Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Cleópatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

284 reviews

leelas_reads's review against another edition

3.75

emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol

thehexgirlfriend's review against another edition

3.75

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death

bookmark3brodi's review against another edition

4.25

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Deportation

mariaminthebooks's review against another edition

3.5

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

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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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment

laurataylor's review against another edition

3.75

reflective medium-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

theteaisaddictive's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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

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A beautifully-written book starring the most insufferable collection of characters I’ve ever read about. Watching them make their mistakes, break apart, hurt each other, leave, grow, change, and become themselves was an experience that I practically inhaled by the end of the book. Bonus star for the prose, which is simply gorgeous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Infidelity, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

finn_vibing's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sydapel's review against another edition

3.5

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book is ostensibly right up my alley, and if we were judging on the last chapter alone, this would get five stars for the sheer audacity of making me cry alone at a wine bar. However, I found myself more drawn to (most of) the side characters who were brought in for a single chapter before then disappearing to the background, and desperately wanted to spend more time with them. I also have some concerns about one of the queer side characters being used as a potentially problematic plot device, which casts a further shade. Ultimately though the writing in this is quite good and I love the arc it takes, it feels very emblematic of Sally Rooney without actually creating a broader theme or heart to it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Abandonment

Minor: Death of parent

maria_k2000's review against another edition

4.5

dark funny hopeful 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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol

gabby_stay's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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So emotional but a cozy read. Definite trigger warnings to consider but overall I resonated with the experiences Cleo was going through. I really understand why Mellors took so long to write this - she took her time to ace perfection and understanding of everyday people's experiences.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship