Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Cléopâtre et Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

22 reviews

minimicropup's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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

4.5

Atmosphere: 👌 Largely created through snippets of the characters’ thoughts and interactions, with detailed descriptions of locations peppered throughout in an effective way. It contributes to the overall setting and goings-ons rather than being distracting. 

Main POVs: 👌
-a 24 year old recent fine art graduate who presents as carefree, confident, and adventurous but is harbouring a deep sense of shame, depressive disorders, and unhealthy ego. They blame everyone and everything for their struggles. We get to see them slowly evolve and where it comes from in their past
-a 44 year old functional alcoholic and advertising entrepreneur who is successful and perhaps a “charming” drunk but painfully immature and people-pleasing in a shallow way. We also see them evolve and where this tendency comes from
-a witty, intuitive, cynical 37 year old television/film writer recently forced out of their job and now living with their elderly wise-cracking parent 

Show’n’tell: ❤️
So much show! Though half the time you aren’t quite sure what you’re being shown, it adds to the story. Like bringing a neon crayon set in an unlabelled package, revealing them individually, then passing them around the class. 

Reading Journey: 👌
People-watching on the NY subway from early morning ‘til late night. There will be moments of boredom, confusion, cringing, heartwarmth (?), and laughter. 

Great match if you like:
-literary fiction with character-driven narratives that are infuriating, hilarious, and inspiring
-believable outcomes (follows MCs over a two-year period)
-character studies involving addiction, mental illness, and childhood trauma
-NYC party vibes with consequences included
-a sprinkling of randomness
-wrong time and place romance

Vibes: 😅🥺🥴

Format: Library E-book via Libby

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Abandonment, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Chronic illness

Minor: Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Addiction includes alcoholism (and recovery), food addiction (and recovery), relationship addiction/codependent friendships, meth, and heroin

fatal overdose

. Chronic illness is Parkinson’s and dementia in an elderly parent. Animal death is a short set of scenes

involving a pet marsupial that drowns and was left to roam free in unsafe surroundings

. Sexual content is consenting adults (though sometimes very intoxicated). Adult/minor relationship recounted a bit by one character from her past. Abandonment theme around parental abandonment/rejection of some characters.

imalittlechili's review against another edition

challenging emotional fast-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Drug use, Abandonment, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Self harm, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Sexual assault, Violence, and Transphobia

redflyingbook's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

okay wow, what a stunning book! Another one that is absolutely worth the hype, in my opinion. this is a tale about friendship, love, addiction, being young and lost or  not so young and still on quite the rocky road.

the prose is stunning and also so witty , i genuinely loved the sense of humor which is quite rare for me to truly come across.

what fascinated me the most though: the author genuinely has a GIFT for writing characters, each and every single one of them was incredibly nuanced, unique and so very *human*. you feel like you have or could have maybe met them along your own way navigating your 20s, they are all in super different stages and living situations, so it is a very diverse set of people too, although without having this feeling forced or unnatural in any way ! 
the only thing to criticize to me is what unfortunately also stems from having quite the large set of wonderful & loveable characters, is that i felt i saw too little of some of them, i get that the focus was on frank & cleo but i easily could've read on about all of them haha. also

quentin's and anders's ending did not feel full or satisfying at all ...

still, the book is probably a new favorite now!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Terminal illness

coffeekitaab's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

Fell in love, my favourite read of the year so far. I have to highlight that reading Eleanor's chapters were my favourite. The book was raw, emotional, funny and dark...heartbreaking yet beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Self harm, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Drug use, Transphobia, and Drug abuse

ninaszewczyk's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective relaxing 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, and Addiction

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Terminal illness

Minor: Chronic illness and Toxic friendship

servecunt_readbooks's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Animal death, Self harm, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Drug use, Addiction, and Suicide attempt

studydniowka's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

4.0

Jedna z lepszych #unhinged książek, jakie czytałam.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death of parent, Chronic illness, Grief, and Misogyny

roxyyvette's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

The most beautiful book I have read in 2022. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Self harm, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical trauma

ganderson's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Best summed up in its own words: "it often seemed nothing very much was happening in [the story] until something startling and ireconsilable did." Very poignant, incredibly intense. The discussions of addiction are handled very well, but huge trigger warnings if you or someone you love is in active addiction. 

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...

I think Quentin was incredibly hard done by as a character. The absolute shock transition into meth addiction blew my mind and completely shook me. I think that might be because I found this book through searching for LGBT books, and the book description particularly focuses on Quentin gender identity - for that to be a very, very minor story line and for Quentin's character to be given such a dark ending. I also felt similar about Frank's sister, who's story line of entering a sugar baby/daddy relationship didn't have fruition until the end of the novel despite being another central part of the book description. It felt misleading, and very much in Quentin's case like a 'bury your gays' trope that I've sat uncomfortably with for a while now. I really don't recommend this book on those themes at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Eating disorder, Transphobia, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Infidelity, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Self harm

lucykateburns's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

Minor: Chronic illness, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Self harm