Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

24 reviews

culown's review against another edition

3.75

Generally good and engaging book, however lost me at times. Also I felt like we got just a glimpse of these characters and I git left wanting to know more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

writingcaia's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

Haunting and beautiful.
Cleo and Frank have had a shit childhood and although they’ve 20 years difference their darkness pulls them together to try to make light. Green card or not Cleo loves Frank and a few months after they met they get married.
This is really a story about the group of people surrounding the recent couple and Cleo and Frank themselves, a story where the characters move the plot, which is a picture of addiction, pain, broken childhoods, depression and to be an adult filled with grief and confusion, to still be finding yourself, to realise sometimes it takes forever, the journey is it, sometimes it’s laugh, friends, finding a support system.
I did saw myself in the details of many of them and none.
It’s weird, it moved me but it didn’t fill me, maybe my own grief and depression made a barrier between me and this grief stricken story so I wouldn’t hurt - it’s been a rough year.
Still, loved it just not immensely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic friendship

itsjadenbaby's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I wish I could give this book 10 stars. My best read this year by far! The story is simply so real. The emotions expressed are raw and nearly every page moved me. Please look up trigger warnings though!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Drug abuse, and Misogyny

bugsybugs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

ephemeral_remi's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

aileron's review against another edition

funny 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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Dementia, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

grunbean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

3.75

A good read, I enjoyed this. I can’t say I always felt the parts made sense, and the phrasing is awkward in places. But that is part of a debut novel! 

If you like sad romances, this will be a book you enjoy. The characters are interesting, and keep you invested in the story and where it’s going.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

nialiversuch's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Violence, and Vomit

aiona's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

There were things I loved about this book, and things I hated. It felt a lot like a Netflix sitcom or something, and a lot of the characters felt really tropey. A gay man who loves princess Diana, super pretentious arty New Yorkers. I didn’t find them relatable at all. But there were some parts, and some characters that I did find relatable. I think Eleanor was probably the best character in this regard. She seemed much less one-dimensional than the others. 

And although to begin with, the overdone, witty quips from Frank and Cleo felt fake and tiring, their doomed relationship developed to the point that I felt quite emotional reading about how fiercely they loved each other, yet could not connect. Seeing them come to that realisation was moving, despite how pretentious their lives seemed in other ways. 

I suppose I wish the author had written about characters that didn’t feel the need to name-drop and live high-flying lives. Why couldn’t Cleo have been working in a cafe or something rather than be an unemployed artist wife to a guy who built up his own ad agency? People this broken do not have such glitzy lives. And this book would have really been incredible if the characters had seemed more real. The author has a real talent with words. But she chose to write about such unrelatable, movie-like characters. I wonder why she made that decision. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, and Death of parent

femi_nasty_biblio's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment