Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

10 reviews

jettiphoned's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infidelity, Suicide, and Blood

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

paulawind's review

reflective tense 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

1.0

Rich People’s Problems but Wait, They All Have Tragic Backstories: A Novel

The only reason I finished this book was because it is my Book Club novel. I fought and sweated my way through page by page because it’s just so bad. It’s part of the trend for authors to try to make their books “deeper” by flooding every character with trauma. Pain Porn if you prefer. 

The author thought that by giving each character a single-defining struggle she is making them less one-dimensional but because of that they felt almost like cartoon characters. Cleo - beautiful, thin, talented, young BUT WAIT she is depressed and has both mummy and daddy issues; Frank - beautiful, “manly”, successful, rich and older BUT WAIT he had mummy issues and is an alcoholic, Zoe - beautiful, thin, talented BUT WAIT she has seizures, Quentin - beautiful, thin, rich “snarky gay best friend” BUT WAIT he can’t come out of the closet because of his homophobic Polish family (fuck you for that Coc, enforcing Polish stereotypes) and is a drug addict, Anders - beautiful, thin, rich fuckboy BUT WAIT his step-son doesn’t like him anymore and his parents don’t visit him in the US. You see what I mean? The only half-decent characters are Eleanor and Santiago, just because they are not awful to other people, but they rarely are given voice and in the end are pushed into the role of “I can fix him” girl for Frank and “losing weight will let you find love”, respectively. Nauseating. TikTok girlies, wake up, this is not literary fiction you claim it to be.

The book obviously features a lot of content warnings - wouldn’t be a pain porn without it - but I’m not sure if it’s handled even passably well.

Cleo’s depression and its consequences, Frank’s alcoholism, Zoe’s inability to live without a trust fund, Anders’s familial infidelity - all get magically solved by the end, with no depth or mental insight given on any of the aforementioned. Cleo started painting and moved to Italy - depression solved; Frank “got fixed” by his mummy to-be-wife; Zoe just found herself a sugar daddy; and Anders swept the whole issue under the rug. We can’t of course forget that the happy ending is only given to straight people - queers go to hell with our only rep - Quentin - ending up a meth head and most likely dying

This book angered me on so many levels. It was the superficial depth, wannabe literary fiction, over sexualisation of everything (Zoe saying that she is “a real girl” now, after climaxing, nauseated me), disrespectful treatment of a lot of extremely heavy issues and -how could I forget - BLATANT plagiarism of other media (yes, I’m looking at you ripped-off Fleabag dinner scene). Awful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Classism

irislovescats's review

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

Not my fave kind of story, but the craft of the writing was exceptional 🤍

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Medical content, and Pregnancy

dexlud's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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 a stunning novel, especially as a debut one. Coco Mellors puts so much passion into this novel and it just makes you love the characters and then rips them apart. I love this book so much! Mellors may have written my current all-time favourite! I will 100% be reading her other works!

Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a book whose narrative changes as the story goes on. LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD FOR STRUCTURE -

During the start, when everything is happy and fine, the narrative is joyful and happy, however once everything goes downhill, it switches to an emotional and beautiful narrative that honestly just makes you want to cry. Once everything begins to get better, the narrative once again changes, this time back to the start, where everything is getting better, however it's like the narrative is like the start, but with experience from the middle part.

For people who would like to read this, be warned that there is a lot of drug use and sex throughout this book, and some topics that some people may dislike or be triggered by!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

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

prism_'s review

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, and Self harm

keesreads's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Deportation

risemini's review

dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

emisbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense 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

i could not put this book down. SO. GOOD. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Self harm, and Transphobia

Minor: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

ynotlime's review

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship