Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Cleópatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

293 reviews

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

I was worried at first that I wasn't going to like this as much as I expected but as I kept reading it really grew on me. I didn't like all the characters but was able to root for them because they felt so human

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dark emotional fast-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 read some other reviews and I have to say I completely dissagree with some of them.
Yes, even if it is about Cleo's and Frank's relationship, I think the other characters chapters add to the story.
I felt that the story unfolded pretty similarly to real life, where a relationship between two people is far more than that. (For example, whether you break up with your partner doesn't only evolve aroud your own feelings, it also depends on what your best friend will say about them, all your past relationships, how you grew up...)
I felt it was a fresh approach to the romance (?) genre, in how it subverted the almost sterile relationship between two people we've been reading about lately. 
Even if some of the characters are less likable, I felt I still cared about them and wanted to know more about their story. I finished this book quite easily and couldn't get enough of it.
It's not a 4 star book because I felt that some stories were cut short, right when something big/ interesting would happen.
Also, I think Cleo's character was very stereotypical (in a good way) of the "detached woman in her 20's" trope that we've been seeing lately ...
Lastly, congrats to Coco, they said it took them 7 years to finish this book. It's such a magical but also ordinary story on human relations and how each one of us is so different and special. Much love 𓆩♡𓆪

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challenging dark emotional 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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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

cleo and frank had me bawling my eyes out at 4 in the morning

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dark emotional funny reflective medium-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

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challenging dark emotional 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

when I finished this book, I felt simlarly to the way I felt when i finished normal people. This book made me think about relationships so differently and i really felt like i learned something about human behavior at the end of it. i could not set the book down was so drawn in by the story and felt every emotion. Immediately I wanted to read it again. I really want to give this book 5 stars and do think I will eventually read this book again, which I only do with 5 star reads. The prose was beautiful and the settings were incredible, I felt like I was in New York, France, and Italy. I cried twice in this book, and I haven't cried at a book since My Dark Vanessa last year. The ONLY THING that has brought my rating down from a 5 is I just felt there's too many loose ends at the end. Normally, I'm fine with ambiguous endings, but too many of the characters here just felt...unfinished at the end (Zoe, Quentin, etc). I may eventually get over this feeling but I typically only like to give 5 stars to books that I feel are absolutely perfect.

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

An compelling story of fast and passionate love between two people who are so different yet so similar in so many ways.
  
Cleo meets Frank New Year's eve, by June they are married for the wrong and right reasons. This is their story, and the story of the people that are affected by their actions.
  
I fell in love with this book in the first chapter. The characters are real and raw with flaws, fights, and situations that just seem normal.
  
Cleopatra and Frankenstein explores the complexity of being a person with flaws, being in love, lust & marriage when your life before 'This Person' is messy at best.

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readingtotravel's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 49%

This was insanely hard to get through. The book itself and its characters are loathsome and shallow. The book attempts to be clever and witty and woke but inevitably falls flat. The characters are meant to be enviable but are just cringeworthy stereotypes. And I just say it's a pass. 

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dark 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

I was eager and curious to read this book just by the title alone knowing nothing yet about the plot. Although Cleopatra and Frankenstein are not the actual characters of Mellor’s debut novel, they still seem like a mismatched couple to imagine. And that alone is already an indicator for what this book had in store for its two main characters, Cleo and Frank.

Cleo is a twenty-four-year-old aspiring artist from the U.K who meets forty-something-year-old ad executive Frank on New Year’s Eve 2006 in New York. They then quickly marry just a few months later before Cleo’s student visa expires. What begins as something exciting and adventurous for the two, quickly unravels and descends into uncertainty and self-turmoil that not only affects Cleo and Frank, but their friends and family as well.

The first couple of chapters immediately grabbed me as the story took off right away and introduced Cleo and Frank so well that I was invested and had a good idea of who both of them were. The book was very well written that showed rather than tell and was more about the characters and their internal struggles. I also didn’t mind the few chapters that showcased some of the other supporting characters. Their perspectives gave another view of Cleo and Frank while exploring some of their own issues that had been buried, but brought into reflection after the couple got married. With all that said though, and if I have to be honest, I began to slowly lose interest as the story progressed and things got messier and messier for all parties involved. It didn’t have to do with where the story went. I just think this book wasn’t for me despite its strong start and ending, which I liked a lot. I’m actually still not sure what to make of it as I don't really have anything negative to say or can pinpoint why I didn’t completely love it. It’s an interesting read to say the least. I think you should still give it a go though, especially if you are a fan of Normal People or The Vacationers.



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challenging dark emotional 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

Beautifully written and beautifully heartbreaking. 

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