Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Cleópatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

83 reviews

izziebenezra's review against another edition

5.0

fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse

clelland_11's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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A good read. Some storylines of characters felt were not as finished as i would have liked. I think overall the story was definitely there but wished it was better executed. Cleo seemed to be sudddenly healed from her accident and frank moving on was also sudden with no real Eleanor development which felt rushed. Audrey i felt didnt add much to the story and Quentin could have been explored more. Santiago was also someone i would have liked to learn more about. Overall it was good but did sometimes feel rushed or just glossed over some parts of the storyline. Also what happened to Jesus was not needed and mean.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Alcohol

bookies_withanja's review against another edition

1.75

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Alcohol

pettyreader's review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment

bookish_anni's review against another edition

2.0

dark emotional

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I had a hard time getting through this. Especially the first half was such a drag. Everything about the story is overly cliché, therefore so uninteresting and therefore way too long. The introduction of Eleanor saved this from a 1-star rating - she is the only human element in this novel.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death

mariaminthebooks's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional medium-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

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I'm torn between giving this 3 or 4 stars. Let's settle for 3.5/5 

Stating the obvious, the book flows like a river. The writing's great, descriptions' great yada yada yada...

Finished the book in 3 days. That says enough.

Now, the interesting stuff...

I found the main character insufferable, which is absolutely fine, characters do NOT have to be likeable, but Mellors tried SO hard to make her  likeable by mentioning just how likeable she is (how convenient) which made me dislike her even more. 

TW// 

The book also features PRETTY heavy themes like alcoholism, drug abuse, animal cruelty, su!cide, self-h@rm, and the list goes on....without ever really diving into the complexity and complications of each struggle, thereby making the character's problems seem shallow (they are not!!!) 

Along with having like a bazillion unnecessary characters, this, too, was unnecessary. Towards the end of the book, it felt as if Mellors was just throwing in as much trauma as she possibly can for that shocker effect. Unfortunately, that had a counter effect. It made me desensitised to much of the events in the novel. 

traumatised characters ≠ unconditional sympathy

I've read books with way fewer events going on but had a much deeper attachment to the characters.

Frustratingly, this could have been such a good book....

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment

laurataylor's review against another edition

3.75

reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

dreadpiraterudis's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional tense fast-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

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I didn’t like the start of the book; it felt self indulgent and a little too heavy handed in the romanticizing of the starving artist in New York trope. As they introduced more narrators, I really started to get into the story. It was great to hear characters like Eleanor and Zoe have a bit more of the main stage, but there were so many threads just abandoned when they could have been so interesting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Dementia, Death of parent

joeykills's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria

swetha062's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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I think in any case that love would sustain you, their life would be a prime contradicting example of that. Cleo and Frank find solace in things except each other. Coco mellors does a great job of catching the intricacies of love between two beings and what makes them want to choose the other. She captures the depth of falls and misses in these moments. Empathy being the key to finding peace, she explains every relationship in the book desperately needing that for themselves. It's beautiful and none of their reasonings fell flat. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment