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Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
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.
Graphic: Self harm, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Death of parent
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide
Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship
Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Transphobia, Suicide attempt
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.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Dysphoria
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Infidelity, Death of parent
Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Transphobia
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.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Transphobia