Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - Cleopatra und Frankenstein

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Cleopatra und Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

43 reviews

clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was really satisfying. I loved the writing style - it felt like we followed each person's thoughts and actions in a natural and interesting way, and Mellors seems to know exactly when to leave a person's perspective for maximum impact. Cleo and Frank are deeply interesting and complex, and the vignettes of their lives over the first year of their marriage paint a thoughtful portrait of two people trying to make when they are so different. I found many parts of this book profound and loved getting insights into the people in Cleo and Frank's lives, especially Zoe, Eleanor, and Santiago. New York City is also a vivid character in this book, which I always love. I found this book really affecting and will definitely be reading more of Mellors' work.

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excritos's review against another edition

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I don't care what will happen with the characters anymore. 😑

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paulawind's review against another edition

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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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lemonyanne's review against another edition

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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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renharms's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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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madelinedalton's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-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

2.25

EDIT: Bumping this down to 2.25 stars (I originally gave it 2.75) because it’s actually infuriating that

Frank gets a happy ending AND that Eleanor’s “liberation” from her mom’s house and shitty job prospects is a man, and a horrible man at that!!

I absolutely would have DNFed this if I didn’t have to read it for book club, but it wound up being better than I expected as it went along. There was no apparent through-line driving the characters’ relationships until at least 100 pages into the book, which made it hard for me to care. The cast of characters was surprisingly sympathetic (I thought I would hate all of them), but I think there were too many POVs and it detracted from Cleo and Frank’s relationship dynamic, which I found to be the juiciest part of the book. I’m very glad Cleo and Frank showed major growth by the end, but it wasn’t enough to redeem the book as a whole for me.

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abeautifulshelf's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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

4.0

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aina21's review against another edition

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2.75

This book had way too many drugs for me. I understand that they where there to illustrate point but I honestly felt like the point could be made without it. Addition was a big theme in the book and while the taking drugs and drinking lots was definitely explored, I feel like the harm that is done to the individual and those around the person dealing with an addiction was not.

At the end of the book Cloe mentions that she feels jelouse of Elenor, because she gets sober Frank, while Cloe had to deal with Frank the addict. I felt like this was a very poignant reflection to make and a theme worth exploring, how addiction does not only effect the addict but also those around them. I felt that Cloe could have been painted with a lot more depth and a less glamorisation, she felt very much created for the male gaze. A deeper exploration of how it felt to be with Frank as he drank his way through the marriage would have been much more interesting. And lastly I feel like Frank never took any responsibility for anything, and got a happy ending. We didn't even get to explore how difficult it is to quit an addiction and how that too has a huge mental impact on those around you. Instead in 5 pages he had quit drinking and was moving in with Elenor.

Overall I felt like it was a book that could have been very interesting, and touched on very relevant themes, but instead opted for a glamorised and shallow version of what it could have been.

I enjoyed the focus on some of the side characters, but again we find ourselves with the issue of glamorisation.

Zoe would have made for a very interesting discussion of desperation, when she decides to look for a sugar daddy. Instead her sugar daddy is the nicest and most wonderful person imaginable and makes Zoe's life better.

What is the point of introducing complex themes if they aren't even going to be adressed? I found Andres boring, and Elenor insecure.

Elenor's insecurity is another place where the story fell flat. The way Elenor talks about herself is very sad, but this is not explored. Literally she is used to be like she is ugly but then she isn't vapid, instead of exploring insecurity, and how it can lead individuals to very dark places here frankly absuive relationship is treated as something funny, except in one line at the end. She is also used as the archetype of Cleo's shadow as she is everything that Cleo is not, ugly and has substance. Except Cleo has substance, she is also living with multiple addicts, something that has a huge impact on mental health, not to mention that she was previously also struggling with depression. It feels much more like the author wants to play into the pretty but vapid stereotype than anything, and uses Elenor to highlight that, through juxtaposition. And then magically Frank is into her and all her problems are solved. We simply gloss over the fact that her insecurity makes her very easy to take advantage of, or the fact that she is frankly depressed. No because Frank likes her so it's okay, that's all that matter is the end.

And don't get me started on Frank.

He is horrible. He treats Cleo like a trophy, he doesn't care about anyone and this serves no purpose in the plot whatsoever. Cause then oh he magically quits drinking because that is so simple and suddenly he is an am amazing guy, and he gets the happy ending.

I hated Quinten and if I wrote about him this review would never end. Santiago was the best character by far, and tell mw why was he the only one with character development?? I quite liked Cloe though I felt like she deserved much more.

The book it introduced multiple heavy themes, and ignored all of them to talk about parties and drugs.

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sammyjogeara's review against another edition

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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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jordkuba's review against another edition

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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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