Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Cleopatra und Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

94 reviews

finn_vibing's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Alcoholism, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Self harm

Moderate: Dementia, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, Mental illness, Infidelity, and Death of parent

gabby_stay's review against another edition

emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.0

So emotional but a cozy read. Definite trigger warnings to consider but overall I resonated with the experiences Cleo was going through. I really understand why Mellors took so long to write this - she took her time to ace perfection and understanding of everyday people's experiences.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Addiction, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

livangel's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• 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

3.25

Honestly, it’s a very interesting take on every day life. I think it shows how “Cleopatra” and “Frankenstein“ are both monsters and victims.  It shows that no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you love each other, sometimes relationships are sometimes bad or toxic. It makes you think about how you view or judge people and reflect on where the problem truly lies. Definitely worth a read. The book does drag on sometimes, but that’s just part of its charm. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Cursing

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Drug use, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Medical content, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Blood, Sexual content, Vomit, Suicide, Animal death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, and Physical abuse

victoriakvitnes's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Self harm, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Mental illness, Animal death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Drug abuse, and Grief

jj_xx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Mental illness, Medical content, Drug abuse, Blood, Animal death, Transphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Eating disorder, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, and Death of parent

daisyreadssometimes's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Grief, Death, Self harm, Drug use, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug abuse, Animal death, and Alcoholism

joeykills's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Violence, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Infidelity, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, and Grief

nenya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad 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

this is the kind of book where you can’t really tell that the characters are becoming your comfort characters until you find yourself looking forward to keep reading it because of them. the book is incredibly character driven and provides a very diverse set of nuanced and delicately crafted people who all, in a sense harmonize (or conflict) with one another. cleo and frank, the protagonists are both lovable and also deeply flawed and traumatized, something you and the characters themselves come to understand throughout the course of the book. what i loved most about it was that the narration style gave you insight into every single person’s thoughts and sentiments (or at least of the most important ones) not only through different POVs separated into different chapters, but also sometimes within the span of a paragraph, switching back and forth in revealing each persons internal dialogue. 
the book felt like an anti-romanticizing telltale of several New Yorker lifestyles while also being deeply philosophical and thought provoking 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Blood, Body horror, Drug use, Dysphoria, Grief, Self harm, Sexual content, Addiction, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Suicide, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

lidia7's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• 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

took me a while to get into it (about 20%) and i thought i was going to dnf but then i ended up reading 80% or more of the book in one night.
love the writing style
a lot of TWs, sorry if i forgot some

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Classism, Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Animal death, Cursing, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Medical content, Sexism, Vomit, and Suicide

lauren_shilling's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

I barely know how to talk about this book. It's actually been a few days since I finished it at the time of writing this review, and I honestly cannot stress how often I have thought about this book since finishing it. The characters were so well-rounded and felt so real. This doesn't only go for the two main characters, Frank and Cleo, but also the side characters as well, such as Quentin, Eleanor, and Zoe. Every single person and character felt real and were so interesting to follow and learn about over the course of the book. I loved how we got at least one chapter in the point of view of everyone who impacted or was impacted by the plot of the book and really got to see what was going on for them. It was really well done and gave the story a very well-rounded and all-encompassing feel to it. Like I said, I barely know how to talk about this book, except for stating the fact that it is one of my favorite books of the year, it was beautifully written, and I was completely swept up in every single moment. Chapter 13, in my opinion, was so beautifully crafted and written and put together. Every word felt deliberate, every piece of dialogue felt perfect, and I will never get over the emotions that the author made me feel in that chapter.  I would highly recommend this book, but please check the trigger warnings! Overall not a super dark book, but a very, very heavy one, and there are definitely some topics to look out for!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Mental illness, Drug use, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Self harm, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content