Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Cleópatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

554 reviews

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Well that was great but now I’m quite depressed. 

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dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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

I think if thought out further could’ve been a series of books looking into the characters that we saw “snippets” of.

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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: Complicated

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dark emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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

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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emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional 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

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