafficking is unfortunately common in all countries in modern times, but how it links back some of the women in the book was unexpected. Foley did a great job of bringing everything full circle and wrapping it up for us with a neat little bow at the end. 

Question- Am I the only one thinking that Ben was dead the whole time? I swore at the end they were going to find a dead body up in that attic! I did not expect him to be alive!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Trafficking, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape and Stalking