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Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Forced institutionalization
Rating: ★★★★★
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Alcohol
Moderate: Infidelity, Death of parent, Toxic friendship
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation
I could not bring myself to care about Cleo nor Frank, which is sad because the book is supposed to be about them. I think one of the things that put me off is that this story doesn't even centers them. Between Cleo and Frank's chapters, you get lengthy chapters about the lives of the side characters, which are just boring. These chapters never bring anything to the main couple or even the story as a whole. It felt like, by adding those chapters and characters, Mellor saw it as an opportunity to write about as many "sensible subjects" as she could to add some depth to the story. To be honest, I don't believe she has the skills to write about such complex and important topics such as drug abuse, assault, eating disorders, and so much more. She made everything feel very shallow and superficial. There was no depth. She should have focused on Cleo's depression.
The characters were all caricatures, and were so flat that it was easy to predict their next move or what they would say. The book was just very boring man. I know it was supposed to be "no plot just vibes" but the vibes were not there at all. The vibes were rancid, actually. It was giving Valley of the Dolls cheap plastic knock off. There are so many books out there about young depressed adults doing drugs in public bathrooms and having meaningless sex with strangers. If you're not even giving the vibes in this saturated trope market, you're just wasting my time.
Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm
Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicide, Death of parent
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia
You fall in love with each character despite them all having a plethora of flaws. You root for everyone in their own way, and you root for each relationship in its own way. I’m happy with how everything came together at the end even if it’s not the ending I wanted. I also found how it was written to be new and interesting; I liked the jump from character to character and how the writing style would change based on that.
This is a book that I didn’t want to finish because of how much I loved it and is one of my favourite books in a very long time.
Minor: Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt