Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Cleopatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

95 reviews

itsjadenbaby's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I wish I could give this book 10 stars. My best read this year by far! The story is simply so real. The emotions expressed are raw and nearly every page moved me. Please look up trigger warnings though!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Child abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug abuse, Misogyny, and Animal death

luciapoloni's review against another edition

emotional 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

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

frannyrdclark's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Blood, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Self harm, Infidelity, and Animal death

Minor: Vomit and Child abuse

kitty03's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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: Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Blood, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

jennalea_'s review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

Cleopatra and Frankenstein is easily a five-star from me! Emotional, captivating, and devastating all at once! I didn’t want this book to end! Really loved how New York felt like this oppressive yet magical other character within the book. The character-driven plot and how each character in the book orbits one another was my favourite thing about the book. Coco Mellors’ characterisation felt so effortlessly real. If you haven’t read this book, you must. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug abuse, Self harm, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Grief and Violence

celestialvibrations's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

1.0

dips its toes in heavy topics without any depth of exploration. ultimately shallow, self-insert trash that seems to glamorize depression and MPDG trope without saying anything. dialogue between characters is cringe and unrealistic. the comparisons to sally rooney bewilder me honestly. the cover and title are the best things about the book. the one star is for eleanor's first chapter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Drug use, Dementia, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Suicide

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

babsi_222's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective tense 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

3.0

Spoilers!!!!
Soooo many ts songs reminded me of this book!!! 
Deeply flawed characters and toxic relationships. Everyone struggles. 
I Never liked Cleo and Frank‘s Relationship (i don’t like the age gap) and I don’t like them both that much. I like Cleo sometimes too, she can be relatable. The chapters are quite long but that didn’t bother me very much- the usual POV‘S are Cleo and Frank but you got like 1-2 chapters in the POV of Zoe, Eleanor, Quentin and Santiago
The two chapters that were Eleanor‘s POV i didn’t like, I don’t know why there were that many small paragraphs with stuff I don’t care about. Her and Frank‘s relationship was something I also never liked. A lot of things were predictable in this book but there were also plottwists so it’s fine if.
Quentin is very strange and I was always a bit scared of him tbh because he’s just so uncomfortable. I kneeew that Alex was bad for him tbh (I thought it was cute in the beginning in Quentin‘s POV but then in the other people‘s POV i saw the problematic)
I loveee Zoe. I think she was my fav person in the book. I could sympathies with her (more in the end not so much in the beginning) Santiago is I think the only unproblematic character in the book. I love him and I’m sooo happy for how his life‘s like now. 
My fav scene is the one where Audrey, Cleo and Zoe spend time together (p 82- 91) especially the part when they went home to Cleo‘s (i think) ❤️❤️❤️

Cleo:
+ an artist
+ a feminist that puts people in their place
+ „ you want credit for not leaving me? Are you joking? Sorry Frank, but you married me…“ (p261)
+ she has a smooth way of feeling and she feels so much 
- she complained about her pain when they had THAT fight but didn’t care about Frank‘s pin at all 
- in general made some poor ass arguments in that fight
- „Could it be? Are we back here again? At Frank pity party?“ (p261) HUGE L
- compared her trauma to Frank‘s 💀
- had an affair 

Frank:
+ changed for the better!
+ cares about Eleanor
+ finally cried in the end
+ supported Cleo financially 
+ super rich but then not too cocky
- a man
- killed their pet that they loved and lied about it
- bought an illegal pet
- had an affair 
- gave his sister money all the time 
- alcoholic for the most time of this book

Zoe:
+ has her struggles but powerful
+ sweet and kind
+ the whole thing with Jiro :))
+ the way she connected w Cleo
+ idk but her sexual struggles make her so much more sympathetic 
+ the scene were she layers on the ground next to Cleo (p 312) ❤️❤️
- asking her brother for money all the time
- doesn’t know how to spend money

„The parties, Sex, alcohol and drug use is so New York City aesthetic“…. Girl wtf no it’s literally not. 
„ everyone we know in NY is an addict, aren’t they?“ (p355) lol yeah they are. The way drugs are used in the book is sooooo bad holy shit especially like Quentin and Alex and stuff but actually they all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Self harm, Sexism, Cursing, Death of parent, Outing, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Animal death, and Blood

_rowan_'s review against another edition

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Death, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Sexual content, Death of parent, Grief, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

grunbean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

3.75

A good read, I enjoyed this. I can’t say I always felt the parts made sense, and the phrasing is awkward in places. But that is part of a debut novel! 

If you like sad romances, this will be a book you enjoy. The characters are interesting, and keep you invested in the story and where it’s going.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Animal death, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship