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A review by teavani
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
4.0
- there was a lot of potential with the side characters, and i don't think it was achieved. only Eleanor felt like a whole person, and maybe Anders. but not Santiago, Zoe, Quentin, etc. Quentin's demise too. we go from him meeting a guy to being a coke addict? the way santiago was written…like all of chapter 12...gross. it’s just so annoying because i’ve noticed in a lot of these sad-girl books (which i realize is a big oversimplification but still, that is what they are) the poc are always the ones that are berated and fat and ugly and insecure. and zoe and audrey (the other two poc) are also written in a weird way. like the first chapter about zoe felt almost useless. and the second was also weird, with all the jiro stuff. and my favorite character Jesus the sugar glider died. and my favorite human character was sidelined.
- i liked following cleo and frank's relationship. i was not rooting for them from the start, given the age gap, and then especially with the infidelity (both physical and emotional). i really liked the ending. it ended how it should, as in they ended. and i liked the last conversation between Cleo and Frank. their fates and separation made sense.
- i liked ch 13. it was very good. this book had a lot of ups and downs, and i do think the writing was good. i'm really between 3 and 4 but i rounded up.
lines
When was the last time you were with a straight man, I'm talking any straight man, and he said something more interesting than what you were already thinking? (43)
Even with Cleo, it was her intelligence and sexual charge he'd been drawn to; he'd never once considered whether she was a good person (67).
Two parts contentment, one part desire. It seemed like a good formula for living, though one she had not mastered yet. Her mother certainly never did (114).
The idea behind it is that if one of us had to live it, the other should too. I guess that's friendship or something (132).
I was in my pajamas from T.J. Maxx eating cereal for dinner, already destined for a life of mediocrity. Why didn't I just pull myself together back then? I was five! I could have turned it around! (133).
That was the thing about him. He noticed that. He noticed people. It was his gift. Or really, it was the gift he gave you. To be seen (151).
She always seemed to be keeping up an amusing dialogue with herself in her head, one that he was constantly hoping to become a part of (184).
She was back to being a child. He rested his forehead on the slope beneath her belly button. She took his skull in her hands, his lovely curly hair sprouting between her fingers. Devotional. That was the word for two bodies like that. They should have been more devoted; she understood that now (300).
In her fantasies she was like metal, shiny and cold and impenetrable. But all her feelings, her stupid hurt feelings, kept bubbling to the surface (304).
She wanted them out. She wanted a river heavy with men's bodies sucked out of her. She wanted death by flood (306).
Fondness was the best word she could think of to describe what they felt for each other. Fondness was warm but not tepid, the color of amber, more affectionate than friendship but less complicated than love (307).
"But I could tell she felt safe in that house. She grew up feeling safe and fiercely loved." When he looked up, he was surprised to see that Cleo's eyes had glazed with a thin film of tears. "That sounds nice," she said quietly.
"And you and I didn't get that, not because we didn't deserve it, we just got dealt something else. But the people who did get that love, they grew up to be different from us. More secure. Maybe they're not as shiny or successful as you and I feel we have to be. But it's not because they're not interesting. They just don't feel they have to do the tap dance, you know? They don't have to prove themselves all the time to be loved. Because they always were." Cleo smiled sadly. "But how do you stop tap dancing if you're like us?"
"I just got too tired, Cley," he said. "The shoes didn't fit anymore. And when I stood still, Eleanor was there standing with me. And I think you deserve to be with someone like that, who can provide that safety and that stillness for you in a way I never could. Even though God knows I wanted to Cleo. I really wanted it." (365).
- i liked following cleo and frank's relationship. i was not rooting for them from the start, given the age gap, and then especially with the infidelity (both physical and emotional). i really liked the ending. it ended how it should, as in they ended. and i liked the last conversation between Cleo and Frank. their fates and separation made sense.
- i liked ch 13. it was very good. this book had a lot of ups and downs, and i do think the writing was good. i'm really between 3 and 4 but i rounded up.
lines
When was the last time you were with a straight man, I'm talking any straight man, and he said something more interesting than what you were already thinking? (43)
Even with Cleo, it was her intelligence and sexual charge he'd been drawn to; he'd never once considered whether she was a good person (67).
Two parts contentment, one part desire. It seemed like a good formula for living, though one she had not mastered yet. Her mother certainly never did (114).
The idea behind it is that if one of us had to live it, the other should too. I guess that's friendship or something (132).
I was in my pajamas from T.J. Maxx eating cereal for dinner, already destined for a life of mediocrity. Why didn't I just pull myself together back then? I was five! I could have turned it around! (133).
That was the thing about him. He noticed that. He noticed people. It was his gift. Or really, it was the gift he gave you. To be seen (151).
She always seemed to be keeping up an amusing dialogue with herself in her head, one that he was constantly hoping to become a part of (184).
She was back to being a child. He rested his forehead on the slope beneath her belly button. She took his skull in her hands, his lovely curly hair sprouting between her fingers. Devotional. That was the word for two bodies like that. They should have been more devoted; she understood that now (300).
In her fantasies she was like metal, shiny and cold and impenetrable. But all her feelings, her stupid hurt feelings, kept bubbling to the surface (304).
She wanted them out. She wanted a river heavy with men's bodies sucked out of her. She wanted death by flood (306).
Fondness was the best word she could think of to describe what they felt for each other. Fondness was warm but not tepid, the color of amber, more affectionate than friendship but less complicated than love (307).
"But I could tell she felt safe in that house. She grew up feeling safe and fiercely loved." When he looked up, he was surprised to see that Cleo's eyes had glazed with a thin film of tears. "That sounds nice," she said quietly.
"And you and I didn't get that, not because we didn't deserve it, we just got dealt something else. But the people who did get that love, they grew up to be different from us. More secure. Maybe they're not as shiny or successful as you and I feel we have to be. But it's not because they're not interesting. They just don't feel they have to do the tap dance, you know? They don't have to prove themselves all the time to be loved. Because they always were." Cleo smiled sadly. "But how do you stop tap dancing if you're like us?"
"I just got too tired, Cley," he said. "The shoes didn't fit anymore. And when I stood still, Eleanor was there standing with me. And I think you deserve to be with someone like that, who can provide that safety and that stillness for you in a way I never could. Even though God knows I wanted to Cleo. I really wanted it." (365).