Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

62 reviews

rachelpacz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Classism, and Deportation

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.5

This really didn't do it for me. The reveal hit me like a nudge - I'm not sure why. The main narrator was doing like a brooding style voice, and maybe that came across as low-energy? The story was interesting, but I didn't really find it compelling. Maybe I would have if I had read it on paper? Glad that this wasn't my first book by Ms. Foley because I wouldn't be tremendously excited.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, and Blood

beeanka_reads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Trafficking

sweetteaandfiction's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.0

The Paris Apartment by @lucyfoleyauthor was an interesting and at times confusing but overall intriguing read. 

PROS: 
💻The twist left me with lots of theories, but I still didn’t see the exacts of that ending. 
📝I stayed on the edge of my seat trying to play detective 
💻That apartment building was described perfectly. I want to live there. 
📝The Concierge 
💻The fact I didn’t like anyone and wasn’t rooting for anyone, BUT I still just HAD to know. 

CONS: 
📝The jump from POV to POV every chapter and the movement from memory to present was just a lot. It added more to the confusion than helping lead me to the truth. 
💻There are some extremely heavy topics. Smex trafficking and forced smex work is something that will never get easier for me to read. 
📝Not enough cat content 

🐱🐱🐱🐱 out of five bloody kitten paws for the way that ending had my jaw on the floor 

#bookstagram #books #book #booklover #booknerd #bookaddict #readinglist #readinggoals #readingchallenge #hungryminds #readingrecommendation #readingrecommendation #bookreview #bookreviews #theparisapartment #lucyfoley #lucyfoleyauthor #lucyfoleybooks 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

fancyjess_party's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

tdawgg07's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Sexual content, Suicide, and Alcohol

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.

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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

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.

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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

chelle22's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

mi_bean's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol