Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Cleopatra und Frankenstein

An compelling story of fast and passionate love between two people who are so different yet so similar in so many ways.

Cleo meets Frank New Year's eve, by June they are married for the wrong and right reasons. This is their story, and the story of the people that are affected by their actions.

I fell in love with this book in the first chapter. The characters are real and raw with flaws, fights, and situations that just seem normal.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein explores the complexity of being a person with flaws, being in love, lust & marriage when your life before 'This Person' is messy at best.

Content Warnings

harleysmiller's review against another edition

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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

5.0

This book very easily entered my top 5 favorite books of all time when I was only about 30 pages into it. It is devastating and hopeful and brutal and REAL. You hate every character and love them so deeply. It felt like reading about a little slice of someone’s life like I was being let in on a secret. Every character was so well developed and complex. I would recommend this a million times over. It has the vibe of Conversations with Friends while being completely original and unique. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so strongly about a book.

Content Warnings

impeachnixon's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

1.0

** spoiler alert **

While I understand that this book was trying to tell many interconnected stories, I think there were just too many people with too serious of issues to really be done well. Quentin's meth use, for example, isn't really explored as well as it could be, and so I feel like it was weird that it was included at all. I'm not complaining about the end of his story, because I think it's interesting actually to just have Cleo say "I couldn't support him and so I ended that friendship". It just feels like Quentin's spiral into addiction to meth was a huge thing to happen off-screen, but also a necessary result of trying to tell 1,000 stories at once (and having all of those stories tackle very serious issues). Plus, why mention Quentin being possibly trans or genderqueer if you're never going to mention it again? It ends up simplifying a lot of serious issues, like Santiago's recovery from binge eating disorder really just coming down to "he's going to meetings and now he's losing weight", with the bulk of it being explored in a single chapter. This problem even extends to the titular couple, Cleo and Frank. Cleo's suicide attempt, for example, seemed a little brushed over, and it didn't help that we switched to the perspective of the caterer at her wedding after the attempt. It was a beautifully written book and it did have plenty of fleshed out, interesting characters, but it could use with some trimming and some more focus. What happened to Ander's 'son', for instance, or Zoe's financial situation? Is she being financially supported by Jiro, and, if so, what implications does that have for their relationship? And I'd be fine with a book not completely tying up every single loose end for every single side character except that there were chapters that interrupted the main story to ask me to care about all these side characters and then sometimes very little resolution.

Content Warnings

smavy's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This book could have gone so wrong but about 20% in, it just changed and became something else entirely — in the very best way. The book reminds me of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From The Goon Squad (which I re-read just before starting my this one). Different character viewpoints and narratives centered and woven around the relationship between Cleo and Frank. Set mostly in NYC.

I like that not everything was wrapped up neatly, and not everyone got a happy ending. The author could have easily fallen into the trap of cliches and caricature (and she comes close) but somehow just narrowly avoids it.

My favorite narrative voice was Eleanor. Her sections were some of the best writing in this book. The story had just started to turn (for the better) for me when she showed up and from there, I could not put it down.

Very impressive debut.

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