Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Cleopatra en Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

47 reviews

lasignorasgf's review against another edition

1.5

She’s a good writer - this book just isn’t my thing. 

I stumbled upon this thinking it’d be something literary, or a commentary. Instead I was bungled by the excess of cigarettes and drugs. I suppose that’s LA. 


And I categorically HATE Anders. I don’t think he’s been receiving enough hate in the reviews. Was I the only one to read his fantasising about Cleo🤨 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Rape, Self harm, Drug abuse, and Sexual violence

rylie_o's review against another edition

emotional funny tense 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

Moderate: Drug use, Death of parent, Addiction, Grief, Infidelity, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Self harm, Dementia, and Drug abuse

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, and Animal cruelty

lngoldstein's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Mental illness, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Suicide

djenkin96's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I really struggled to read this book, which was a shame after so many recommendations. I felt that things were often repeated. The author kept eluding to Cleo being like cleopatra, beautiful and captivating, however every descriptor she used made her sound odd looking. I found some parts the writer had gone into depth and created great back stories but then abandoned them with no further mention. 
At the end I didn't feel like Cleo actually changed or developed as a character ? But the writer emphasises she has by new artwork. All in all I did not find myself wanting to finish it, more to move on to something else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Mental illness, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Abandonment, Animal death, Eating disorder, and Alcoholism

izziebenezra's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Drug abuse

clelland_11's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

A good read. Some storylines of characters felt were not as finished as i would have liked. I think overall the story was definitely there but wished it was better executed. Cleo seemed to be sudddenly healed from her accident and frank moving on was also sudden with no real Eleanor development which felt rushed. Audrey i felt didnt add much to the story and Quentin could have been explored more. Santiago was also someone i would have liked to learn more about. Overall it was good but did sometimes feel rushed or just glossed over some parts of the storyline. Also what happened to Jesus was not needed and mean.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

bookies_withanja's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Animal death

pettyreader's review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racial slurs, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Dementia

anni88's review against another edition

dark emotional

2.0

I had a hard time getting through this. Especially the first half was such a drag. Everything about the story is overly cliché, therefore so uninteresting and therefore way too long. The introduction of Eleanor saved this from a 1-star rating - she is the only human element in this novel.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

mariaminthebooks's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

I'm torn between giving this 3 or 4 stars. Let's settle for 3.5/5 

Stating the obvious, the book flows like a river. The writing's great, descriptions' great yada yada yada...

Finished the book in 3 days. That says enough.

Now, the interesting stuff...

I found the main character insufferable, which is absolutely fine, characters do NOT have to be likeable, but Mellors tried SO hard to make her  likeable by mentioning just how likeable she is (how convenient) which made me dislike her even more. 

TW// 

The book also features PRETTY heavy themes like alcoholism, drug abuse, animal cruelty, su!cide, self-h@rm, and the list goes on....without ever really diving into the complexity and complications of each struggle, thereby making the character's problems seem shallow (they are not!!!) 

Along with having like a bazillion unnecessary characters, this, too, was unnecessary. Towards the end of the book, it felt as if Mellors was just throwing in as much trauma as she possibly can for that shocker effect. Unfortunately, that had a counter effect. It made me desensitised to much of the events in the novel. 

traumatised characters ≠ unconditional sympathy

I've read books with way fewer events going on but had a much deeper attachment to the characters.

Frustratingly, this could have been such a good book....

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Chronic illness, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexism, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Blood, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Self harm, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Death, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt