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challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
The first few chapters of this book were so engaging but I found myself growing more and more disinterested as the chapters progressed. The characters seemed pretentious and wholly self-centred and I found myself having to struggle through some of the chapters. The random POVs scattered throughout the book were biazarre and unecessary. Despite all of that I somehow ended up really enjoying Cleo's story, I wish it had centred on her and no one else she's the only reason my star rating is passable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Self harm, Suicide, Alcohol
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dips its toes in heavy topics without any depth of exploration. ultimately shallow, self-insert trash that seems to glamorize depression and MPDG trope without saying anything. dialogue between characters is cringe and unrealistic. the comparisons to sally rooney bewilder me honestly. the cover and title are the best things about the book. the one star is for eleanor's first chapter.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Drug abuse
Minor: Suicide
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship
funny
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was hard to rate because there are so many pros and cons of this book. I find the cover kind of misleading because it doesn't look like Cleo or Frank so like. Is it just there for the vibes orrrrr am I missing something. I don't really like Cleo and I don't really like Frank, but I don't think that matters. I did LOVE Eleanor, but I also dreaded her chapters. I just wish that everyone had been better to each other. Everything seemed so vapid and pretentious.
I think I would have rated this book a lot lower if not for the last chapter. I think it did show how Cleo had grown--her not talking to Quentin anymore was heartbreaking but it was also what was best for her. I like the thought of Cleo and Frank still being friends, but it does make me sad how they hurt each other so much. Cleo's art almost send Frank into a panic attack, and he also didn't fully believe in her talent, and he was so quick to mentally get angry at her and mock her for using crystals. It's like they can't stand each other but they need each other to be in their lives. It's so confusing. I like that Cleo and Zoe are friends now, and that Zoe has found her niche. Anders is a cliche. I understand Cleo's jealousy of Eleanor getting the sober, more attentive version of Frank, but I don't think Cleo would have been ready for that version either. I don't know. I don't think I ever want to read this book again.
Also, ended up talking to my therapist today about the line "But the people who did get that love, they grew up to be different from us. More secure. Maybe they're not as shiny or successful as you and I feel we have to be. But it's not because they're not interesting. They just don't feel they have to do the tap dance, you know? They don't have to prove themselves all the time to be loved. Because they always were." That did a number on me.
Also, ended up talking to my therapist today about the line "But the people who did get that love, they grew up to be different from us. More secure. Maybe they're not as shiny or successful as you and I feel we have to be. But it's not because they're not interesting. They just don't feel they have to do the tap dance, you know? They don't have to prove themselves all the time to be loved. Because they always were." That did a number on me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Self harm, Suicide
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
(Most of the review is a spoiler, to be honest)
When you read the first chapter of this book, you'd think you're going to read an exciting love story between two remarkable, slightly strange but still interesting people: Cleo, 25, and Frank, fortysomething. I won't lie: the opening chapter most definitely had me hooked completely with the way the dialogue between these two strangers who meet at a NYE party flows, despite my earlier inhibitions. I bought this book anyway, even though I saw a lot of comparisons to Sally Rooney. And I started it anyway, even though I also saw a comparison to "A Little Life" - which is one of my favourite books of all time, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to put myself through all of the pain of reading a book similar to it.
This is the story of Cleo and Frank and layer by layer we uncover that however magical this relationship might start, what it really is, is toxic. These are two broken people who do not necessarily love themselves. Sure, they love each other, or maybe the idea of each other, but chapter upon chapter we find out that that's not necessarily enough. They both have personality traits that I admire or recognise in myself (for Cleo, for example, it's the empathy she showcases often in the book towards her friends and also towards Frank, at times).
We only spend the course of a year in their company and the cracks in the marriage, the cracks in Frank and Cleo, start to show very soon and in a very delicate, almost devastating way. I went through various emotions, exploring their love story and contemplating on various things they said or did. (like how cruel Cleo can be when they are fighting, how she completely disregards Frank's childhood and upbringing as if hers is worse - the empathy she's shown so often before completely vanished in this scene. Or Frank's ideas about manhood, his worries about being emasculated whenever Cleo does something for him that he feels the man in the relationship should do. The way he goes at her in a very defensive way when she tells him he drinks too much...)
Obviously, as soon as you've finished the book and see its conclusion, you know that they've got no other way but to communicate than being completely unhealthy. They've never known, never did anything else. At times, when I was reading this book, it reminded me of "Fates & Furies" by Lauren Groff and during one particular argument between Cleo and Frank also "Revolutionary Road".
This book is extremely character-driven, and it's almost as much about all of the side characters - the crowd Cleo and Frank surround themselves with in New York - than it is about their own story. Man, how much I have hated all of the characters upon reading through their various chapters... Zoe and especially Quentin - whose jealousy about Frank and Cleo's relationship, whose fear about being abandoned by them now that they had each other, I first recognised but later found extremely toxic and suffocating (in Quentin's case especially). Anders. One particular scene in an Anders POV-chapter even made me rate down this book from the five stars I was willing to give it because I just couldn't make sense of why such a violent fantasy was necessary in this story at all. But these side characters, their "friends" who often can't really be friends at all though, as soon as you're completely through the book, you get an inkling of understanding about why they are the way they are and you start thinking about nature and nurture. The way they behave is down to the circumstances, maybe, but you've got to wonder if they also do not have a choice in certain manners. If they can't make different choices and completely change their lives - most of them, granted, do, except for Quentin, which probably makes his story the most tragic.
Luckily there are also a few characters in this book that I absolutely adored. I thought Santiago was the only person either Frank or Cleo could truly call a friend. Sure, he was struggling with himself too, and his life certainly also hasn't been a walk in the park, having lost the love of his life in tragic circumstances. But he successfully tries to make things better for himself. And he shows up when Frank or Cleo needs him.
And then there's Eleanor, of course. Eleanor and her mum. In normal circumstances, I wouldn't much like the fact that one of the main characters in the book fell in love with someone else while in a marriage. But in this case, it just makes <i>sense</i>. Eleanor and Frank's relationship starts in the most natural, healthy of ways: I loved the two of them sending each other funny e-mails at work, I loved them building a friendship first and then only a relationship later, as soon as it was obvious that Cleo and Frank's is beyond saving. Other than that, Eleanor is just wholesome and I loved her and her mother so much. Also the way she convinces Frank to go and visit Cleo in Italy under the guise of sisterhood is incredible.
That final chapter in Rome is perfect. The way they're both working on healing. The way they want to be better people, even though in all the chapters before, maybe they've been too self-involved to really do that. The way that we find out in a most natural way where the other characters are. And the way this story concludes, the only way it ever could, the way you knew it would end up the moment you read the first chapter, regardless of how magical that was.
I spent the better part of the last couple of days with these characters and I'm sorry to have to let them go now. I'm glad this is a book that I read now at the age I have, when I've realised that not everything (or everyone) is black and white, that these characters are human beings with flaws. And that we as characters can try to make sense of these flaws, of how these people are and why.
This book is definitely one of the best I've read so far this year and I can definitely see myself getting back to it at some point in the future.
When you read the first chapter of this book, you'd think you're going to read an exciting love story between two remarkable, slightly strange but still interesting people: Cleo, 25, and Frank, fortysomething. I won't lie: the opening chapter most definitely had me hooked completely with the way the dialogue between these two strangers who meet at a NYE party flows, despite my earlier inhibitions. I bought this book anyway, even though I saw a lot of comparisons to Sally Rooney. And I started it anyway, even though I also saw a comparison to "A Little Life" - which is one of my favourite books of all time, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to put myself through all of the pain of reading a book similar to it.
This is the story of Cleo and Frank and layer by layer we uncover that however magical this relationship might start, what it really is, is toxic. These are two broken people who do not necessarily love themselves. Sure, they love each other, or maybe the idea of each other, but chapter upon chapter we find out that that's not necessarily enough. They both have personality traits that I admire or recognise in myself (for Cleo, for example, it's the empathy she showcases often in the book towards her friends and also towards Frank, at times).
We only spend the course of a year in their company and the cracks in the marriage, the cracks in Frank and Cleo, start to show very soon and in a very delicate, almost devastating way. I went through various emotions, exploring their love story and contemplating on various things they said or did. (like how cruel Cleo can be when they are fighting, how she completely disregards Frank's childhood and upbringing as if hers is worse - the empathy she's shown so often before completely vanished in this scene. Or Frank's ideas about manhood, his worries about being emasculated whenever Cleo does something for him that he feels the man in the relationship should do. The way he goes at her in a very defensive way when she tells him he drinks too much...)
Obviously, as soon as you've finished the book and see its conclusion, you know that they've got no other way but to communicate than being completely unhealthy. They've never known, never did anything else. At times, when I was reading this book, it reminded me of "Fates & Furies" by Lauren Groff and during one particular argument between Cleo and Frank also "Revolutionary Road".
This book is extremely character-driven, and it's almost as much about all of the side characters - the crowd Cleo and Frank surround themselves with in New York - than it is about their own story. Man, how much I have hated all of the characters upon reading through their various chapters... Zoe and especially Quentin - whose jealousy about Frank and Cleo's relationship, whose fear about being abandoned by them now that they had each other, I first recognised but later found extremely toxic and suffocating (in Quentin's case especially). Anders. One particular scene in an Anders POV-chapter even made me rate down this book from the five stars I was willing to give it because I just couldn't make sense of why such a violent fantasy was necessary in this story at all. But these side characters, their "friends" who often can't really be friends at all though, as soon as you're completely through the book, you get an inkling of understanding about why they are the way they are and you start thinking about nature and nurture. The way they behave is down to the circumstances, maybe, but you've got to wonder if they also do not have a choice in certain manners. If they can't make different choices and completely change their lives - most of them, granted, do, except for Quentin, which probably makes his story the most tragic.
Luckily there are also a few characters in this book that I absolutely adored. I thought Santiago was the only person either Frank or Cleo could truly call a friend. Sure, he was struggling with himself too, and his life certainly also hasn't been a walk in the park, having lost the love of his life in tragic circumstances. But he successfully tries to make things better for himself. And he shows up when Frank or Cleo needs him.
And then there's Eleanor, of course. Eleanor and her mum. In normal circumstances, I wouldn't much like the fact that one of the main characters in the book fell in love with someone else while in a marriage. But in this case, it just makes <i>sense</i>. Eleanor and Frank's relationship starts in the most natural, healthy of ways: I loved the two of them sending each other funny e-mails at work, I loved them building a friendship first and then only a relationship later, as soon as it was obvious that Cleo and Frank's is beyond saving. Other than that, Eleanor is just wholesome and I loved her and her mother so much. Also the way she convinces Frank to go and visit Cleo in Italy under the guise of sisterhood is incredible.
That final chapter in Rome is perfect. The way they're both working on healing. The way they want to be better people, even though in all the chapters before, maybe they've been too self-involved to really do that. The way that we find out in a most natural way where the other characters are. And the way this story concludes, the only way it ever could, the way you knew it would end up the moment you read the first chapter, regardless of how magical that was.
I spent the better part of the last couple of days with these characters and I'm sorry to have to let them go now. I'm glad this is a book that I read now at the age I have, when I've realised that not everything (or everyone) is black and white, that these characters are human beings with flaws. And that we as characters can try to make sense of these flaws, of how these people are and why.
This book is definitely one of the best I've read so far this year and I can definitely see myself getting back to it at some point in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicide, Violence
Moderate: Self harm
dark
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicide
dark
emotional
funny
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
This is really well written and includes a really eclectic group of characters, but at times it was just too pretentious and felt like sometimes diminished darker topics like suicide and drug use.
The two main characters, and almost all of the rest of the cast are such unlikeable people - you can only really root for Eleanor and Santiago in my eyes. Don’t even start me on Quinton.
This needed to be more grounded, money just isn’t an issue for people in this book, when Zoe is in debt she has multiple people ready to bail her out and of course the source (without spoiling it) ends up being a really nice person with minimal consequences for her.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this at the time, but it didn’t blow me away or make me think “wow” at any moment. Well thought out characters but lacking the plot I was after.
The two main characters, and almost all of the rest of the cast are such unlikeable people - you can only really root for Eleanor and Santiago in my eyes. Don’t even start me on Quinton.
This needed to be more grounded, money just isn’t an issue for people in this book, when Zoe is in debt she has multiple people ready to bail her out and of course the source (without spoiling it) ends up being a really nice person with minimal consequences for her.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this at the time, but it didn’t blow me away or make me think “wow” at any moment. Well thought out characters but lacking the plot I was after.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide
Minor: Animal cruelty