Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

175 reviews

nenya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring 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

this is the kind of book where you can’t really tell that the characters are becoming your comfort characters until you find yourself looking forward to keep reading it because of them. the book is incredibly character driven and provides a very diverse set of nuanced and delicately crafted people who all, in a sense harmonize (or conflict) with one another. cleo and frank, the protagonists are both lovable and also deeply flawed and traumatized, something you and the characters themselves come to understand throughout the course of the book. what i loved most about it was that the narration style gave you insight into every single person’s thoughts and sentiments (or at least of the most important ones) not only through different POVs separated into different chapters, but also sometimes within the span of a paragraph, switching back and forth in revealing each persons internal dialogue. 
the book felt like an anti-romanticizing telltale of several New Yorker lifestyles while also being deeply philosophical and thought provoking 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Blood, Body horror, Drug use, Dysphoria, Grief, Self harm, Sexual content, Addiction, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Suicide, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

nai__reads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Blood, Infidelity, Self harm, Drug use, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

swetha062's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.5

I think in any case that love would sustain you, their life would be a prime contradicting example of that. Cleo and Frank find solace in things except each other. Coco mellors does a great job of catching the intricacies of love between two beings and what makes them want to choose the other. She captures the depth of falls and misses in these moments. Empathy being the key to finding peace, she explains every relationship in the book desperately needing that for themselves. It's beautiful and none of their reasonings fell flat. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Blood, Child abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, and Death of parent

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Mental illness

amethystbutterfly's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Self harm

firuz's review against another edition

reflective sad

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, and Self harm

Minor: Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

lidia710's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

took me a while to get into it (about 20%) and i thought i was going to dnf but then i ended up reading 80% or more of the book in one night.
love the writing style
a lot of TWs, sorry if i forgot some

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Classism, Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Animal death, Cursing, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Medical content, Sexism, Vomit, and Suicide

lusanmanso's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Alcohol, Addiction, Mental illness, Infidelity, Drug use, Chronic illness, Suicide attempt, and Alcoholism

bookish_worm's review against another edition

Triggering to me but didn't know until I reached that point

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death and Forced institutionalization

lauren_shilling's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

I barely know how to talk about this book. It's actually been a few days since I finished it at the time of writing this review, and I honestly cannot stress how often I have thought about this book since finishing it. The characters were so well-rounded and felt so real. This doesn't only go for the two main characters, Frank and Cleo, but also the side characters as well, such as Quentin, Eleanor, and Zoe. Every single person and character felt real and were so interesting to follow and learn about over the course of the book. I loved how we got at least one chapter in the point of view of everyone who impacted or was impacted by the plot of the book and really got to see what was going on for them. It was really well done and gave the story a very well-rounded and all-encompassing feel to it. Like I said, I barely know how to talk about this book, except for stating the fact that it is one of my favorite books of the year, it was beautifully written, and I was completely swept up in every single moment. Chapter 13, in my opinion, was so beautifully crafted and written and put together. Every word felt deliberate, every piece of dialogue felt perfect, and I will never get over the emotions that the author made me feel in that chapter.  I would highly recommend this book, but please check the trigger warnings! Overall not a super dark book, but a very, very heavy one, and there are definitely some topics to look out for!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Mental illness, Drug use, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Self harm, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content