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fairyko's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Graphic: Drug abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Chronic illness, Sexual harassment, Blood, Cursing, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Animal death
saskiasreading's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Animal death, Alcoholism, Dementia, Eating disorder, Self harm, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Infidelity
ilolijiniie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse
shealen's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Drug abuse, and Drug use
adaora_ble's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Dementia, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Blood, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Dysphoria, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Self harm, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, and Grief
Moderate: Transphobia, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
maddalenacesco's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
- Santiago’s grief has taken a toll on his mental health - with a stretch, I could predict it might have something to do with food (such as an e.d.)
- Santiago might have problems with intimacy
- Santiago’s storyline will follow his pursue to reaffirm himself after the loss of his wife
- Cleo: struggling but extremely talented artist, beautiful, object of the desire of rich older men, rough upbringing, depressed
- Frank/Anders (I paired them up because they’re the same person): handsome, very successful businessman, in his forties, womanizer, addict, in love with Cleo
- Eleonor: cynical, still lives with her mother, low self-esteem.
Graphic: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Infidelity, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicide, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Blood, Mental illness, and Terminal illness
aestinson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Moderate: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
niamhcait's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Alcohol, Addiction, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt
celticthistle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Grief, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Addiction, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Blood
solspringsreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Cleopatra and Frankenstein is pretty much what it says on the tin (and the plot summary): a book about a couple with a large age gap who are both deeply flawed individuals, and the ways their relationship affects the people in their lives as well as how their lives are affected in turn. I didn’t expect this book to have shifting perspectives in each chapter and to focus so heavily on characters aside from the two titular protagonists, but I actually found myself preferring the chapters that gave us insight into the larger context of Cleo and Frank’s relationship. Although I wish I could get more context for certain characters and the changes in their lives, it almost felt true to life: sometimes the people you care about extremely deeply will have major life changes that you know almost nothing about, and you don’t get closure. This also felt like it was reflective of how self-absorbed Cleo and Frank were, in that their friends like Quentin and Zoe were going through some significant life changes and crises of their own, but by the end of the book we get little to no information on the outcomes of these events. From a realism standpoint, this was amazing… but from a reader’s standpoint, I definitely felt sad that the most of an ending I could get for my favorite characters was “They hopefully aren’t dead in a ditch.” On the other hand, during each characters’ respective chapter, we got a significant amount of insight into their personal lives with only limited references to the titular characters in a way that felt kind of unnecessary to the plot; sure, I get that pointing out the irony of an overweight culinary master who’s on a pretty strict diet is Fun Social Commentary™ and the fact that Cleo and Frank barely know about this characters’ struggle or reference it during their chapters is reflective of their self-involvement, but like… again, as a reader, part of me feels like these scenes are such unnecessary tangents to the protagonists’ actual character arcs. Most of the changes and “growth” that Cleo and Frank have and go through feel random and unearned, like the novel has to explicitly tell us that they’ve changed because we spent so much time focusing on Anders’s strained relationship with his son.
Relatedly, the dialogue in this book gets kinda silly. I listened to the audiobook so my impressions of certain scenes might be very different than those of a reader of a physical copy, but there were several bits of dialogue that had me rolling my eyes. Chapter 13 is one particularly example of this issue: somehow, the dialogue between Cleo and Frank felt simultaneously too realistic and too forced, like the author couldn’t decide if she wanted to capture what arguments were actually like (including the awkward pauses, the ways people cut each other off) or what arguments felt like (focusing on the inner turmoil of each character between the lines or the minute cues of body language to show how they feel). The characters constantly talked around their issues, which is again, true to life, but unfortunately the nothing-dialogue can lead to some pretty lackluster “big fight” scenes.
There are lots of stereotypes abound in a way that is almost maybe social commentary until you look up the author and see that she is a conventionally attractive cis blonde woman and suddenly you go, “Wow, this is a book that has a lot of transphobia during the narration from a character who is heavily implied if not outright stated to be a trans woman, and while it’s positioned in a way that feels like it’s supposed to be representative of internalized transphobia, this does maybe feel weird in the broader context of this being a book about the relationship between two flawed mostly-heterosexual cisgender people!” Likewise, LOTS of really random comments about race and ethnic stereotypes that feel like they should maybe be satire except that they’re completely unchallenged… or challenged in a way that the book immediately mocks. Maybe there’s an argument that the book as a whole is satirical, and while it does have moments where that feels clear, it often clumsily treads the fine line between making fun of stereotypes and perpetuating those same stereotypes.
Despite everything, though, I was totally wrapped up in this book. I binged the whole audiobook during a knitting-induced frenzy (which resulted in an all-nighter) and still felt so awed by how beautiful certain parts of the prose sounded, especially during Santiago and Eleanor’s chapters, and the philosophical ideas explored during Zoe’s chapters. I became emotionally invested in these somewhat stereotypical characters for an evening, and I truly do feel like there are moments and scenes from this book that will stay with me even now that I’ve finished it.
Overall, this was a pretty standard entry in the subcategory of litfic about beautiful yet waifish blondes who do a lot of drugs in New York and feel miserable about the older men and so-called friends with which they surround themselves. Somehow, the hype is completely understandable and yet overdone in a way that’s to be expected for this type of novel. (There’s always hype around books about sad beautiful women with addictions living in big cities, even if those books are mostly the same.) Despite my many criticisms and the fact that this book isn’t particularly unique in its plot or commentary, I still mostly enjoyed this and would (VERY VERY tentatively and with many caveats and warnings) recommend this to others, if only to discuss some of the things I might take issue with in the book.
Graphic: Suicide, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Gore, Abandonment, Classism, Fatphobia, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Dysphoria, Outing, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Violence, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Mental illness, Death, Dementia, Drug abuse, Sexism, Infidelity, and Alcohol