Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

31 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

ellayeeles's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.75

Absolutely adored this book - I loved how each character had a different focus character within a group and gave real variety. I loved the characters and the universal feeling of loving someone who isn't the right one really fit home. Want to read again !

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming

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

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

mookisbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

sammyjogeara's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

4.75

I finally fucking finished this book. And I want to cry about it. This was an emotional roller-coaster and a real coming of age story — of all ages. Self-harm, self-hate, self-sabotage, trauma, depression, dysmorfofobia, addiction, alcoholism, co-dependency. I’m really happy I paced myself reading this since it turned out to be one of the best — yet most painful — books I’ve read this year. I feel empty and full at the end of this and through it all still a message of hope, of overcoming once own adversities and somewhat killing your darlings. I genuinly recommend you to read this. However beware — you’re going to need to eat your feelings at the end of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

jordkuba's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

4.0

Very good book, well written and nice to read. Unfortunately, it contained a number of topics that difficult for me. That somewhat diminished my enjoyment. I'm sure I could have liked it more at a different time in my life .

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Self harm, Violence, and Dysphoria

nineinchnails's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-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

3.0

more detailed review to come but for now let’s just say it was a little disappointing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Suicide, and Death of parent

Disordered eating

maddiechristine15's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

really interesting characters, really clever writing, just went on a bit longer than was necessary 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming

celticthistle's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

A bit like Marmite. You'll either love it or hate!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Blood