Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

37 reviews

ephemeral_remi's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Self harm, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

skyfluff8's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death of parent, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Outing, Self harm, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal death, and Drug abuse

aiona's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

2.5

There were things I loved about this book, and things I hated. It felt a lot like a Netflix sitcom or something, and a lot of the characters felt really tropey. A gay man who loves princess Diana, super pretentious arty New Yorkers. I didn’t find them relatable at all. But there were some parts, and some characters that I did find relatable. I think Eleanor was probably the best character in this regard. She seemed much less one-dimensional than the others. 

And although to begin with, the overdone, witty quips from Frank and Cleo felt fake and tiring, their doomed relationship developed to the point that I felt quite emotional reading about how fiercely they loved each other, yet could not connect. Seeing them come to that realisation was moving, despite how pretentious their lives seemed in other ways. 

I suppose I wish the author had written about characters that didn’t feel the need to name-drop and live high-flying lives. Why couldn’t Cleo have been working in a cafe or something rather than be an unemployed artist wife to a guy who built up his own ad agency? People this broken do not have such glitzy lives. And this book would have really been incredible if the characters had seemed more real. The author has a real talent with words. But she chose to write about such unrelatable, movie-like characters. I wonder why she made that decision. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Dementia, Drug use, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

ciarakilroy98's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

2.75

I was really enjoying reading about the messy cast of characters and their antics but some of the politics of this book are so questionable and I don’t really feel like the author said or did anything revolutionary besides reaffirming that people with trauma do fucked up things?? The writing was really compelling and kept me engaged for about 200 pages but then it became a sort of chore to finish and could have been about 100 pages shorter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, Addiction, Self harm, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism and Domestic abuse

femi_nasty_biblio's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Abandonment, Animal death, Grief, Infidelity, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, and Sexual content

alfietdonnelly'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

4.5

Devastating visceral and real, with a host of truly relatable peripheral characters and stories, a remarkable debut dive into contemporary prose.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Alcoholism, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia

cestarimm's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful 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

3.5

i’m glad they didn’t end up together.

i took a long time to finish this book even though i liked it from the start. 

all i wanted was to shake cleo’s shoulders and take her to therapy.

it is an exploration on the ripple effect a hasty decision can have on every other relationship we have.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Dementia, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Dysphoria, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, and Suicide

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Infidelity, Addiction, Animal death, and Death of parent

Minor: Transphobia, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia

bookishpip's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-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

4.0

This was an interesting read.

It’s about Cleo, a young English artist living in New York and struggling to make ends meet, and Frank, a middle-aged and enigmatic man with a successful advertising company. They meet by chance one New Year’s Eve, and the book narrates the highs and lows of their relationship with each other, those around them and themselves.

I think this book had some really poignant commentary on the nature of mental illness and the different ways it can manifest. It’s prose on this sometimes touched a nerve with me in ways I found to be painful. You rarely read accounts of consenting adults in relationships with a large age gap and this was quite interesting and refreshing to read about.

However, it doesn’t quite get 5* for me because it felt very superficial. I didn’t like any of the characters (and I don’t think this was done on purpose). Cleo and Zoe came across like they were supposed to be relatable but personally I felt them both to be spoiled and entitled. If this was supposed to be a commentary on the dangers of living life with too much influence on partying and substance misuse, then it did a great job. I do suspect, based on the ending, that this was partially the case.

Overall, I’m really conflicted about this. I’m giving it 4* because I did keep wanting to come back to it and the ending was satisfying. But perhaps I need to come back to this later when some of the themes aren’t so raw.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Transphobia

harureads's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Animal death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness