Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Cleopatra and Frankenstein

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Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

33 reviews

nreyno's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad 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

3.75

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freshpageonthedesk's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring fast-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

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fairyko's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

2.25

Often I have walked past this book in the bookstore and thought about buying it. At the request of a friend, I did, because she said she would need someone at the end to exchange her thoughts about it and quickly it became clear to me why she said that. Right at the beginning a big warning. Please read the trigger warnings on the internet if you plan to buy this book. I did not know that certain topics are discussed so intensively and I claim to be able to handle a lot well - but here even I felt sick to my stomach now and then. A content warning at the beginning of the book would have been good in my opinion. Now about the content. I did not like the characters. Except for Santiago, I found every single person introduced annoying, boring, tiring, or just plain mean. Or all at once. The relationship between Cleo and Frank was doomed to fail from the start and you practically watch the two of them gradually destroy themselves and each other. Other characters (especially Quentin) leave too much room for interpretation and are there, but ultimately do not contribute to the development of the plot. They are all tragic in their own way, but only superficially so. Each character has their own story, their own trauma, and their own fate, but each character would need their own book to properly deal with all of this and not just skim over it. Coco Mellors does a poor job of addressing the problems of each individual and illuminating them in a light that does them justice. The wounds of each character are opened, but then not treated with the necessary sensitivity. At best, a small plaster is put on the metaphorical stab wound, but the reader does not get more. It was a very frustrating experience and from halfway through I prayed on every third page for a quick end to my reading experience. The novel presents itself as a shimmering, profound love story between a successful middle-aged man and a nearly childlike artist, but brings the reader nothing but pain. Not even because the story is so tragic, but because it just drags on. What one must credit Coco Mellors with is that she achieves her goal. People talk about her book, it stays in the mind for a long time and one thinks a lot about it, as each of these characters leaves a strange feeling in the stomach. Her writing style is also very appealing and especially graphic. She has certainly mastered "show, don't tell" as few others have. If she now also creates a story that does not claim to be something it is not, I can certainly imagine reading something from her again.

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anh_read's review against another edition

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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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crawforl's review

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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

adaora_ble's review against another edition

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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

maddalenacesco's review

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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

mariaminthebooks's review

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dark emotional medium-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

3.5

I'm torn between giving this 3 or 4 stars. Let's settle for 3.5/5

Stating the obvious, the book flows like a river. The writing's great, descriptions' great yada yada yada...

Finished the book in 3 days. That says enough.

Now, the interesting stuff...

I found the main character insufferable, which is absolutely fine, characters do NOT have to be likeable, but Mellors tried SO hard to make her likeable by mentioning just how likeable she is (how convenient) which made me dislike her even more.

TW//

The book also features PRETTY heavy themes like alcoholism, drug abuse, animal cruelty, su!cide, self-h@rm, and the list goes on....without ever really diving into the complexity and complications of each struggle, thereby making the character's problems seem shallow (they are not!!!)

Along with having like a bazillion unnecessary characters, this, too, was unnecessary. Towards the end of the book, it felt as if Mellors was just throwing in as much trauma as she possibly can for that shocker effect. Unfortunately, that had a counter effect. It made me desensitised to much of the events in the novel.

traumatised characters ≠ unconditional sympathy

I've read books with way fewer events going on but had a much deeper attachment to the characters.

Frustratingly, this could have been such a good book....

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daisyreadssometimes's review against another edition

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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

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zoroco's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.0

cleo and frank end up being the least interesting people in this book about very interesting, fucked up people. only two zoe POV chapters is a crime - i loved her. great read, loved it even more when it went off-piste, especially with the turn into first person in eleanor's chapters.

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