Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

56 reviews

rylie_o's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Blood, and Abandonment

lngoldstein's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

djenkin96's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I really struggled to read this book, which was a shame after so many recommendations. I felt that things were often repeated. The author kept eluding to Cleo being like cleopatra, beautiful and captivating, however every descriptor she used made her sound odd looking. I found some parts the writer had gone into depth and created great back stories but then abandoned them with no further mention. 
At the end I didn't feel like Cleo actually changed or developed as a character ? But the writer emphasises she has by new artwork. All in all I did not find myself wanting to finish it, more to move on to something else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Alcohol

izziebenezra's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Drug abuse

clelland_11's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

A good read. Some storylines of characters felt were not as finished as i would have liked. I think overall the story was definitely there but wished it was better executed. Cleo seemed to be sudddenly healed from her accident and frank moving on was also sudden with no real Eleanor development which felt rushed. Audrey i felt didnt add much to the story and Quentin could have been explored more. Santiago was also someone i would have liked to learn more about. Overall it was good but did sometimes feel rushed or just glossed over some parts of the storyline. Also what happened to Jesus was not needed and mean.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

bookies_withanja's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

pettyreader's review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

bookish_anni's review against another edition

dark emotional

2.0

I had a hard time getting through this. Especially the first half was such a drag. Everything about the story is overly cliché, therefore so uninteresting and therefore way too long. The introduction of Eleanor saved this from a 1-star rating - she is the only human element in this novel.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

mariaminthebooks's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.5

I'm torn between giving this 3 or 4 stars. Let's settle for 3.5/5 

Stating the obvious, the book flows like a river. The writing's great, descriptions' great yada yada yada...

Finished the book in 3 days. That says enough.

Now, the interesting stuff...

I found the main character insufferable, which is absolutely fine, characters do NOT have to be likeable, but Mellors tried SO hard to make her  likeable by mentioning just how likeable she is (how convenient) which made me dislike her even more. 

TW// 

The book also features PRETTY heavy themes like alcoholism, drug abuse, animal cruelty, su!cide, self-h@rm, and the list goes on....without ever really diving into the complexity and complications of each struggle, thereby making the character's problems seem shallow (they are not!!!) 

Along with having like a bazillion unnecessary characters, this, too, was unnecessary. Towards the end of the book, it felt as if Mellors was just throwing in as much trauma as she possibly can for that shocker effect. Unfortunately, that had a counter effect. It made me desensitised to much of the events in the novel. 

traumatised characters ≠ unconditional sympathy

I've read books with way fewer events going on but had a much deeper attachment to the characters.

Frustratingly, this could have been such a good book....

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

laurataylor's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail