Plural possession?

This sentence is awkward and I'm not sure how to phrase the latter half at all.

Is this correct. If not, what better ways are there to phrase it?

 

Maybe "her and Tonia's tiny studio apartment"?

Hers apartment is incorrect, unlike e.g. that aparment over there is hers.

I think I'd rephrase the whole sentence to something simpler, though. Like "The entrance/door to their tiny studio apartment was deadlocked." Just make sure that before that the reader knows "they" refers to Tonia and the other girl.

 

. . . Tonia and her's tiny studio apartment.

The apostrophe in her's is what makes it possessive in this intance.

Or you could go for the simpler:

. . . their tiny studio apartment.

 

their

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

My issue is that this is in the first paragraph of the chapter and it was not known she shared a residence with Tonia prior to this. I'm worried "their" is confusing.

Maybe:

"Two days ago she went to the apartment she shared with Tonia, only to find it deadbolted."

I guess that could work, it just sounds too passive to me.

 

I think you've found your answer. That, or some variation of it.

 

"Tonia's and her tiny studio apartment" is valid and there is nothing awkward about it. To convince yourself, replace "tiny studio apartment" with "apartment":

"Tonia's and her apartment"

Then replace the possessive pronouns with adjectives (since they are related to the noun in the same grammatical way):

"dank and musty apartment"

The principle illustrated here is that "and" is a perfectly valid way to show that two modifiers both modify the same substantive.

"Tonia's and hers tiny studio apartment" is invalid because "hers tiny studio apartment" is invalid.

But I do prefer "the tiny studio apartment she shared with Tonia" -- it is not at all passive, and it reinforces the idea that they both live in the apartment and share it (which is a good idea to reinforce this early in the story).