Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Cleópatra e Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

266 reviews

sammyjogeara's review against another edition

4.75

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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I finally fucking finished this book. And I want to cry about it. This was an emotional roller-coaster and a real coming of age story — of all ages. Self-harm, self-hate, self-sabotage, trauma, depression, dysmorfofobia, addiction, alcoholism, co-dependency. I’m really happy I paced myself reading this since it turned out to be one of the best — yet most painful — books I’ve read this year. I feel empty and full at the end of this and through it all still a message of hope, of overcoming once own adversities and somewhat killing your darlings. I genuinly recommend you to read this. However beware — you’re going to need to eat your feelings at the end of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol

thetainaship's review against another edition

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Toxic friendship

lochnessmonster's review against another edition

3.5

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Cleo and Franks relationship is like watching a high speed car crash in slow motion. You know what’s going to happen but you can’t look away. Fantastic look into trauma, how it changes you/ effects every part of your life, and how healing can really turn your everything around for the better. 
It’s also interesting to see our titular characters from not as glamorous but relatable Eleanor’s perspective and through her I warmed up to Frank a bit. Also loved what little we got of Zoe and her journey. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship

_eli_b's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment

lilalhreads's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol

desired_moon's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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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I really enjoyed this book. it felt so raw, so real. In man was i found myself in this book. 

but man - i fucking hate Frank. every other character i could still see their good sides, but not Frank. i will never forgive him for what he did to the sugarglider. i will die a Frank hater.
also im really sad about quentins end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship

Minor: Grief

avery_hutchinson's review against another edition

3.5

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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Even I cannot deny that this is a well written book. The writing itself is beautiful. However, it felt as if the book had little to no plot, and it also felt as if the characters all had so many issues for the sake of having issues

The book is utterly vulgar throughout, and it seems every character is either toxic, irresponsible, cheating, an alcoholic, or constantly on drugs.

Because of those things, the book only really toed the line of feeling realistic and relatable. The ending was bittersweet, but I wasn’t rooting for the characters to get there, especially since they felt like they had only undergone half a character arc. However the author did manage to establish clear voices for each of the characters, though the decision to include the voice of side characters for only a chapter then pushing them back to ensemble was an interesting choice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Medical content, Death of parent, Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Transphobia

Toxic age gap relationship of about 20 years.

lauraloren's review against another edition

3.75

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol

garfriendofmine's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense 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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i read this book in march of 2024 and it’s january 2025 and i still think about this book once a week (not always positive but undeniably worth reading in my opinion”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Classism

cleotheo's review against another edition

3.75

emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide, Dementia

Minor: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism