This story centers around a piece of land and then a specific apartment as its inhabitants come and go.

We get little snippets into each person’s life and not always a conclusion. Sometimes the snippets are loosely connected, sometimes not at all, sometimes fully linked.

It feels a bit like peeking into an uncovered window of a home at night, voyeur style into these characters’ lives. I loved it.

I just finished listening to The Apartment by Ana Menéndez. As first I wasn’t a huge fan of the narrator for this audiobook, but the more we went in to the story the better.

As far as the actual story goes, I wish the characters, or residents of apartment 2B, had more time in the story. I appreciate a good quick story, but I feel those residents deserved more of a story and I would not have minded the chapters to be a little king with those stories.

Overall, The Apartment was a different type of story. It had a very movie type feel watching the residents live a part of their lives in 2B. It also gives us more of a glimpse of the struggles of immigrants coming from a place they wanted to call home and having to call 2B their new home in Miami Florida.

This was my first Ana Menéndez novel, and I don’t think it’s my last.

The Apartment proves what I, as a reader, and a human, believe - location is a character. I adore books where the place is as important as the people and Ana Menendez has chosen a unique way to present multiple stories, all interconnected by a single apartment in a building that has existed for a long time.

The premise alone, "The Helena is an art deco apartment building that has witnessed the changing face of South Miami Beach for seventy years, observing the lives housed within. Among those who have called apartment 2B home are a Cuban concert pianist who performs in a nursing home; the widow of an intelligence officer raising her 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; a Tajik building manager with a secret identity; and a troubled young refugee named Lenin. Each tenant imbues 2B with energy that will either heal or overwhelm its latest resident, Lana, a mysterious woman struggling with her own past" was enough to cause me to request this one as an audio arc.

Different. Not cookie cutter. Not a formulaic novel where "if a then b" and the reader knows what to expect. This one requires some retrospection as each story is a reboot and the brain has to shift - and, frankly, in a world where tropes are predictable, I found The Apartment to be a palate cleanser and a reminder that there can be new stories.

The Apartment becomes available on June 27, 2023.

The Apartment tells the stories of the occupants of Apartment 2B of The Helena in Miami. I loved the premise and thought it started off strong with the POV of a Native woman on the land that will become The Helena. Each chapter is a different occupant, some of the stories I loved and others were so-so. I liked the connections between storied and wish there had been more.

Thank you to NetGalley and RBMedia for the audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It all started with Apartment 2B...

I am so thankful to have gotten a physical ARC of The Apartment from Counterpoint Books and an audiobook version from Highbridge Audio via NetGalley. The Apartment hits shelves on June 27, 2023, and it's a blast into the past with a contemporary, heartfelt twist.

Apartment 2B of The Helena in Miami, Florida has stood the test of time, surviving its many tenants who've all battled the horrors of war on the homefront, protests and riots, and losses of life. With each passing decade, we, the reader, get a glimpse into the narratives told and experienced by the confines of this homely apartment. Characters come to live and stick around for the following generations to keep an eye out and a helping hand when needed.

This is a feel-good tale that will keep you interested from page one.