A review by eleana
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

2.75

 First, I have to give the audiobook narrator of this her flowers. This was read beautifully, the characters all sounded very distinct and it was just lovely and soothing to listen to. I love how she says forehead, and weirdly enough forehead came up a lot!
The book started out promising, the characters were very nicely fleshed out and I liked the romance between Cleo and Frank to start. The book feels like it suffers from too many spinning plates. We get so many characters and their lives and so many of them just don't get the time they deserve. Quentin and Zoe especially I feel were left in such weird spots. Somewhere around the halfway point I found myself wishing the book was about Santiago instead of Frank and Cleo. The prose is beautiful, I will give it that, but the plot and dialogue got very irritating very quickly. By the end of the book I found myself disliking characters I enjoyed in the beginning.
It's not a bad read necessary, if you love some tortured artist drama and all that you might enjoy it, but it got to be grating for me after a while.