A review by sabmanosa
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-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

4.25

I think this is a good book, full of very unlikeable, almost cartoonish characters. Despite that, I was hooked onto the story, and the change in POVs was something I think worked for the book. Normally, I love hearing every thought, action etc. a character has when something big is happening, but in the case of this book (and other similar books, like Sally Rooney's), I thought the gaps and jumps worked, so that a longer, broader story could be told without clogging it up with too much drama. 

The change in writing style for Eleanor was jarring at first, but really made sense to me as I continued. It shows how different she was, how human, mundane, "average" compared to the rest of the people Cleo and Frank ran around with. I think that was an important distinction to make.


I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, but I liked how their perspectives blended in finally. It was satisfying, in it's own way.

One thing that rubbed me the wrong way was
the way Quentin's character was treated. Though most of the characters were stereotypes, the way Quentin's storyline was treated felt very cruel. We only get one POV from him, we get to empathize with him, and then he's shown to go totally off the rails and is described in such a way that I feel like stereotypes LQBTQ+ folks. It was weird, and hearing about how his story "ended" in the last chapter off-handedly was a bit painful.


I don't think I came out of this really liking any of the characters, but I did like the story and where it took me. 
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