Reviews tagging 'Death'

Cleopatra und Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

71 reviews

iluvmaryx's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh god where do I even begin. I loved it. I loved all of it. From start to finish I kept loving it more and more. It made me feel such a wide range of emotions, from joy to pain to anger to sympathy. 
I’ve heard some people say how they did not enjoy the book for its lack of plot but in my opinion that’s kind of the point, the story follows the life’s of several characters and how they deal with their pain and work and relationships but that’s pretty much it, there’s no difficult plot. This was what made the story that much more lovable to me. Getting to know these characters on a deeper level, even having the chance to often relate to them. Other than that I feel like this book has taught me a lot of small but necessary life lessons, or at least has opened my eyes to see them.
I loved this book however, if you do not enjoy books which are character driven or which have triggering moments surrounding suicide and drug abuse then I wouldn’t recommend it. Otherwise I say this is so worth the read!!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Addiction, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Self harm, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Death

Minor: Animal death

_rowan_'s review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Death, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Sexual content, Death of parent, Grief, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

aiona's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

There were things I loved about this book, and things I hated. It felt a lot like a Netflix sitcom or something, and a lot of the characters felt really tropey. A gay man who loves princess Diana, super pretentious arty New Yorkers. I didn’t find them relatable at all. But there were some parts, and some characters that I did find relatable. I think Eleanor was probably the best character in this regard. She seemed much less one-dimensional than the others. 

And although to begin with, the overdone, witty quips from Frank and Cleo felt fake and tiring, their doomed relationship developed to the point that I felt quite emotional reading about how fiercely they loved each other, yet could not connect. Seeing them come to that realisation was moving, despite how pretentious their lives seemed in other ways. 

I suppose I wish the author had written about characters that didn’t feel the need to name-drop and live high-flying lives. Why couldn’t Cleo have been working in a cafe or something rather than be an unemployed artist wife to a guy who built up his own ad agency? People this broken do not have such glitzy lives. And this book would have really been incredible if the characters had seemed more real. The author has a real talent with words. But she chose to write about such unrelatable, movie-like characters. I wonder why she made that decision. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Dementia, Drug use, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

carlyt83's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, and Self harm

Moderate: Infidelity, Death, and Animal death

hschaapkens's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Drug use, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Suicide, Addiction, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Cultural appropriation

josxphinchen's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Sexism, Animal cruelty, and Death

aseel_reads's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

i found the writing style so easy to read, which was such a strength because it is not an easy read otherwise. i actually liked the characters but i thought it was a shame that some of the side characters got meh endings, no real conclusion for their story 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Medical content, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Addiction, Mental illness, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Infidelity, and Vomit

tawny0wl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Cursing, Alcoholism, Self harm, Death of parent, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Death, and Emotional abuse

minxtte's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Drug use, Vomit, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Pregnancy

sarwils's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, Blood, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, Alcoholism, Death, and Emotional abuse