Name: Katie's review of The Apartment by K. L. Slater
Item: The Apartment
Rating: 2
Author: Katie

K. L. Slater

It's an opportunity she can't refuse. The woman before her tried... Freya Miller needs a miracle. In the fallout of her husband's betrayal, she's about to lose her family home, and with it the security she craves for her five-year-old daughter, Skye. Adrift and alone, she's on the verge of despair until a chance meeting with the charismatic Dr Marsden changes everything. He's seeking a new tenant for a shockingly affordable flat in a fashionable area of London. Adder House sounds too good to be true... But Freya really can't afford to be cynical, and Dr Marsden is adamant she and Skye will be a perfect fit with the other residents. But Adder House has secrets. Even behind a locked front door, Freya feels as if she's being watched: objects moving, unfamiliar smells, the blinking light of a concealed camera... and it's not long before she begins to suspect that her dream home is hiding a nightmarish reality. Was it really chance that led her here--or something unthinkably dark? As the truth about Adder House starts to unravel, can Freya and Skye get out--or will they be locked in forever?

The Apartment

Katie

Domenico Di Leo

The antagonist reveals itself to the reader in the very beginning of the book, and you are left with discovering the truth through the eyes of the protagonist, who tells her story in little details. This, I felt, worked very well as it kept me hooked since the beginning of the story. While the book is entertaining, I felt that the end was a bit too rushed, and I would have liked an explanation to some early events in the book, for example the sweets and the card sent to Skye's old school. A good read overall

I didn‘t hate it, but I think the book wasn’t as creepy as it thought it would be. I only completed it because it was so easy to read and I wanted to see if I was correct with my assumptions about the ending. 

Tabea

I really liked this book. It was the first mystery/thriller book I've read. I loved the writing and loved the story. It was really captivating!

Samantha Hocking

Dave | Storyphoria

FULL REVIEW ON THE WEBSITE AT:
http://aicstories.com

The Apartment is a psychological/mystery/thriller that plays on an ever increasing tension to keep you wondering what is happening and just how Freya will manage to see her daughter and herself through this paradise turned hellscape situation they find themselves in.

It explores the psyche of the human condition at it’s most basic levels and we’re brought on a journey of terror as we see how easy it is to manipulate the perception the world has of someone, thus controlling another human life. That part… well… it IS pretty horrifying even without the supernatural evil being present.

A solid and creepy premise that just missed a golden opportunity and landed a bit flat. I didn’t hate it, just didn’t love it more than “it was alright”.

Lauren Tabor

** spoiler alert **
           This wanted to be The Turn of the Key or Lock Every Door so badly, but it did not do what it set out to do in my opinion. I do think the premise behind it was quite clever. I remember taking a psychology class in college and we learned about 'little Albert' and the experiments done on him, so it was a really creative idea to kind of give a back story to that whole experiment. But that is the only thing it had going for it, the execution of this was not good. 
The entire first half of the book absolutely nothing happened. It was horribly boring, the characters were stale. The entire plot fell apart in the end when I realized there was no actual reason for anything and also no reason for it to be stopped. First of all Lily had what reason to continue the experimentation?? None. It felt like a really cheesy villain trope where they have no real merit for anything they are doing. Nothing was done to her, she had no trauma, it was just because she felt like the experimentation needed to continue on even though probably 99% of society could see how unethical the historical experimentations were. It was ridiculous. Also the fact that she was holding NOTHING over anyone so why couldn't Audrey, Matthew, Dr. Marsden, or Susan have done anything to stop her?? She was an OLD woman for crying out loud....obviously mentally unstable, there was absolutely no reason they couldn't have stopped her. What were they afraid she was going to do? There were no threats to their lives or any kind of repercussion to them stopping her. And in the end all Freya did was push her down he stairs and magically everything ended?? Like the whole family was like, 'oh she's finally dead, we can stop the charade now'. what?!?!?! It all made no sense. There was literally no point to any of this. And frankly, Freya was kind of an idiot...everything that happened was happening too perfectly. She obviously knew something was going on and she stayed anyway. I feel like there were a lot of lose ends and they never got tied up. This book did nothing. 







Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review.

Madhuri Sridhara

It was a page turner but with a completely contrived plot. I knew it was not going to be a life changing book and that it wasn't going to thrill me in any way. But I wanted to find out what happens just the same. It was a fun way to pass the time especially when you're cooped up inside. 

The characters are dumb and I couldn't understand why the protagonist or anyone in the book did anything they did. But again, it's fine cause this is what I expected. 

Just please try to avoid the audio book as the voice of the little girl is unbearable to listen to.

Amanda Autumn Berrey

hmmmmm

it was good but it did feel like it was dragging. i expected the correct person the whole time but it was written well so i don’t mind

Mary Baldwin

This is the first thriller in a long time that gave me the creeps. I guess that makes it a successful thriller.

I find this book really hard to review, I didn’t dislike anything specific other than that the ending felt rushed. But I also didn’t love specific things either - that said; it had me turning pages and I read it in two sittings.

The story follows a mother and daughter who relocate to an apartment after an inviting offer from a stranger. The apartment and the building’s occupants aren’t what they expected!

There is a cleverly woven back story which really added some depth to the book, and definitely turned up the creep factor for me!

The plot drives most of the book, but the characters are clearly presented and come to life through it. You quickly know who you love and hate… but might then feel like changing your mind!

You’ll love this if you’re in the mood for a well written but no nonsense plot, a diverse character cast, and you don’t mind a bit of eeriness!

I was looking for an interesting, suspenseful mystery, and instead I got an abandoned housewife walking around feeling sorry for herself for 266 pages.

Following the death of her husband, Freya has to quickly find a more affordable place to live, and the too-good-to-be-true apartment in Adder House pops up at just the right time. Because this is a mystery, things are not as they seem. However, this book wasn't spooky enough for my taste! None of the suspenseful moments were drawn out or had any tension to them at all. Instead of letting the reader sit in that anxiety, creepy moments were quickly cut short. We just followed Freya around as she felt more and more sorry for herself. There were aspects of the story that were brought up close to the beginning, and then would pop up again much later on without being fully interwoven into the story. It was an incredibly poor and ineffective attempt at foreshadowing.

I did like the aspect of the story set in the past. I thought it set up the present-day events well, and gave just enough information to feel like I had an idea of where the story was going without showing its whole hand. That being said, when the end did happen, I felt let down. Everything was resolved way too quickly for such a messy lead-up. The writing style itself was fine, nothing really to complain about but nothing remarkable either. This book was just sort of disappointing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy free for review. All opinions are my own.

Adrianna Giunta

This is the first book I’ve read by K.L. Slater and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. This gave me major “Lock Every Door” vibes which is another of my favourite thrillers. I can’t wait to read more from this author!

Bruno Darío

Mezclas Home Before Dark y The Woman In the Window y tienes The Apartament. Agobiante y estresante de la mejor manera posible. Solo el final de me queda un pelínnnnn cojo. Pero vale la pena por lo mucho que se disfruta el resto de la lectura.

Sharon Steinman

I started reading this book and was really enjoying it. Very suspenseful and it kept me wondering what was going to happen next. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced readers copy

Juliana Matias

I didn't want to write a review of this book, but I feel like I need to note (even to myself) why I disliked this so much.

First of all, the narration. While I didn't object to all of it, the portrayal of the 5-year-old grated on my nerves. It was just a 5yo, who talked in grammatically perfect sentences, but sounded like the bride of Chucky. Whenever the kid had a line I had a shudder and had to keep convincing myself to keep listening.

Secondly, the main character. Unfortunately, she was the exact depiction of 3 tropes I absolutely abhor.

1. She was stupid: There is no other way to put it. She was not innocent or naïve, she was not fooled by complex and believable plot. She was plain stupid and made ridiculous choices all throughout this book.

2. She played the victim: there are few things in life that annoy me quite as much as people (in life as in fiction) who think and act as if "woe is me", and that they are a victim of circumstances. Guess what? Everyone has bad things happen to them, some more and some less, but having your husband cheat on you is hardly the end of the world. And even if it was something worse, pick yourself up for your kid, and move on. Regardless of the actual events taking place, the mental dialogue of someone who sees themselves as a victim, as someone to whom things are happening, drives me spare.

3. I don't enjoy the: "I am homeless/broke and have nowhere to stay" trope in books. There is nothing necessarily wrong with it, it is just not my cup of tea.

And finally, the plot was just not believable, and I did not consider the twist to be a twist. I feel like whenever you see in a book that everyone is suspicious and there is suddenly 1 "nice" character not fitting in, clearly that character is the big bad. That is not a twist in my book.

Wow, I have written a lot for someone who did not plan to write a review. But I feel better having ranted about it now.

Maybe I have been too hard on the book and it should be rounded up to 2 stars, but I really don't feel like it.

Katie &
The Apartment by K. L. Slater

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The Apartment by K. L. Slater