Review: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
The Paris Apartment follows Jess, a woman who is down on her luck and decided to suddenly visit her estranged half-brother, Ben. Upon arrival at Ben's, she finds a very lavish apartment, a cast of questionable characters, but not Ben. Jess descends into the mystery of the situation, trying to find out what her brother was doing there, and why he is now missing.
Lucy Foley continues her use of character archetypes in order to quickly establish characters and then play with reader expectations. I really enjoy this, it is really great if you are the kind of reader that wants to solve the mystery as you read. It very much facilitates wild speculation and I love that. I also think it is just efficient use of page space and lets the reader dive into the plot immediately.
I think Foley's books get the reaction of "I hate these unlikable people" very often. I really hate this critique, I just absolutely do not understand people who only want to read about people they like. It just does not show any amount of empathy or willingness to connect to experiences outside of your own.
One thing I really liked was the way Foley handled the main character's traumatic backstory. What happened to her in the past is brought up throughout the text, but the ramifications of it are seamlessly woven into the text. Jess had a very unstable childhood where she lacked constancy in possessions, she now occasionally steals small items when she goes to new places. That inconsistent childhood has other effects we see on her life, making her distrustful of others, making her crave the approval of people she reads as stable, causing her to be constantly on the lookout for ways people could be screwing her. She is a really nuanced character that I felt for deeply.
I have been divided on how Foley handles mental health things in her past books, I continue that divide in this book. I did really like how she handled some characters, but there was one character I genuinely have no idea how to feel about the way they were written.
I did really like the way Foley writes plot reveals and tension. I flew through this book, Foley writes very proposivly. I really like the way that she writes the reveals, she does a good mix of letting the reader guess and surprising the reader. I was very much gotten by one of the reveals late in the story, I am always delighted when authors have something that surprises me.
Foley just writes a book that I can get lost in. I had a lot of fun reading and totally derailed what I planned to do with my day, but it was a whirlwind reading experience. I shall read Foley's future work.
Edit: There is also one line that implies a character was a Theranos investor and I loved that.
I gave this book four stars.
