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Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Cleópatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

726 reviews

dark emotional inspiring 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

Beautiful book, dark but very emotional. I did not think I would like it as much as I did. I am thinking about picking up Coco’s other book, Blue Sisters very soon 

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

It took me a bit to get into the book, but the prose and intriguing characters kept me reading. It was very messy, heartbreaking, emotional, and even hopeful. I didn’t love the characters at first, but as I kept reading I definitely grew to love and care about them and root for them to get out of the dark holes they were stuck in. Overall I really loved this book and can’t wait to read Blue Sisters. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional funny 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

Beautiful, ugly, mundane, and extraordinary all at the same time. Loved it.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

EDIT: Bumping this down to 2.25 stars (I originally gave it 2.75) because it’s actually infuriating that
Frank gets a happy ending AND that Eleanor’s “liberation” from her mom’s house and shitty job prospects is a man, and a horrible man at that!!


I absolutely would have DNFed this if I didn’t have to read it for book club, but it wound up being better than I expected as it went along. There was no apparent through-line driving the characters’ relationships until at least 100 pages into the book, which made it hard for me to care. The cast of characters was surprisingly sympathetic (I thought I would hate all of them), but I think there were too many POVs and it detracted from Cleo and Frank’s relationship dynamic, which I found to be the juiciest part of the book. I’m very glad Cleo and Frank showed major growth by the end, but it wasn’t enough to redeem the book as a whole for me.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging funny slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book really put me through it, I knew just from reading the back that these characters struggle. I felt every emotion I never knew possible, and at times I didn’t even know who I was rooting for. Both the main characters were heavily flawed, Frank with alcoholism and Cleo with depression and affairs, but you could still feel they loved each other. But sometimes love isn’t enough and i personally had a hard time letting their relationship go, because I could remember the love. The ending was ver serendipitous and i personally adore their last conversation. Eleanoar is good for Frank, and Cleo needs to work on herself. They both aknowledged the faults within their marriage and moved past it. Also, RIP Jesus, you won’t be forgotten 

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