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Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Cleópatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

23 reviews

dark emotional sad 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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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-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

There’s racist tropes of angry POC, a LOT of fatphobia, and a wildy misogynistic fantasy rape and murder scene- literally none of this was necessary at all.

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

Easily my favorite book. The novel is heartbreaking and beautiful. It details, in brutal honesty, what the reality of living within a toxic relationship looks like from every point of view in a person’s life. Mellors is an author with a deep understanding of the human condition. Cleopatra and Frankenstein explores the importance of grief, sympathy, endurance, optimism, compassion, honesty, sobriety, sex, self worth, therapy, art, and love both platonic and romantic. 

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

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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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challenging dark sad tense slow-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

Please look up content warning before reading this one. 
It’s a story about a very toxic couple, their friends and how they all live in this devil circle where everyone makes bad decisions. It is tough to read. The very very End is giving the Reader a glimes of hope.


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dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-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

I hate this book. It’s like fleabag but less smart. I dont think
its fair that Frank gets to live a happy changed life and we get stuck with not knowing what happens with Cleo. I think its a disservice to not give an inkling of hope that she can be better. I don’t think Frank was redeemed. Santiago was the only one with a happy ending. The emotional and physical violence thats described to happen only to Cleo was devastating. No one got what they deserved, it was deeply disturbing and unsatisfying. 

Upon reflection i hate this book

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excritos's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 60%

I don't care what will happen with the characters anymore. 😑

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

4.5✨

When the darkest part of you meets the darkest part of me, it creates light.”
I still don’t have the proper words to review this book. The way I still think of this book daily is honestly insane.
This was something different than I usually read and I’m so glad I picked it up. 
-0.5 because:
  •  the end chapter of chapter 10
    WHY IS HE m**** IN A STEAKHOUSE BATHROOM
  • I don’t like Eleanor or her first person pov. 
  • Why doesn’t Cleo get a happy ending :( but Frank, the guy who has more red flags than I have sticky notes, gets a happy ending?????


Expand filter menu Content Warnings
reflective tense slow-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

Rich People’s Problems but Wait, They All Have Tragic Backstories: A Novel

The only reason I finished this book was because it is my Book Club novel. I fought and sweated my way through page by page because it’s just so bad. It’s part of the trend for authors to try to make their books “deeper” by flooding every character with trauma. Pain Porn if you prefer. 

The author thought that by giving each character a single-defining struggle she is making them less one-dimensional but because of that they felt almost like cartoon characters. Cleo - beautiful, thin, talented, young BUT WAIT she is depressed and has both mummy and daddy issues; Frank - beautiful, “manly”, successful, rich and older BUT WAIT he had mummy issues and is an alcoholic, Zoe - beautiful, thin, talented BUT WAIT she has seizures, Quentin - beautiful, thin, rich “snarky gay best friend” BUT WAIT he can’t come out of the closet because of his homophobic Polish family (fuck you for that Coc, enforcing Polish stereotypes) and is a drug addict, Anders - beautiful, thin, rich fuckboy BUT WAIT his step-son doesn’t like him anymore and his parents don’t visit him in the US. You see what I mean? The only half-decent characters are Eleanor and Santiago, just because they are not awful to other people, but they rarely are given voice and in the end are pushed into the role of “I can fix him” girl for Frank and “losing weight will let you find love”, respectively. Nauseating. TikTok girlies, wake up, this is not literary fiction you claim it to be.

The book obviously features a lot of content warnings - wouldn’t be a pain porn without it - but I’m not sure if it’s handled even passably well.
Cleo’s depression and its consequences, Frank’s alcoholism, Zoe’s inability to live without a trust fund, Anders’s familial infidelity - all get magically solved by the end, with no depth or mental insight given on any of the aforementioned. Cleo started painting and moved to Italy - depression solved; Frank “got fixed” by his mummy to-be-wife; Zoe just found herself a sugar daddy; and Anders swept the whole issue under the rug. We can’t of course forget that the happy ending is only given to straight people - queers go to hell with our only rep - Quentin - ending up a meth head and most likely dying


This book angered me on so many levels. It was the superficial depth, wannabe literary fiction, over sexualisation of everything (Zoe saying that she is “a real girl” now, after climaxing, nauseated me), disrespectful treatment of a lot of extremely heavy issues and -how could I forget - BLATANT plagiarism of other media (yes, I’m looking at you ripped-off Fleabag dinner scene). Awful

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