Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

110 reviews

paulawind's review against another edition

reflective tense slow-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

1.0

Rich People’s Problems but Wait, They All Have Tragic Backstories: A Novel

The only reason I finished this book was because it is my Book Club novel. I fought and sweated my way through page by page because it’s just so bad. It’s part of the trend for authors to try to make their books “deeper” by flooding every character with trauma. Pain Porn if you prefer. 

The author thought that by giving each character a single-defining struggle she is making them less one-dimensional but because of that they felt almost like cartoon characters. Cleo - beautiful, thin, talented, young BUT WAIT she is depressed and has both mummy and daddy issues; Frank - beautiful, “manly”, successful, rich and older BUT WAIT he had mummy issues and is an alcoholic, Zoe - beautiful, thin, talented BUT WAIT she has seizures, Quentin - beautiful, thin, rich “snarky gay best friend” BUT WAIT he can’t come out of the closet because of his homophobic Polish family (fuck you for that Coc, enforcing Polish stereotypes) and is a drug addict, Anders - beautiful, thin, rich fuckboy BUT WAIT his step-son doesn’t like him anymore and his parents don’t visit him in the US. You see what I mean? The only half-decent characters are Eleanor and Santiago, just because they are not awful to other people, but they rarely are given voice and in the end are pushed into the role of “I can fix him” girl for Frank and “losing weight will let you find love”, respectively. Nauseating. TikTok girlies, wake up, this is not literary fiction you claim it to be.

The book obviously features a lot of content warnings - wouldn’t be a pain porn without it - but I’m not sure if it’s handled even passably well.

Cleo’s depression and its consequences, Frank’s alcoholism, Zoe’s inability to live without a trust fund, Anders’s familial infidelity - all get magically solved by the end, with no depth or mental insight given on any of the aforementioned. Cleo started painting and moved to Italy - depression solved; Frank “got fixed” by his mummy to-be-wife; Zoe just found herself a sugar daddy; and Anders swept the whole issue under the rug. We can’t of course forget that the happy ending is only given to straight people - queers go to hell with our only rep - Quentin - ending up a meth head and most likely dying

This book angered me on so many levels. It was the superficial depth, wannabe literary fiction, over sexualisation of everything (Zoe saying that she is “a real girl” now, after climaxing, nauseated me), disrespectful treatment of a lot of extremely heavy issues and -how could I forget - BLATANT plagiarism of other media (yes, I’m looking at you ripped-off Fleabag dinner scene). Awful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Classism

ummebby's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad fast-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

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

ashlynregan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

4.0

This book is for New Yorkers cause I swear I know all of these characters IRL.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

lemonyanne's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This book feels like you’re invited into the world of well-off socialite New York as a total voyeur. You’d never want to be part of this circle as all the characters are flawed and unlikeable in their own ways. However, Cleo and Frank’s relationship IS interesting and this discussion of how they destroy one another in the mutual distraction of themselves is why you keep reading it. You don’t want to look away from the car crash on the highway. (SPOILERS:) However, Eleanor’s 2 chapters felt really misplaced. First person was the wrong choice for her (esp when then rest of the novel is in third) and felt like an ill-attempt at making her feel normal, relatable or quirky - this I think was the more unsuccessful element of her narrative. I also don’t think she was Frank’s saving grace and I’m unsure if she was written to be. Although, her pining love for Frank could serve as an interesting contrasting how Anders pined for Cleo, as Eleanor’s love showed far more compassion, maturity and self-awareness as opposed to Anders’ vapid, self-absorbed obsession with Cleo was. All in all, this book felt like reading gossip, and for that purpose it worked fabulously. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

_verena_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

 

Dezember. Sie stand schon im Fahrstuhl als er Einstieg, er nickte ihr zu und schloss mit einem Rattern das Eisengitter...

- Cleopatra und Frankenstein, 1%

🎧 gehört als Hörbuch

Einerseits war dieses Buch eine berührende Liebesgeschichte gone traumatic.
Andererseits bildet es verschiedene Menschen, die in verschiedenen Beziehungen miteinander stehen ab, die teils problematisch sind, teils liebevoll. 
Und dann ist die Geschichte auch Klischee beladen, aber durch den wundervollen Schreibstil kann man darüber hinwegsehen.

Cleo und Frank sind die titelgebenden Hauptfiguren, aber sie leben nicht isoliert, sondern man bekommt auch die Gedankenwelt der Menschen um sie herum mit. Dadurch entsteht ein schönes, rundes Bild. Was mir hier nicht so gefallen hat war, dass man von Cleo gefühlt nicht recht viel mehr POVs bekommt, als von so manch anderem Nebencharakter. Da hätte ich mir mehr erwartet, da Cleo ja immerhin eine Namensgeberin des Buches ist. Außerdem hätte ich gerne mehr darüber erfahren, was sich Cleo bei so manchen Aktionen gedacht hat (zB

bei der Affäre mit Anders

).

Das Ende war

heilend und positiv. 
Ich fand es einfach super, dass Cleo und Frank sich normal über ihre beendete Beziehung unterhalten konnten, ohne großes Drama. Von dieser Sorte brauchen wir unbedingt mehr! Es gibt leider viel zu viele Beispiele in Filmen und Büchern, wo sich Ex-Partner auch lange nach der Trennung bis aufs Blut hassen, anstatt einfach zu versuchen drüber zu stehen und weiterzumachen. 
Mein Lieblingscharakter war Cleo (Romes Version). Ich hatte wirklich den Eindruck, dass es ihr besser geht, dass sie heilt und sie es schaffen wird.
Von Zoe hätte ich gerne noch mehr erfahren, wie ging es mit ihr weiter?
Dass es für Frank so einfach war mit dem Trinken aufzuhören hat mich sehr überrascht. Meist braucht es bei sowas mehr Anläufe, und natürlich wissen wir nicht, ob Frank es nicht vor Beginn der Geschichte schon mal versucht hat oder er nach dem Ende nochmal rückfällig wird... Aber das Framing "er hat mit dem Trinken aufgehört, weil er ist jetzt in Eleonor verliebt" finde ich nicht nur unrealistisch und unauthentisch, sondern auch sehr problematisch. Jemand der jahre- oder jahrzehntelang Alkoholiker war, hört nicht so einfach auf, unfortunately that's not how the world works...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

jazzy_cat'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
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Sexual violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Grief, and Death of parent

cecereads__'s review against another edition

4.5

Hmm. I thought this was an immediate 5 stars from that first chapter, it had me fully invested and intrigued. I was surprised how it switched up and gave us multiple pov’s and really focused on showing that chain reaction from the ppl close to us getting into relationships, meeting new ppl, etc. Once I got used to it, I thought it was really well done and such an interesting choice. Different from what I expected, but in the end it really came together imo. And most of all it’s a book about healing.

(I’ve had my own version of a Quentin as well as a Peter and Miriam …)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

book_soulsbee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

emilyd60's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction

marymoth's review against another edition

dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Self harm, and Grief