the paris apartment by lucy foley

book review #4

disclaimer: this review was written in 2023 and reviewed and added on for this blog post specifically.

Wow. That is my first word for this book review. It is only the first, although I felt speechless when I finished reading it. Now, I have a whole lot of comments to make. 

It was such a fascinating book to read and so captivating to my attention that when I started reading, I could barely put it down to do my other week's chores. 

"The Paris Apartment" by Lucy Foley is easily one of the best books I will read during this year of 2023. Her writing is short but full of information, and the chapters are intense and interesting. I am not going to lie; I have the ability to see through a plot or put two-and-two together easily, and this book was no different. The final was surprising and made me feel full of adrenaline. 

Two characters in this book are constructed mainly by other characters' explanations: Ben and Jacques. They are so well constructed, and even so, we only get their participation via someone else's POV. (I know the book starts with Ben's POV, but that is it for him.)

Initially, Ben is portrayed as a great, big adoptive brother to our main character, Jess. He is also portrayed in his past with rich people as very flirtatious and a little bit of a fluid lover; he would have love or sexual interactions with both sexes. However, as the book starts heading toward the "good stuff," we realize that he is not all that good. He is more human, flawed, self-centered, and dangerously ambitious.

Jacques is portrayed as a very rich Parisian businessman who has the perfect family on the outside but is not that great on the inside. 

One of the super smart things about this book is the language tricks and dual use of English and French.

My favorite part is when Jess discovers that her "friend" Nick Miller is part of this dysfunctional and crazy family, the Meuniers. She realizes that by opening a dictionary and figuring out the trick of their name, 

Some characters remain quiet or repetitive in tiny, focused storylines, but towards the end, they open up to different pathways to the final plot. 

A plot twist that I was so sure about did not happen. Throughout the book, we are introduced to the nameless Concierge character. Her story is that she went to Paris to go after her daughter, Elira,  and help her care for the child she was carrying. Somehow, she gets tied up with the Meuniers. Her daughter is given as dead in childbirth, but her granddaughter is illegally adopted by Sophie, Jacques' wife (and a very important character). Further in the reading, we get to know this lady, Irina (which I thought could be a plot, as she is Elira and somehow survived but was living undercover to protect her image). Irina mentions the Elira story to Jess and the newspaper editor, Theo, so they might have a link somehow, and I really wish that had been explored more. 

I thought the POVs were very well done in the book. In each chapter, we know who is talking and which floor they live on or are at the current scene. I think it was such a great idea to include the multiple POV; I might even say it is the best multiple POV I have ever read.

I read books by Sarah J. Maas, and even though I love her storytelling, her POVs are the worst when trying to figure out who is talking or being narrated. It just takes a while to get accustomed to her writing, but back to the review. 

The last 150 pages of this book are information after information after information…and it is all SUPER relevant to the final plot and to understand what really happened. As far as the reader knows, when they start the book, it is that Ben is either missing or dead due to the first chapter, and Jess arrives at this foreign place with people craving for her exit for no apparent reason besides the secrets they keep. 

This book also brings a lot of variants into the good or bad duality, such as good on the outside and rotten on the inside, or harsh on the outside and has some good left inside, and so many other variants…However, there were characters that just were what they seemed to be: good or bad. The character Nick was the one I felt was the most explored in this spectrum because he wants to help Jess and thinks he can actually be a good person, but he is already a bit rotten in his heart and mind.

Another smart and maybe not-coincidental aspect of the book is the possible reference to the Panopticon (an idea by social theorist Jeremy Bentham of an institutional building used to allow prisoners to be watched by one single security guard without them knowing if they are really being observed and when). This reference is to the Concierge who is always watching everything and everyone in the building (casually built in a U shape) by her perfectly placed cubicle. 

Lastly, I would like to touch on the actual plot itself, the discovery of the killer, and whether or not there were deaths. What I have to say about it is that everything was connected. All storylines, all tiny plots, and all information given throughout the whole book are important. 

So here is a recap WITH SPOILERS: Sophie was married to Jacques, but before that, she was one of the "special" dancers (or wines) from the club where he had his illegal business working. Mimi is not blood-related in the family, as she is the daughter of a dancer who died in childbirth. Antoine discovered about Sophie, so he started to blackmail her. Nick is attracted to Ben, and so are Sophie and Mimi. Sophie and Ben were having an affair. Nick knew and told Jacques. Mimi saw the affair develop when she was going to try to seduce Ben. Jacques came to Ben's apartment and tried killing him, but Mimi stopped it by killing Jacques. Sophie covered everything up and made it seem like Jacques was on a business trip, and Ben was always the main history of the book. Ben and Jess survive Sophie, Nick, and Antoine trying to kill them all (or at least silence them about the whole event). In the end, they all go their separate ways, and some get a tragic ending, such as Antoine killing himself. 

The epilogue for me was a problem, though, considering everything that happened, the main characters Jess and Ben had much less-than-ordinary endings. I was hoping they would get a better end to their storyline. 

In my personal opinion, was there a lot going on at once? Yes. It all made sense, however, and Lucy Foley's writing is so compelling and addicting that you want more and more at the end of it.

The Paris Apartment

Lucy Foley

368 Pages

William Morrow Publisher

Ready you soon,

Bea

Photo by: Bea Barros.