Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Cleópatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

556 reviews

nenya's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring 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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this is the kind of book where you can’t really tell that the characters are becoming your comfort characters until you find yourself looking forward to keep reading it because of them. the book is incredibly character driven and provides a very diverse set of nuanced and delicately crafted people who all, in a sense harmonize (or conflict) with one another. cleo and frank, the protagonists are both lovable and also deeply flawed and traumatized, something you and the characters themselves come to understand throughout the course of the book. what i loved most about it was that the narration style gave you insight into every single person’s thoughts and sentiments (or at least of the most important ones) not only through different POVs separated into different chapters, but also sometimes within the span of a paragraph, switching back and forth in revealing each persons internal dialogue. 
the book felt like an anti-romanticizing telltale of several New Yorker lifestyles while also being deeply philosophical and thought provoking 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail

hilary_h's review against another edition

1.75

reflective sad tense slow-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

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My favourite part of the book is the cover. That's about it. People who have read this book rave about it so it might just not be my might cup of tea. It's mostly charter driven there's kind of a plot but it's not really the main focus of the book I guess. Oh and way too many descriptive sexual stuff. Again, not my cup of tea.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexual assault, Sexual content

nai__reads's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment

swetha062's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous 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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I think in any case that love would sustain you, their life would be a prime contradicting example of that. Cleo and Frank find solace in things except each other. Coco mellors does a great job of catching the intricacies of love between two beings and what makes them want to choose the other. She captures the depth of falls and misses in these moments. Empathy being the key to finding peace, she explains every relationship in the book desperately needing that for themselves. It's beautiful and none of their reasonings fell flat. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment

mariietta's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective

Strong character development: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt

philippmk's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Animal death

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

4.0

emotional reflective 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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Cleopatra and Frankenstein is the story of the relationship between Cleo and Frank. She’s a young artist struggling to keep her New York dream alive; he’s much older and owns a successfully advertising agency. I loved their meet-cute and witty banter. There was genuine connection, passion and respect in their relationship. But there was also addiction and mental health battles. Despite their flaws I liked both Cleo and Frank and thought the group of supporting characters was especially strong. I’m glad I gave this a go. I was afraid it was going to be too “messy 20-somethings” for my taste. But I found there was enough depth, poignancy and meaningful exploration of themes like love, loss, grief, trauma, gender, and sexuality as well as the aforementioned addiction and mental health to counter any frustrations I had along the way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Suicide attempt

amethystbutterfly's review against another edition

4.5

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

karieninas's review against another edition

4.5

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit

lidia7's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

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took me a while to get into it (about 20%) and i thought i was going to dnf but then i ended up reading 80% or more of the book in one night.
love the writing style
a lot of TWs, sorry if i forgot some

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Infidelity, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Sexism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content