Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Cleopatra and Frankenstein

If the song “I’m wearing his boxers/I cry in his bathroom, he turns off the big light” song “Complex” by Katie Gregson-MacLeod from tiktok was a book, this would be it. Or “You’re On Your Own, Kid” by Taylor Swift from Midnights. Or “Moon Song” by Phoebe Bridgers. Take your pick. If any of those songs break you, this book will finish the job 😭❤️‍🩹

Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a literary fiction masterpiece and in-depth character study. It’s the type of book that readers need to put some work into — you learn about the characters passively, by connecting the dots between their dialogue and their actions/behaviors. It’s a book worth annotating because so much is said between the lines.

Throughout the book you go from loving Cleo and Frank to hating them both, individually and as a couple. They’re messy, flawed, toxic people who bring out the worst in each other, and yet: “when the darkest part of you meets the darkest part of me, it creates light.”

It’s as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. It’s raw, it’s messy, it’s human. 5/5 stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Definitely adult content w/ triggering subjects. Check for content warnings ❤️‍🩹

Content Warnings

inesbnstgry's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

4.5

Definitely don't read this unless you're mentally strong enough to bear it

Content Warnings

ynotlime's review

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

theminimalistbookclub's review against another edition

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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).

Content Warnings

marjoleinvanderspoel's review

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dark emotional fast-paced

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

2.0

Boy oh boy. Is two stars too generous? This was in turn exciting to read because the author is actually pretty good and also excruciating to read because the characters were unbelievably self-absorbed, annoying and fake. The only character I kind of liked was Zoe, but she got like no time at all in the book. Why even include her if she wasn't important/going to get a good story arch? Well, it's for "diversity" of course. Tell me, why were all side characters part of a minority when the main characters were (mostly) straight and white??? It's just comes off as cheap, I'm sorry.

Content Warnings

sib_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

Content Warnings

christine_beatrice's review

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

impeachnixon's review

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

1.0

** spoiler alert **

While I understand that this book was trying to tell many interconnected stories, I think there were just too many people with too serious of issues to really be done well. Quentin's meth use, for example, isn't really explored as well as it could be, and so I feel like it was weird that it was included at all. I'm not complaining about the end of his story, because I think it's interesting actually to just have Cleo say "I couldn't support him and so I ended that friendship". It just feels like Quentin's spiral into addiction to meth was a huge thing to happen off-screen, but also a necessary result of trying to tell 1,000 stories at once (and having all of those stories tackle very serious issues). Plus, why mention Quentin being possibly trans or genderqueer if you're never going to mention it again? It ends up simplifying a lot of serious issues, like Santiago's recovery from binge eating disorder really just coming down to "he's going to meetings and now he's losing weight", with the bulk of it being explored in a single chapter. This problem even extends to the titular couple, Cleo and Frank. Cleo's suicide attempt, for example, seemed a little brushed over, and it didn't help that we switched to the perspective of the caterer at her wedding after the attempt. It was a beautifully written book and it did have plenty of fleshed out, interesting characters, but it could use with some trimming and some more focus. What happened to Ander's 'son', for instance, or Zoe's financial situation? Is she being financially supported by Jiro, and, if so, what implications does that have for their relationship? And I'd be fine with a book not completely tying up every single loose end for every single side character except that there were chapters that interrupted the main story to ask me to care about all these side characters and then sometimes very little resolution.

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