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A review by literarycrushes
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
5.0
I loved Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors from the very first page, but by the end, I loved it even more for an entirely different reason. Even though this book has been all over bookstagram, I didn’t really know what it was about going into it. I assumed it was the story of an unhealthy relationship, told from the alternating perspectives of Cleo & Frank. But it’s SO much more than that. Through the perspectives of everyone close to them, we are given a much deeper account of their lives and the world they inhabit.
It often felt like a fantastic character study of twentysomethings (and 40somethings who live & read like 20somethings) in New York City pre-social media. To borrow that one cliché, I loved the characters not in spite of their flaws, but BECAUSE of them. The juxtapositions between the way we are introduced to each character and then the ways they reveal themselves to be so much more felt very tender and real. This book tackled so many intricate themes: addiction, abandonment, infidelity, friendship, mental illness, and love and I feel like I need to write a much longer (and more polished) review than Instagram allows.
The character that stuck out to me most was Eleanor, the only one who speaks to us in the first person (and present tense). She is an outsider; while most of the others seem to have these shiny, whimsical auras of specialness (though most of them can only see it in others), Eleanor is ordinary, she is not New York City, but the suburbs of New Jersey. And perhaps because of this, she has the sharpest, wittiest one-liners and observations about the world around her. I’ve also been re-watching the first season of HBO’s Girls while reading this, which paired nicely. Highly recommend!
It often felt like a fantastic character study of twentysomethings (and 40somethings who live & read like 20somethings) in New York City pre-social media. To borrow that one cliché, I loved the characters not in spite of their flaws, but BECAUSE of them. The juxtapositions between the way we are introduced to each character and then the ways they reveal themselves to be so much more felt very tender and real. This book tackled so many intricate themes: addiction, abandonment, infidelity, friendship, mental illness, and love and I feel like I need to write a much longer (and more polished) review than Instagram allows.
The character that stuck out to me most was Eleanor, the only one who speaks to us in the first person (and present tense). She is an outsider; while most of the others seem to have these shiny, whimsical auras of specialness (though most of them can only see it in others), Eleanor is ordinary, she is not New York City, but the suburbs of New Jersey. And perhaps because of this, she has the sharpest, wittiest one-liners and observations about the world around her. I’ve also been re-watching the first season of HBO’s Girls while reading this, which paired nicely. Highly recommend!