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crawforl's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Vomit, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Self harm, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Blood, Dementia, Drug use, and Infidelity
shealen's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
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
4.5
This really challenged me emotionally and I don’t even have related experience to what the characters were going through other than mental health struggles, yet I still felt so connected and entwined with them and all of their flaws. They are not easy characters to love, and that was the point, I believe. The two characters I found I liked the most only had 1 chapter and 2 chapters accordingly. Very powerful writing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Drug abuse, and Drug use
lngoldstein's review against another edition
dark
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Mental illness, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Suicide
nessafurtado's review against another edition
reflective
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
3.25
I finished this book a few days ago, trying to digest, trying to see if it would have a impact on me; it didn’t. My biggest complain is: the men in this book are unbearable - all of them. Even the gay friend, all of them rich, spoiled brats, who never grew up. Frank needed 2 women to “fix” him. The women I cared a little more - specially Cleo and Zoey, although they could be at times very annoying. Eleonor… idk, she was there being used as “the good funny person”. I didn’t know shit about this book when I picked it up, maybe if I knew I wouldn’t be so disappointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Self harm, and Addiction
alayarocco's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Nothing much of substance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Vomit, Self harm, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Terminal illness, Medical content, Death of parent, and Child abuse
carly_reads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“Cleopatra, the original undoer of men.” “Frankenstein sounds about right. Creator of monsters.”
When the darkest part of you meets the darkest part of me, it creates light.
Why did she feel the need to make everyone, even this waiter, like her? What a thing it must be to be indifferent to indifference.
Everything she had ever wanted to hear from a man was hers from the mouth of a girl.
If you prefer one outcome over another in life, you will likely be disappointed. I prefer nothing and am always surprised.
Sweetheart, love is humiliating. Hasn’t anyone told you that? Do you know the word humiliate comes from the Latin root humus, which means ‘earth’? That’s how love is supposed to feel. Like earth. It grounds you. All this nonsense about love being a drug, making you feel high, that’s not real. It should hold you like the earth.
This was gut wrenchingly sad. Would it be cliche if I said this is All Too Well (10 Minute Version) meets I miss you, I’m sorry by Gracie Abrams in the form of a novel?
I almost dnf’d this at first because I was worried the characters would be insufferable for 300+ pages, but as I kept reading, I realized these are some of the most flawed and realistic characters I’ve ever read. I constantly felt like I’d made up my mind about characters, and then I’d read something that would change my whole perspective. It serves as a reminder that everyone is struggling with something that you probably wouldn’t guess upon first glance. I think this is a statement on how much messed up family dynamics hurt and shape us in adulthood. It’s also about being angry, lonely, depressed, and confused and not knowing what to do about it. On a more positive note, it’s also about love, home, community, sisterhood, healing, empathy, intimacy, forgiveness, and what stillness can mean when you’ve only ever known chaos. I especially appreciated the points made about vulnerability and how sometimes it’s rewarded but not always.
As an aside, Eleanor and her mother are some of my favorite characters I’ve ever read. Funny girl representation!
I can see the Sally Rooney comparisons but I wouldn’t say they’re overtly similar in terms of writing style or characterization.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Drug use, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death of parent
c_alma_d's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Sexual content, Self harm, Cursing, Alcoholism, Suicide, Mental illness, Drug abuse, and Addiction
adaora_ble's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
Content Warnings
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
sigreads_'s review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Drug abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Death, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Blood, and Addiction
maddalenacesco's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-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
2.75
Thing I liked the most about this book: unlikeable characters.
Thing I liked the least about this book: unlikeable characters.
Unlikeable characters are so beloved, and most importantly, work, because you understand and internalize their psyche. They force a moral conflict inside of you, you catch yourself rooting for people who do bad stuff.
I’ll give props to this book as the author is not afraid to allow them to make mistakes, nor tries to enforce the idea that you’re supposed to like certain people (although you kind of get the idea that the “Cleopatra” of the title is supposed to be the victim and that you should feel sorry for her), but there’s not an instance where you actually feel for any of them.
My main issue with this book is the characters.
Sometimes you are first told about the background of a character.
In these cases, I could predict how they’d be in their relationships with others and with themselves before the getting-to-know-them part, because said character acted perfectly in line with their background.
Other times, you are presented with the character first and then get an insight of their past. Same thing: I could figure out where their issue came from quickly.
Let’s take the chef Santiago for example: we are told he’s a successful chef in New York and that he has lost his wife, whom he loved very much, years before.
Having only been given these facts, I can guess:
- 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
Thing is, people are made of contradictions, they never follow the straight line you think they will; identical backgrounds cause some to become better, others to become worse.
Due to this predictability, I often found the characters to be stereotypes:
- 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.
Cleo’s hippie stepmom embodies the stereotype of the self-obsessed, dizzy yoga mom. Why not throw a bit of intrigue there? She has a PHD. She actually loves Cleo. She was suspected of a murder. I don’t know.
I understand that the goal was to explore the psyche of the average individual, but this should imply making normality exceptional; that is how we experience reality, by seeing mediocrity as a fabric made of overlapping threads of feelings, fears, hopes and doubts, not as a flat wooden board. I’m not saying the characters should be exceptional, but that exceptionability should lie in their banality.
Showing Cleo had unloving parents allows me to understand why she seeks love and why she is a people pleaser, but it feels like a way to make me care about her. Pity is not a substitute for love.
You can’t care about the fate of a character if you don’t know what they want their fate to be.
The tragedy of a character lies in the gap between where they are and where they want to be.
It doesn’t have to be something extreme (nor explicit), such as: Cleo wants to murder her stepmom. It can also be: Cleo wants to make is as an artist, or Cleo wants all the men in her life to be in love with her. If I know where Cleo wants to be, I’ll be hooked to her story.
I was very excited by the prospect of many different points of view, but it kinda disappointed me, because how is it possible that the character appear to others exactly like they appear to themselves?
It doesn’t help with the lack of suspence.
Ex:
Santiago seems to like Cleo.
Santiago actually likes Cleo.
When it comes to unreliable characters, you expect them to lie to themselves, to justify their motifs, to be different to what they appear, to manipulate the truth.
The characters do bad things, yes, but the sole fact that we are given explanations (such as a description of their upbringing) is an indication they are not flat out bad people.
If I’m not an inherently evil individual (which goes against the premise of this book) I can self sabotage, but I’ll find ways to justify, if not most, a least some of my actions.
If I didn’t receive the love I needed from my father and I seek relationships with older men, cheating on my husband will be a pattern, not an isolated case. And before I can recognize why I follow this pattern, I probably won’t have the objectivity to identify the cause in my childhood, but I’ll try to justify it: my husband doesn’t give me the attention I feel I deserve/I feel trapped in my relationship/I’m lonely.
My last issue is with the relationships: Relationships are the foundation of this book, so why don’t we ever have a chance to actually see them growing? We have glimpses of pivotal moments, we are handed pre-existing friendships, we cannot savor the building of trust and intimacy that comes from simple daily interaction.
The writing was really good, I enjoyed it. Ironically, that's the main issue: I can't give 3 stars when I know you can easily reach 5. I liked the descriptions of New York. If the characters hadn’t had as much potential as they had or the writing was a little less good, I would’ve let it slide, but I expect more where I know there can be.
Also, the first dialogue was a little too fan fiction-ish.
Content Warnings
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