Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Cleopatra und Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

20 reviews

ams5x9's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Racism, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

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

leahmaslin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racism and Violence

Minor: Rape

daisymoffit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Gorgeous novel. Easy to slip away into, Cleopatra and Frankenstein explores love, trust, sense of self, and is set in an engaging and multifaceted friend group in New York. Felt very much like a twenties-something book, gave me lots of good quotes. Fun and introspective read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

ewatt33's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Death of parent

kashmore's review against another edition

dark 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

1.5

I thought that this book was satire until I realized it wasn’t. To me, much of conversation between characters seemed contrived, and I initially thought that could be intentional. I found parts of book compelling—particularly the Eleanor chapters—but overall felt the changing perspectives in each chapter were more gimmicky than constructive. Plot points are introduced and then abandoned, or major events/conversations overlooked or only referred to as having happened off screen. I’m thinking specifically about

Quentin’s character and how he is sidelined soon after being introduced — there’s little we hear from him after his introductory chapter, only to have it revealed at the end of the book that he’s been struggling with drug addiction, with little followup or commentary from any of the other characters

. I did finish the book and found it to be a quick read, and despite it dealing with some very serious issues, did not find it weighed down or overly dragging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

wild_er_ness's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

tasha_x's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Racism

cleotheo's review against another edition

emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide and Dementia

Minor: Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

rylie_o's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Blood, and Abandonment