This story was a little slow to get going, and at first I thought I was going to be disappointed in it. I don't know when I've been so wrong.
When the book begins. the home invasion has already occurred and Mark and Steph are living in the aftermath. They have somewhat grown apart in the marriage, partially due to the break in, and partially because Mark had already faced some traumatic events before the break in ever occurred. The story is told in alternating points of view, switching back and forth between Mark and Steph. They no longer feel comfortable in their own home and do not seem all that comfortable with each other, at least not enough to confide in.
A friend suggests a getaway, but money is tight since Mark is the sole provider and Steph is a stay at home mom to their small daughter.
When an opportunity presents itself to stay in Paris free via a house swap website it sounds like a dream come true. They head off with high hopes that this will be just what they need to reconnect with each other and to put the trauma of the past behind them.
Those hopes are short lived. At this point the story picks up speed from a slow build to an avalanche of terror and suspense. From the minute they arrive there is a feeling that something is just plain wrong. The apartment is not at all what they expected and the building itself appears abandoned, except for a strange woman upstairs who has never heard of the people who supposedly live there, and who tells them this building is "not for living."
Circumstances go from bad to worse and the creepiness factor rises exponentially.
I have been reading adult horror since I was 11 years old and it takes a lot to scare me. S.L. Grey has succeeded in doing just that with The Apartment.

I received an advance copy for review ( )

I listened to this on Audible. It has two narrators, Nicholas Guy Smith and Fiona Hardingham. I thought they were good with Ms Hardingham being the stronger narrator. I would listen to them again.
This story kept me listening. I was thinking it was a thriller but, after listening to it, I think of it as more paranormal horror. After a home invasion a couple decides to swap houses with a couple in another country. They really can’t afford a getaway so they think a house swap would be an ideal way to get over the trauma of the home invasion. They meet the other couple online and exchange home photos. An agreement is reached and they are off on their getaway. So far, it sounds good. Then they arrive to find the apartment is nothing at all like the photos. They would like to go to a hotel but aren’t able to. They stick it out in this horrible apartment. Cautionary tale of house swaps, right? Then it gets super strange. The husband finds buckets of human hair in the closet for one strange thing. It gets worse from there. When they return home, they find that whatever that was in the apartment has followed them. Yikes!
I loved the idea of a house swap. Has anyone not watched a Christmas movie where someone swapped houses? I loved those movies! They had me convinced of how fun it could be. Until I listened to this book, that is. Oh my goodness, you need to listen to this during the day! All the romance of house swapping will go right out the window. I’ll stay home, thank you very much.
( )

I had to laugh at one of the other reviewer's description of this novel as "non-stop horror"...no. Not so much. Not even close.

I'm a massive, massive fan of one-half of the two authors that comprise the "S.L. Grey" name. Sarah Lotz is, in my opinion, a terrific author. Haven't read anything by Louis Greenberg, the other half, and this book did nothing to push me toward seeking out any of his work.

This story was just a really big miss for me. Little was explained, little made sense, nothing was scary, and overall, the entire story was, with a few exceptions, shockingly mundane. I think the biggest miss for me was the fact that we only got the surface of everything. The death of the first daughter, the loss of the first wife, the impact of some of the bigger events of the story.

Instead, we were treated to pages of hand-wringing, of "oh well, we're in Paris, let's make the best of this", of "she loves me, she loves me not."

Had someone handed me this as a freshly-printed manuscript, I would have suggested that the author had written a story just as it occurs to them, with little attention to actual plotting, suspense, or character development. It felt very much like a series of hastily-created scenes barely strung together with any coherence.

They're here, and this happens.
They go there, and that happens.
They're over here, and this happens.
They go home, and this happens.

Nope. ( )

Most of my problems with this book originated with this statement in the book's synopsis:

"The Apartment is a terrifying and tour-de-force of horror, of psychological thrills, and of haunting suspense." I'm sorry to report that for me, it was NOT any of these things.

A South African couple survives a home invasion/robbery physically unscathed but emotionally beaten and drained. At the suggestion of a friend, they decided to do an apartment swap with another couple from Paris. They have basically no money since the robbery and this is a good way for them to get out of their house on the cheap. Instead of being the romantic vacation they had hoped for, they arrive in Paris to find a nearly abandoned building and a disgusting, filthy apartment.

My issues start right here at the beginning of the story. After having their home invaded and robbed by strangers, why oh why would they want to turn it over to another set of strangers? That made no sense to me. (There are a few other things that bothered me about this as well, for example, the couple buying the swappers fancy sheets and whatnot before they leave, when they have NO money!)

Up to this point, I was engaged with the story and I figured the good stuff, (you know, the aforementioned tour-de-force of horror), would happen once they got settled into the Paris apartment, but no. Paris turns into a nightmare for them financially due to credit card problems, and they have an ugly run-in with the only other resident of the building, Mireille. There are also a few unsettling incidents in the apartment, but again, nothing really horrific.

When they returned home early from their trip, I couldn't figure out where the story was going, but once it finally got there, I WAS satisfied. I liked how the story was related- with alternating chapters between Mark and Stephanie, and I admit to enjoying the denouement very much. However, it took way too long in getting there and again, (I know I'm harping), it was not a tour-de-force of anything, except maybe for boring.

Without that tagline raising my expectations, I might have enjoyed this novel more, but I was expecting to be WOWED and it never happened. By the time things DID happen I was so bored their impact was severely diminished.

Of course, all of this is just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

*Thanks to Edelweiss, Blumhouse Books and the author for the free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.* ( )

I'm conflicted on this book - 3 or 4 stars? It did disturb me enough that I had to take a couple of breaks while reading, especially from about 1/2 through to 3/4 of the way to the end. The amount of craziness and unfortunate events in the apartment in Paris were disturbing (plus the hair!), but the couple's return home is when the book amped up the creep factor, in my opinion. The alternating narrators also served the author well, until the last 1/4 of the book. The switching of narrators only confused me at the end instead of adding more information to what was happening. When finally revealed, the "origin story" of the Paris apartment was disappointing and the ending felt rushed and unresolved to me. So, do I give it 4 stars because it did creep me out or 3 stars for the disappointing ending? ( )