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Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, Dementia, Grief, Dysphoria
i took a long time to finish this book even though i liked it from the start.
all i wanted was to shake cleo’s shoulders and take her to therapy.
it is an exploration on the ripple effect a hasty decision can have on every other relationship we have.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Dysphoria
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug abuse, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury
That is real skill.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, Dysphoria
Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a literary fiction masterpiece and in-depth character study. It’s the type of book that readers need to put some work into — you learn about the characters passively, by connecting the dots between their dialogue and their actions/behaviors. It’s a book worth annotating because so much is said between the lines.
Throughout the book you go from loving Cleo and Frank to hating them both, individually and as a couple. They’re messy, flawed, toxic people who bring out the worst in each other, and yet: “when the darkest part of you meets the darkest part of me, it creates light.”
It’s as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. It’s raw, it’s messy, it’s human. 5/5 stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Definitely adult content w/ triggering subjects. Check for content warnings ❤️🩹
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Dysphoria
Moderate: Death of parent
Edit: after thinking more for a few months I'm bumping this down. I was in too much shock at the ending to address it at the time, but...
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Self harm, Transphobia, Death of parent, Dysphoria
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Transphobia, Grief, Gaslighting, Dysphoria
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal death, Dysphoria
While I understand that this book was trying to tell many interconnected stories, I think there were just too many people with too serious of issues to really be done well. Quentin's meth use, for example, isn't really explored as well as it could be, and so I feel like it was weird that it was included at all. I'm not complaining about the end of his story, because I think it's interesting actually to just have Cleo say "I couldn't support him and so I ended that friendship". It just feels like Quentin's spiral into addiction to meth was a huge thing to happen off-screen, but also a necessary result of trying to tell 1,000 stories at once (and having all of those stories tackle very serious issues). Plus, why mention Quentin being possibly trans or genderqueer if you're never going to mention it again? It ends up simplifying a lot of serious issues, like Santiago's recovery from binge eating disorder really just coming down to "he's going to meetings and now he's losing weight", with the bulk of it being explored in a single chapter. This problem even extends to the titular couple, Cleo and Frank. Cleo's suicide attempt, for example, seemed a little brushed over, and it didn't help that we switched to the perspective of the caterer at her wedding after the attempt. It was a beautifully written book and it did have plenty of fleshed out, interesting characters, but it could use with some trimming and some more focus. What happened to Ander's 'son', for instance, or Zoe's financial situation? Is she being financially supported by Jiro, and, if so, what implications does that have for their relationship? And I'd be fine with a book not completely tying up every single loose end for every single side character except that there were chapters that interrupted the main story to ask me to care about all these side characters and then sometimes very little resolution.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexism, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Abandonment
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia