Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

63 reviews

calicosun's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

full of vague spoilers tbh

i liked that eleanor was in first person. it felt like we knew her intrinsically. she was the most ordinary and therefore she could speak to us directly
i wish the sex was more descriptive
i wish the self harm was too. i didn’t understand the gravity of the harm cleo had caused to herself until the mention of the scar that travelled from her write to her elbow.
i liked that we got to know about frank’s 5, and queinten… all these people whose personal lives intertwined and segmented in fascinating fans of darkness and depth. the third person descriptions of the characters and their thoughts and feelings were done with so much clarity and vivid expression that made the reader really feel a connection to the character and their emotions.
there was something about the segmented nature of eleanor’s sections that felt extremely personal,almost diaristic. there was a generosity to them that felt as though they weren’t meant for anyone else to read. i feel like the stars between sections represent lapses in time that also further this sense of a personal diary. that’s also why it feels so generous to. the idea that she has chosen to share so much of herself. releasing everything she writes her to everything outside of her control
the resolve that the end was very satisfying

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sarasreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book is mostly all vibes no plot, but the vibes were not great for me. It’s that kind of contemporary book where most of the characters are a combination of too cool, too pretty, too rich, too traumatized, and/or too dependent on substances to feel like real people to me. They are most definitely made up to be in a book exactly like this. Except for Eleanor.

Around a third of the way into this book is when I started considering DNF-ing, but then Eleanor showed up and I was back in the game! But then she disappeared again, and so did my interest. And then Anders had that moment in that public bathroom and I thought about not picking it up again. That entire scene was a big weird no thank you. There are also a lot of other uncomfortable to read explicit sexual scenes, which is also apparently a staple of this particular kind of contemporary novel.

I stuck with it and my final thoughts are these: The prose is incredible. I loved the descriptions and turns of phrase. I should have written them down to save and savor later. Eleanor’s story arc is the best one in the book by far, and she saved this book for me. I’m not sure that was enough for it to be a five-star read though. In a cast of characters whose sole purpose seems to be, to be interesting, the most interesting character is Eleanor, who isn’t trying to be interesting at all. Was that the author’s purpose? It worked if so, but also, it meant that the majority of the time I did not care about anyone I was reading about. So it also didn’t work for me, in the end.

Although I did like the end actually. It made sense and was satisfying. It could have been a four-star read for me, except for so much explicit, and sometimes disturbingly violent scenes.

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jj_99's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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angelitatontita's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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nadjareads56's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

leils's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

Bad plot with some interesting parts popping up a few times. The only reason that I actually bothered to finish it was to see how the conflicts were resolved, and ... safe to say I was disappointed lol. If the author has focused on just Cleo, Frank, Eleanor and Anders the book would have been more solid, but instead 30% of it was dedicated to side characters. The story of the side characters really didn't add to the main storyline, so .. could have easily been chopped and nothing would be missing.

The author does have a way of digesting hard themes with her easily flowing writing style, which made this book actually readable.

Wouldn't recommend this to anyone, but I am going to see what the author comes up with next 🪩⚡🤍

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