Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Cleópatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

300 reviews

sib_reads's review against another edition

5.0

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Transphobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment

Minor: Pregnancy

euge's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Alcohol

sderrig's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail

jmmreads's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional funny 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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"this is a place of exquisite beauty and extreme danger."

I barely know where to begin with this. From the very first meet cute with the witty banter, cleo and frank had me hooked. But what really sold me on the story were all the other characters that created the world- especially Eleanor. she only had two chapters but somehow managed to make me cry for each. The writing style was beautiful, I felt completely immersed and enchanted by cleo and frank's life.

 I've seen other reviewers say this is a book full of unlikeable characters. But i think the charm of the book is that each character had moments where I really wanted to hate them (Frank most of all) but I never truly could. For every character flaw there was something that made me love them. The character building and development was truly exquisite. 

I deeply felt and understood every emotion described in this book. Cleo's own mindset and struggles felt deeply personal to me at points. But I will never ever get over Eleanor. The way her mind works, her train commutes, her wit, EVERYTHING about her was deeply personal to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent

milavis's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

klarastrube's review against another edition

3.75

emotional 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: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Alcohol

thenovelbookshelf's review against another edition

4.25

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

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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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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Medical content, Grief

Minor: Abandonment

harleysmiller's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional 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 book very easily entered my top 5 favorite books of all time when I was only about 30 pages into it. It is devastating and hopeful and brutal and REAL. You hate every character and love them so deeply. It felt like reading about a little slice of someone’s life like I was being let in on a secret. Every character was so well developed and complex. I would recommend this a million times over. It has the vibe of Conversations with Friends while being completely original and unique. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so strongly about a book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol

cinderellasbookshelf's review against another edition

4.0

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

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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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

thisisris's review against another edition

3.0

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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This book follows the marriage of Cleo, a 24 year old struggling artist in New York City, and Frank, a successful business man in his 40s, as well as many of the people in their lives during the duration of their marriage.

 

The story is really beautifully written, the author does a great job of creating a full picture of each character and where they are in life. However, I personally found it hard to connect or care about the main protagonists of the story (Cleo & Frank) and was much more interested in the small insights we got into the lives of the secondary characters. Frank’s younger sister, Zoe, was by far my favourite character and I spent most of the book wishing the story was about her rather than Frank & Cleo.

 

Although this book moves through time very quick, it reads at a very slow pace. It is well written, but I think the story itself is just personally not for me but I would definitely recommend this book to others who enjoy this type of story! I also look forward to seeing more books by this author. 

 

Big thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the digital ARC!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Alcohol