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Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Cursing, Transphobia, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Mellors should know better than to describe darker skin tones by aligning them with foods, or describing Black hair as food. The Black characters in this book are caricatures and slotted into “best friend” or “wise older woman”. They only exist in the novel to help along the spellbindingly slow plots of the white peoples around them, and her portrait of Zoe is too underdeveloped to balance this out.
I almost DNRd at chapter 8, when Mellors introduced an entirely new character, perspective, and style of prose. It felt overly writerly and indulgent.
This book is about 70-90 pages too long, and focuses tightly on characters out of no where when they were mentioned a handful of times 100 pages earlier. The main protagonists Cleo and Frank are selfish egomaniacs in what I think Mellors felt was deeply human, but I found them cartoonish and lacking any dimension. The put-upon outlooks they both had were hard to endure. Mellors would often end a chapter with very little resolution, switching to a different character, and then move on from the conflict just by moving time forward. It wasn’t satisfying, and felt like Mellors really shied away from ever writing the necessary scenes into the book - the breakup, the divorce, the suicide attempt; the resolution of these catastrophic events told to the reader as bylines in another characters dialogue. It was infuriating and repetitive, which only came off as coy and cowardly writing. The shock values seemed to arise out of nowhere because the stakes for the characters were so low — she was building mountains out of molehills that led to volcanic eruptions without actual lava.
I’m left feeling odd and deeply unsatisfied after such a philosophical read.
Oh yeah - and an entire paragraph of naming the words for groups of animals; “a group of owls is a parliament. A group of emus is called a mob. A group of larks is called an exultation. A group of doves…” it went on so long I was 10 pages from finished and damn near tore the book in half.
Graphic: Body horror, Sexual violence, 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
Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment
Minor: Body horror
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Classism
Minor: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail
I recommend that you go into this with absolutely no expectations and just let the story take you on a ride. Bonus points if you listen to a Cleo and Frank Spotify playlist while reading. It is much more character driven rather than plot heavy, and it was unlike other books in how it brought you so deep into the perspectives of nearly every side character, even more sometimes than the supposed main characters. I think this was my favorite aspect of this book. It made me feel privy to everyone, and made me understand their flaws and imperfections and mistakes. Everyone in this felt raw and real and all their ugly was laid bare in earnest.
In a way, every person was a little piece of New York itself, the city practically being its own character who unleashed its weight on each person unapologetically. Some thrived in its environment, others not.
I think I will be pondering this book for a long time.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Drug use
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
If I were to rate the characters in terms of likability for me, it would go from top to bottom: Eleanor, Santiago, Zoe, Frank, Cleo, Anders, Quentin 🫠
I did find the switch from third person to first person narratives difficult but also enjoyable. Eleanor really became my favourite through her dry and sarcastic humour that was masking her love 🥲
The relationships were SO HUMAN. So flawed, so messy and yet in all of that, so stunning. I couldn’t stop weeping at one point 🥹
4 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment
Moderate: Homophobia
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Alcohol
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse