Ana Menéndez's latest novel, THE APARTMENT, takes us to Miami's South Beach, Florida, to The Helena, the historic Art Deco apartment building rich in history, time, and character where we meet the many residents of Apartment 2B who have come and gone over seven decades.

Built in 1942, many people and families have come to Miami's South Beach to the Helena Apartment and called 2B home.

First, we meet a military couple from Texas: Sophie and Jack. The new bride is enamored with this glamorous town, but he's preoccupied with the war and abusive.

In 1963, an aging Cuban concert pianist Eugenio grieved for a lost love and finds the man's spirit in music. He plays for a nursing home and at weddings, living here for 11 years. Eugenio contemplates his love of music after he hears about the death of a great Cuban composer.

In 1972, Sandman, a refugee in his own country, a divorced Vietnam vet with PTSD who's badly undone by an anti-war march, then saved by hatchling sea turtles. He deals with termite-eaten furniture left from previous tenants.

In 1982, Isabel, an 18 yr old Marielita disappointed in South Beach and its decay but dazzled by the older painter first as muse, then as a lover.

In 2002, married couple Maribel and Ignacio resided there with his girlfriend, Beatrice Dumonts—a complicated threesome created not by love or desire but by immigration law.

In 2010, a 40 yr. old Pilar, a Cuban American journalist, prepares to leave 2B apartment (now a condo) after she lost her job faced with the reality of moving back in with her parents.

Pilar rents her condo to a young man named Lenin García, another Cuban refugee, who soon dies. His fate impacts other tenants in surprising ways.

From the Cuban concert pianist, the widow of an intelligence officer raising their young daughter alone, a man waiting on a green card marriage to run its course so that he can divorce his wife and marry his lover. A Tajik building manager with a secret identity, a Vietnam vet receiving packages from his ex-wife. Each has a story, and the walls of Apartment 2B are a part of their lives.

Do the walls talk? Told in short chapters with stories of each tenant. Each tenant has past losses, challenges, struggles, dreams, and hopes for the future. For over seventy years, it has stood tall and held the resident's secrets.

The latter part set in 2012, we learn of Lana, an immigrant, a mysterious woman struggling with her demons, who mourns her beloved while unaware of the apartment's tragic history. Distraught and alone, she is watched over by a ghost.

Beautifully written and lyrical! I loved the South Beach Art Deco apartment and have lived in South Florida for 20-some years. I had an office in Miami for years and spent much time in South Beach as a consultant working with Art Deco historical properties, hotels, and the Palm Beach area. I was delighted to see this book.

The characters were well drawn, and the setting was a character among itself with thoughtful meditation. A mix of historical, literary fiction, magical realism, and a little mystery.

AUDIOBOOK While the author is very talented, and I listened to the audiobook narrated by Whitney Dykhouse delivering an outstanding performance—I did feel it started very intriguing and robust. Still, mid-way to the end, it became slow and confusing. The last section was drawn out, strange, and my least favorite part (the mice). It may have been better to have a print or digital reading copy to follow in those areas.

Overall, I enjoyed reading about the residents and history and revisiting one of my favorite spots full of history and charm.

Thanks to HighBridge Audio for a gifted ALC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Blog review posted at
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: June 27, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars
June 2023 Must-Read Books

<i> Bristling with compassion, desire, and a longing to connect, The Apartment is a portrait of the complex and at times troubled inhabitants of a single unit in a South Miami Beach building—an excavation of the literal and figurative ghosts that haunt our lives and a celebration of the communities that shine brightest in our darkest moment

An art-deco sentinel, The Helena apartment building has silently witnessed the changing face of South Miami Beach for seventy years, observing—without interfering—the countless lives housed within its walls. But a single unit has seen more life (and sometimes death) than others. Those who have called Apartment 2B home include: a Cuban concert pianist who now only plays in a nursing home; the widow of an intelligence officer raising their young daughter alone; a man waiting on a green card marriage to run its course so that he can divorce his wife and marry his lover, all of whom live together in 2B; a Tajik building manager with a secret identity; a Vietnam vet receiving packages from his ex-wife. Each tenant imbues 2B with energy that can either heal or overwhelm the latest resident, Lana.

A mysterious woman struggling with her own demons, Lana mourns her beloved while unaware of the apartment’s sometimes tragic history. Distraught and alone, she is watched over by a ghost, and together these two strangers brought into community by The Helena will find a measure of comfort and purpose, gaining a new insight into what we all owe one another. </i>

I’m afraid for me this was a case of loved the idea, but not so much the execution. I tried and tried and failed to connect with these loosely interrelated stories. There were some more interesting moments, but collectively I just wasn’t feeling the spark.

Narrator Whitney Dykhouse did a nice job, though.

Thank you Ana Menéndez, HighBridge Audio, and NetGalley for providing this ALC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Apartment follows the various tenants of the Helena apartment building in Miami, Florida from the 1940's until present day. It shares all of their stories, with small connections throughout. It also spotlights big moments in history and how the melting pot of cultures helped shape that area of Miami. I loved the entire concept of everything coming back to the apartment.

As an audiobook it was sometimes hard to immediately distinguish between the different POVS. I assume that it was easier when reading the physical book.

Overall it was enjoyable!

*Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review*

thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for an advanced listening copy of the apartment. all opinions are my own.

favorite quote: “[she] does not believe in ghosts. we are our own ghosts, dragging our mournful pasts behind us forever.”

this book details the mournful pasts of the inhabitants of apartment 2B; through their stories, ana menéndez depicts the reality of surviving immigration, war, and loss. i really enjoy the “house as a character” motif because it allows the audience to see how the apartment reflects its tenants.

while it may not have been for me, i’d recommend this book to enjoyers of short story collections and historical fiction alike.

•a note on the listening experience: the narrator did a great job so if audiobooks are your thing, i recommend checking out the recording of this book!

“The Apartment” by Ana Menéndez focuses on the inhabitants of Apartment 2B and their experiences, while providing different perspectives from neighbors and the building’s employees. Apartment 2B has had a variety of inhabitants from the early 1940s to the 2000s. Each inhabitant has a different perspective on life, through their personal experiences and relationships with their families or neighbors. We, the readers, who “exist outside of time,” watch the story of Apartment 2B unfold over a series of short stories on the inhabitants lives that sometimes are interconnected. It is clear that throughout the decades individuals within Apartment 2B experience hope, loneliness, unhappiness, and the desire for more as they reside within it. One thing is clear, Apartment 2B is home to many, and keeps their stories and secrets even when those inhabitants move on.

The Narrator, Whitney Dykhouse, does a good job of providing authenticity with the tone of the novel, Hispanic accent and the use of the Spanish and Czech languages. The story would have had more impact of multiple narrators were used.

Thank you to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for this audiobook ARC of The Apartment.

Thank you to Netgalley and Highbridge Audio for letting me listen to an ARC of this audiobook.
The Apartment by Ana Menéndez is narrated by Whitney Dykhouse. I listen to many audiobooks and I know what a difference it makes to one's enjoyment of a book to have a good narrator. I found Whitney Dykhouse to be very mediocre. If we didn't already know sad things were happening, the tone of her narration told us this was really bad and there was a sense of powerlessness. I thought when she spoke Spanish, it was probably excellent. She did a different voice for every character and some made out better than others.

I had a very difficult time getting into this book. It began with very short vignettes of a person or persons who lived in apartment 2B of The Helena in Miami. the story began in 1942 and seemed to jump 10 years with each new occupant. I wanted to know more about these occupants especially later in the book when more information was given partly as a backstory. It wasn't until about two-thirds of the way through that the stories began to come together, that so many had fled Cuba for a better life but was it?

I loved the idea of an apartment being a character in a book which is why I wanted to read it. I wish I could have followed all the threads with more ease and that I'd felt some sort of connection to one or more of these people. But I didn't. I imagine that anyone who has come from Cuba themselves or had family flee during the Castro regime would identify much more than I.

i enjoyed the audiobook version and really liked this story. i loved the unique approach of having the apartment be the maine character.

Name of Book: The Apartment
Author: Ava Menendez
Narrator: Whitney Dykhouse
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publisher: High Bridge Audio-RB Media
Pub Date: June 27, 2023
My Rating: 2.5 rounded up
Pages: 240

This is a story about the occupants of Apartment 2B of ‘The Helena’ in Miami.
Each chapter is a different occupant as well as a time period over many ages.
Some of the stories were good/interesting others not so much.

The narrator Whitney Gykhouse did a wonderful job performing the different characters.
When I first heard the narration, I thought Hmm this seem like it might be a bit boring however when she got into the characters she was GREAT!

This is not my typical read but I like to go outside my normal routine every once in a while.
However, I really didn’t love this; which, of course, there are many other readers who will love it. We readers are so lucky to have so many options.

Want to thank NetGalley and High Bridge Audio/ RB Media for this audiobook.
Publishing Release Day scheduled for: June 27, 2023.

I absolutely loved the premise of this book and that apartment 2B in The Helena was like another character. The first half was so clear and interesting to hear about all of the different inhabitants of the apartment. The second half was a little trickier to understand the perspectives when listening as an audiobook.

I’ve really been liking the books that take a look in at people in their apartments. Little Prisons. The Rabbit Hutch. Both of those were five star reads. And this one focused on just the people that had lived in apartment 2b in this one apartment complex. But something was missing for me. A little further character development. A little more plot. Or maybe I just needed to be a little more attentive if a reader. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the book I was hoping for. But I strongly suggest others still read it because it really could have been my weird reading mood making me not love it.

The Apartment is a compilation of related stories taking place in apartment 2B over the span of several decades.
Learn about the lives of 2B’s inhabitants which include a concert pianist, a widow and her daughter, a secretive building manager, and the latest resident, a mysterious woman.

While some of the stories can be tied to previous ones, each are enjoyable on their own.

People who enjoy short stories, social commentary, and a Florida setting will certainly want to pick up this book!

ARC provided via NetGalley

This book doesn't follow a particular character, but instead it follows an apartment, apartment 2b to be exact. This is a very quick read as the chapters are short and each chapter tells the short story of one of the many residents of apartment 2b. This is not the kind of book that I would pick up on my own, I'm not a big fan of short stories as I like to get invested as the story unfolds. Ultimately, this was not a bad book, just not my style. The Apartment is available for purchase everywhere June 27th! If you're trying to get into reading or have a bit of a shorter attention span, this is the perfect book for you as the chapters go quickly and it's easy to pick up and put down without feeling like you have to track a particular storyline.

Audiobook
I enjoyed this one.
The concept is interesting and different. The story of a neighborhood and community is told through an apartment and the people who live in it over the years. The characters are all interesting. Each vignette is well-written and adds to the overall development of the story of the neighborhood. The apartment itself changes over time and feels like a character in the book.
I would read this author again.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Apartment gives you a peek behind closed doors into unit 2B throughout 70 years. It also poses the question: how do we impact a space by just existing in it?
Overall, I enjoyed this book. There are great discussions about the history of one confined space, and the impact of immigration and gentrification in South Miami Beach.
However, I struggled a bit with the pacing, starting around the 60% mark.
I found some sections to be a little confusing or too short. I wanted more for from certain tenets and less from others. But, with 70 years covered and over 10 tenets mentioned, it is done well for the most part. There are some call backs to previous tenets that I loved.
This is my first time reading from this author and I’ll be reading from them again.

(Thank you to RBMedia and NetGalley for the audiobook ARC.)

Such an interesting concept. This is a story of the life of an apartment and all of the inhabitants over multiple decades. This is not an easy storyline (or read I imagine) as multiple difficult subject matters are part of the story. With each new tenant we get glimpses of their experience in apartment 2B. We read about abuse both emotional and physical, gang violence, death, multiple wars over the years and the returning veterans, PTSD, prostitution, suicide, infidelity, poverty and more. Again, not an easy storyline, but interesting, but a tough story.

✨ Review ✨ The Apartment by Ana Menéndez; Narrated by Whitney Dykhouse

This book lives within Apartment 2B of the Helena, an art deco building in South Miami Beach, and through its eyes, we see 70 years of residents moving through its pages. From its first residents in the early moments of WWII in Miami for military mobilization, to its final resident, Lana, the inhabitants of this apartment parade by our eyes.

Often unfulfilling, these characters pass by without resolution to their stories, just as people's lives do not always neatly fit into their residency within a building. We see glimpses, incomplete pictures of the struggles and successes of these people, and for this lack of completion, this book may frustrate some. Sometimes, we only see pieces of their stories through the eyes of later residents, finding a cast iron pan or an indent in the floor, bringing clues to previous residents' pasts. I loved this complex layering of stuff left behind, furniture, photos, or other layers to the apartment throughout its life. It's a story deeply about space & place.

The final character, Lana, is lonely and alone, but finally succumbs to her neighbors' efforts to fold her into their circle. The book ends with a beautiful testament to community and neighbors and found family.

I enjoyed the audio narration, though in the later parts of the book when it shifts perspectives regularly, I found it hard to follow whose POV we were in. Switching to the ebook copy here helped as the section breaks at least signaled when POV shifted.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5)
Genre: literary fiction, historical fiction
Setting: the Helena, South Miami Beach
Pub Date: June 27, 2023

Read this if you like:
⭕️ books grounded in a particular space (in this case, Apt 2B)
⭕️ multiple POVs, almost short stories, knitted together
⭕️ finding the intersections between people over time

Thanks to Counterpoint, HighBridge Audio, and #netgalley for advanced e-copies of this book!

Thank you NetGalley for the audiobook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a different story structure for me, having different people in different timelines intertwine with the setting of the book. Apartment 2B of the Helena in Miami Florida is the home of multiple people throughout history. Setting was very much the strength of this novel- I could absolutely see the apartment and its tenants walking across floors, stomping in response to the annoyed shouts of the lower level tenants.

I loved the characters and their history, however, I did mix them up easily. I’m still not entirely sure how some of them were connected or if they were, but I didn’t review the chapters.

It was a calm read though and I enjoyed the style.

I like a book like this, it is a bit different than other books in the way that the setting is constant and everything revolves around it. The setting here is obviously The Apartment. Apartment 2B to be precise. Set in South Miami Beach we see the apartment house its tenants for 70 years. We see love, arranged marriages, single parents, despair, and homesickness, all within these apartment walls. This is a very well-written, saga-type novel.

“Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch. What a strange and hopeful animal man was. To love as if loss existed for others and never for us. To yearn as if time were forever.”

It all begins and ends in apartment 2B in Miami, Florida. This story is almost movie like as we follow several of the tenants throughout the years. 40’s, 60’s, 80’s, 90’s and present day. I really enjoyed it at first. The lives of the inhabitants were interesting, but I feel like we didn’t get enough - I wanted MORE.
As we reached Lana and the story starts to really intertwine with others, I felt bored.
Also, I wasn’t too keen on some of the dialogue. A lot of, “she says” “Lana says” “says says says.” I feel like a few more, “she replied” or “he/she asks” could have helped the repetitiveness.

Thank you to NetGalley who provided me with an audiobook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed the premise of this book, following the span of different tenants that reside in an apartment across the decades. You get to hear the different lives and stories that take residence, the people that breathe life into the apartment and the circumstances that brought them there. I enjoyed how the author tied them together at the end- it brought many of the stories together.