Thank you to Celadon for supplying ARCs to my book club for us to read and discuss together.

I haven’t read Alexis Schaitkin’s previous release, Saint X, but I’m assuming this is quite different from that one. 

Vera and the stories of the other women isn’t the village drew me in and Vera’s journey kept me turning page after page. 

I think this book will be a big hit for those who love speculative fiction but don’t want any fantastical elements to it. I’m not sure how to describe this without copying the synopsis or spoiling the plot, but I will say this won’t be for everyone. 

Wow, I’m totally surprised that I enjoyed this. I’m so glad I went in blind for picking this one up.

Just needed a bit more, but I can’t think of what that would be. Some things were a bit underwhelming and left me wanting more with how shocking the ending was 

That ending though 👀

My third Lucy Foley and my least favorite. I seem to be in the minority with The Hunting Party being my favorite of hers, but I still stand by that after reading this one.

Three words to describe: Glad that’s over. 

I devoured this in the way that I kept hoping it would get better, but sadly it didn’t. If you read thrillers and mysteries a lot, I fear you’ll be in the same boat and will figure out the ending very quickly as I did. Every twist was expected and foreshadowed from very early on leading me to be disappointed. I did enjoy the multiple POVs, and wanted more from Mimi and the Concierge. 

It’s safe to say that if there’s one thing Foley does well, it’s her writing rich characters who don’t realize they’re bad.

While the the “apartment” behind the story is just as gothic as the apartment in Lock Every Door, I wouldn’t say this was a direct take on a Paris version on it like many have said. The apartment is less central to the plot here than it was in Lock Every Door and I wish it had played more of a role with the secret passage ways being used more. So no, this isn’t Lock Every Door (Lucy’s Version). 

Don't call it The Paris Apartment when the Paris vibes are basically nonexistent and the apartment doesn't really matter. 

I found that the man character, Jess, didn’t have enough background development compared to the other people in the “apartment”. Not only did we not learn much about her, what we did learn about her made her actions seem unrealistic. Someone with an abusive cop father going from foster home to foster home immediately trusting strangers and a cop that won’t speak English to her? Come on.

I think Foley spent too much time adding in side characters instead of developing the plot into something that could be more sinister in such a gothic setting. I wish she had developed Jess, Mimi, Irina, and the Concierge more because they were actually interesting. 

Making sexuality a plot device was a weird choice when it comes to how a character works their way in with the other characters and I didn’t care for it. It felt lazy along with a other things such as the inclusion of the riots. Anyways, Ben should be for the streets - not for the sheets. 

Most of the twists were expected and easily deduced from the foreshadowing: you tell someone not to go into the attic at the beginning?? HELLO, RED FLAG. Also, from the start the reader can tell something had been buried in the garden. 

This book will be for be someone, but it wasn’t for me!

Thank you LibroFM, Recorded Books, and Counterpoint for this ALC.

Build up to absolutely nothing is a great description for this book. What's the point of a character driven novel where some of the character's chapters add nothing to the overall book? 

The only redeeming part of this were the last few chapters because FINALLY something interesting happened only to end with nothing besides some of the siblings finally coming clean to each other. 

I've seen a few reviews saying that they predict this will become a classic that will transcend time and become a classic and I whole heartedly disagree. How can something become a classic when there is build up with zero delivery? Am I just not seeing what others are? Am I an idiot? 

I haven’t read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (hope to in 2022), but I’m guessing this is a pretty spot on retelling off it. 

This could have easily been read in a day if I had been able to sit down and read it all in a day. Only complaint from me is that I wish there had been a just even one bit of foreshadowing to the ending early on just to get the wheels turning.