Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

382 reviews

pameana's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

lillieeereads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

lizlikesfrogs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Grief, and Suicide attempt

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

kimmberr's review against another edition

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

5.0

i think Coco Mellors is genuinely becoming one of my favorite authors. she writes stories about people who feel so real and broken and raw. the books aren't plot driven, they're all people driven. and the people all mess up a lot, but she somehow pulls out the beauty in all of it. I will be thinking about this book for a long time

i technically would dock points for the couple chapters written from the random friends' povs (Quinten and Santiago) because i don't feel they added anything to the storyline, but the rest of the book was strong enough to me that i am choosing to ignore those 2 chapters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, and Death of parent

dearkatie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death

rhiannon_hall_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad 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

4.0

A rollercoaster read that takes you through all the emotions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, Dementia, and Death of parent

kbeefive's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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

5.0

Beautiful, poetic, art and sadness 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

ssaammii'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

3.75

This was an entertaining read that I was compulsively drawn back to. 
The prose was successful in capturing a very specific atmosphere at points that resonated with me, but did sometimes fail to thread the needle between the observation and critique of familiar internal demons, and indulging/condoning the worst actions of its characters. I found myself very much riding off the vibes the characters as a collective, bevause as individuals they could be somewhat unbearable at times. I did find the passage of time to be very well articulated through the seasonal changes and the character interactions that developed naturally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Transphobia, and Vomit

nneka23's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

3.75

Overall, I liked the writing style and the structure of the book. It really made me feel like I was following this group of friends around NYC or was even part of the friend group. The descriptions, humor, and distinct personalities of each character shine through. I just wish the ending didn’t leave me so…deflated. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but the way things wrapped up between all the characters made me sad and a tiny bit pessimistic

about relationships/marriage

. And unfortunately, I think that’s all I’ll really think of when I remember this book. I did really enjoy the journey though and I’m definitely looking forward to Coco Mellors’ next book. Hopefully Blue Sisters doesn’t leave me feeling blue too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, and Drug use

Moderate: Mental illness