Reviews with content warning for Self harm - The Paris Apartment

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

28 reviews

livreads54's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

I hated this book. There is so much to hate about it, but I’ll pick some of the most important elements. The characters all sucked. Not even in the way that they’re supposed to be unlikable, though I suppose they are. They’re just not interesting to read about. They all felt super one dimensional and boring. Also, there’s so much misogyny in this book you would assume it was written by a man. So much gets boiled down to “women are crazy, am I right”, which was super frustrating to read.

Also, the fact that LITERALLY EVERYONE was in love with Ben was horrible. It just felt so unrealistic and so unnecessary, and it was just bad writing too

On top of all this, there was a lot of unnecessary remarks that were completely unrelated to the plot, but were extremely upsetting. There was a lot of casual biphobia that was never addressed. There was also a weirdly graphic metaphor about self harm, which was super unnecessary. I tagged it as minor in my content warnings because it only came up once, but it was more detailed than it needed to be. All in all, I thought this book was a challenge to read and I do not recommend it at all.

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amyspag's review against another edition

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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

The constant French phrases with the English straight after felt like she was bulking the word count up. Like the French characters would be talking to each other, presumably in French, but then there would be a French phrase with its English translation after. I'm not sure why it bothered me so much lol but I think without it the book would of been 4 star but it just irritated me too much, when there was high tension and we would get the same sentence twice in two languages it felt like it broke the tension

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shesreadthat's review against another edition

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challenging 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? No

3.75

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annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

2.75

(adjusted from 3.25 to 2.75)
disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes really is the main character, no i will not elaborate
Ben must be a Greek god or something because why

does every character want to fuck him

. this man is constantly described as unbelievably charming, emphasis on the "unbelievably"—where was the "show, don't tell"? if he was that brainwashingly charismatic, shouldn't i as a reader also fall for his charm? but he was just like, there, which at least makes me admire Jess for going to all this trouble just for him.
speaking of Jess, sometimes she was irritating too when she's supposed to be our protagonist—like when she walks into a riot because "it sounded like a street party 😊" and just stands there as people run away from the approaching tear gas. come on now.
it's prob because i'm queer & we gotta look out for each other & i crave positive representation, but i wish

Nick

was a better person and had a better ending.
characters aside, the plot had some unexpected twists and was generally interesting, but i was mostly unimpressed. it had such a promising, atmospheric concept: murder in Paris, ooh la la, and all the apartment tenants are suspects; i think i heard it described as a locked room mystery, though i may be confusing it with another book. and then it just, wasn't and my hopes were let down.
cover design review: ★★★★☆. i like the background image, the symmetry, the colors for the most part (i think the background could be less green and more blue), and all the text, but other than that it's kind of bland.

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