Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Cleopatra und Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

37 reviews

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

ziggystardust2021's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Homophobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Abortion

Minor: Death of parent

sakisreads's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I was expecting this to be some flimsy romance novel that didn’t really go anywhere and phew, it really was not! 😳 Content warnings are definitely needed and will be included below.

If I were to rate the characters in terms of likability for me, it would go from top to bottom: Eleanor, Santiago, Zoe, Frank, Cleo, Anders, Quentin 🫠 

I am THRILLED that Eleanor and Frank fell in love, and that as an adult Eleanor encouraged Frank to go and see Cleo after their separation. Is this what adults do? 😂

I did find the switch from third person to first person narratives difficult but also enjoyable. Eleanor really became my favourite through her dry and sarcastic humour that was masking her love 🥲

The relationships were SO HUMAN. So flawed, so messy and yet in all of that, so stunning. I couldn’t stop weeping at one point 🥹

4 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Homophobia

nataliesophia_13's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

This book really put me through it, I knew just from reading the back that these characters struggle. I felt every emotion I never knew possible, and at times I didn’t even know who I was rooting for. Both the main characters were heavily flawed, Frank with alcoholism and Cleo with depression and affairs, but you could still feel they loved each other. But sometimes love isn’t enough and i personally had a hard time letting their relationship go, because I could remember the love. The ending was ver serendipitous and i personally adore their last conversation. Eleanoar is good for Frank, and Cleo needs to work on herself. They both aknowledged the faults within their marriage and moved past it. Also, RIP Jesus, you won’t be forgotten 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

ktwoolen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

Tore me apart in the best way. I  love the reflective writing in this book and the raw depiction of human nature and relationships. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

avery_hutchinson's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Even I cannot deny that this is a well written book. The writing itself is beautiful. However, it felt as if the book had little to no plot, and it also felt as if the characters all had so many issues for the sake of having issues

The book is utterly vulgar throughout, and it seems every character is either toxic, irresponsible, cheating, an alcoholic, or constantly on drugs.

Because of those things, the book only really toed the line of feeling realistic and relatable. The ending was bittersweet, but I wasn’t rooting for the characters to get there, especially since they felt like they had only undergone half a character arc. However the author did manage to establish clear voices for each of the characters, though the decision to include the voice of side characters for only a chapter then pushing them back to ensemble was an interesting choice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Medical content, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Transphobia

Toxic age gap relationship of about 20 years.

sydneynorman's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Abandonment

Minor: Forced institutionalization

kimmykelly's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

racheltrow_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-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

4.25

Well that was great but now I’m quite depressed. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment