Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

365 reviews

anh_read's review

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

While the novel centers around the relationship/marriage between Cleo and Frank, it also depicts its impact on their surroundings. As the novel follows a different character in each chapter, the reader gets a more in-depth look into their relationship

Therefore, the reader gets a better understanding why things didn’t work out between Cleo and Frank.

 

As I am not a big fan of romance novels, I am relieved that this novel didn’t turn out to be a typical and cheesy love story. Moreover, if you like Sex and the city, it definitely catches the vibe - just in a darker manner.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Violence, Infidelity, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death and Sexual harassment

saskiasreading's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.25

I didn’t like how it jumped from character to character. I didn’t care about quinton or anders etc etc i wanted more of frank and cleo

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Content Warnings

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

emm4reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Death of parent, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

theraindiary's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Abandonment, Animal death, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Dysphoria, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Misogyny, and Transphobia

virgomoon9's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Death of parent, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, and Dementia

read_between_the_wines's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and Dementia

medini_l's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Dementia, Drug use, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Blood, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

fatimaelf'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
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

So I thought this book was going to be about an abusive relationship, probably because of the woman with a bruised eye on the cover, but it’s not, really. It’s about dysfunctional relationships, and about how the people we’re surrounded by influence us, and how we influence the people surrounding us. I won’t lie, I wouldn’t have picked up this book had it not been assigned by book club. The first chapter had me rolling my eyes hard; it felt like a dissertation on the patriarchy disguised as a novel. I was surprised that each chapter switched focus to different characters, and I will say that each character had a distinct voice and journey. It was well written, edging to the point of pretentious and maybe crossing over a few (many) times. My favorite chapter was Santiago’s, which surprised me considering I’d completely forgotten he existed by the time we got to him. I also really liked Eleanor, and the choice to make her chapters alone first-person, stream-of-consciousness POV was both risky and rewarding. Her observations were funny and fun to follow along with. 

Everyone else was fucked up, but I’ll give Mellors credit in that you fully understand why they’re fucked up, and you empathize with them. The character I was most disappointed by was Quentin. He got one chapter, which sort of examined his gender dysphoria and then

backed completely off it to get him addicted to meth.

He felt like a very one-dimensional “gay character,” and he became incredibly unlikeable for it. 

There were two things that took away from the enjoyment of the book for me: first, and most glaringly, once you realize that Cleo is just a self-insert for the author, it’s very hard to take the book seriously. Especially with the amount of time Cleo’s complimented on her beauty, and how everyone loves her, and how in comparison Eleanor is “sturdy” like a fucking tree — yeah, it’s weird. Every time Cleo was mentioned it was impossible to forget she was functionally the author because of her long flowing blonde hair and mysterious air — buddy, you could’ve at least made her brunette for plausible deniability. 

The second problem was the fact that Cleo felt it was appropriate

to recreate the scene of her suicide attempt, and force Frank, who found her, to relive it.

That was FOUL. Like that was so incredibly fucked up I’m genuinely stunned it happened. Obviously I’m not going to insist that a book follow my own morality and such, but the fact that it was presented as growth for Cleo, as the end of her arc, is messed up and borderline unforgivable. Frank was kind of a dick because, well, he was an alcoholic and also married a woman twenty years younger than him, but he didn’t deserve that.

Side note: nobody in this fucking book deserved to have a pet. Yeah, I’m looking at you too, Anders, you shithead.

In the end, I think the book did what it set out to do — show the dysfunction in interpersonal relationships — and I think the writing was good, and the characters were interesting. I didn’t hate it, but I wouldn’t say I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Alcoholism, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction

reneest's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Addiction

Moderate: Self harm

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

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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