Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsThe Worst Book I've Read.. (SPOILERS)
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2022
'The Paris Apartment' is the worst book I've read this year. The writing is sophomoric and riddled with cliches, and Foley's portrayal of Paris is comically cartoonish. Also comical: peppering dialogue with the same handful of French phrases (in italics and immediately followed by an English translation), over and over throughout the book. (I lost count of how many times the word 'putain' was used, but it was at least every other page.)
Some reviews have complained that the characters are all unlikeable. I disagree; I don't think any of the characters are remarkable enough to be disliked. The pace was so slow it put me to sleep, and the plot was utterly anticlimactic. This read less like a suspense / thriller and more like a YA novel adaptation of a Law & Order SVU episode. Before I elaborate on that, let's get the summary out of the way.
**SPOILERS START NOW**
Habitual bad decision-maker Jess steals money from her boss and flees to Paris to hide out with her brother, journalist Ben. When she arrives, Ben is nowhere to be found — but his apartment smells like bleach, there are blood stains on the cat, and the neighbors are acting suspicious. All signs point to murder!
After flip-flopping POVs and some saucy flashbacks, we learn that the residents of No. 12 Rue des Amants aren't actually neighbors; they're family. And the family business is running a top-shelf brothel. Prior to disappearing, Ben was writing an expose on the Meunier family. He was also hooking up with pretty much everyone (what a putain, hehe).
When Papa Jacque Meuinier discovers what Ben has been up to, he tries to kill him. Daughter Mimi (who is madly in love with Ben) intervenes and kills Jacque instead. To protect her daughter (who isn't really her daughter), Matriarch Sophie (who is also in love with Ben) covers up the murder. Believing that they are disposing of Ben's body, brothers Fake British Nick and Angry Antoine bury their father's corpse. Meanwhile, Ben is alive and well (and probably wearing a beret and eating baguettes and doing other putain things) in the attic.
There are some other awkward, low-impact twists thrown in. For example.. Fake British Nick isn't really British. Snobby Sophie isn't really French. Angry Antoine is blackmailing Sophie. Ben and Nick hooked up in Amsterdam. Mimi is actually the daughter of a brothel worker, and the granddaughter of Unnamed Concierge. Camille and Dominique run off together.
Ultimately 'The Paris Apartment' fails to deliver a satisfying twist. Instead of building thematic suspense, Foley relies on the subject of sex work to infuse her story with shock value. I found this creative decision to be in really poor taste, especially when she leans so hard into the Eastern European sex worker / savior protagonist trope.
For example, here's an actual line of dialogue from the book (from a character named Irina, who has a 'thick accent' and an STI): "I speak English. I'm clever. I want a normal job. It's not what I came to this country for. I came for a new life."
While a competent writer could handle that sort of subject matter with grace and finesse, Foley does such a clumsy job that it just comes off insulting and cringeworthy.
