A review by theminimalistbookclub
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

emotional reflective sad 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

oh wow. i can relate. this book is about how fucking sad love can be. this book is about two people loving eatch other, but looosing themselves because they are not meant for each other. because love is not enough. because love can be toxic. because sometimes you are better off with someone else, even though you truely love the other person. 

this book is about s*x. s*x and s*x talks. maybe because people of that age express love through physical intimacy, as well as compensate for loneliness through it?

this book felt like beautiful world, where are you. 

i respect this book for including gay sex (yup, very detailled) and a person struggling with gender identity. and for writting about sexual assults by women (just one sentence but still i noticed it).

i underlined almost every freaking sentence of this book. because i can relate. because i can feel with the characters. but it didn't hit an emotional spot. i wish it did. in the middle of the book it almost put me in a reading slump tbh. i even had to listen to the audiobook while reading it, to make any progress. at some point i was like waiting for the book to get interesting.

it did get better. the second half was better (as soon as eleanor appears) and the ending is so sad (and happy and hopeful at the same time).

my favorite character is eleanor (because i always feel like the one unhappy in love, the one overseen, the one having a crush but never does anything to be with that person because i have a low self-esteem) and cleo (because she is kind of the opposite, because she does end up with the person she loves but it didn't work out, because she experiences a toxic relationship, because she struggles with herself and the world even tho everyone looks up to her, because she does make progress, because she starts her journey to find herself and what makes her happy).
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