Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Cleopatra und Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

62 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

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

flavicou'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Solid book. The characters were very lovable and I enjoyed all the different povs and these people just coming together and trying to be there for one another. The sad parts were really touching and the misunderstandings too.

The Eleanor PV was completely useless and totally unnecessary I think you could have told hecc tv and frank getting together in a different way without completely changing the format of the book for seemingly no reason. Just unnecessary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide

shaleen64's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

3.75

If you’re a reader that likes a true plot then this isn’t really the book for you. However, whilst the majority of characters cannot be described as lovable, all are relatable and the book really explores the difficulties of navigating complex relationships  in the modern day world. 

Several really important topics are covered with enough depth that they’re not trivialised but evoke thought. The title of the book is the most perfect symbolism. However, excluding Santiago, I didn’t have a true connection with the characters hence the rating, but it’s still a book I would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Medical content and Death of parent

Minor: Sexism and Terminal illness

cecereads__'s review against another edition

4.5

Hmm. I thought this was an immediate 5 stars from that first chapter, it had me fully invested and intrigued. I was surprised how it switched up and gave us multiple pov’s and really focused on showing that chain reaction from the ppl close to us getting into relationships, meeting new ppl, etc. Once I got used to it, I thought it was really well done and such an interesting choice. Different from what I expected, but in the end it really came together imo. And most of all it’s a book about healing.

(I’ve had my own version of a Quentin as well as a Peter and Miriam …)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

bethroseellis's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

3.75

Whilst at first it felt a little tropey - a poor, young, beautiful girl falls in love with a rich older man and they have vivacious friends who have wild parties - the introduction of Eleanor brings some much needed balance and grounding to the novel. The novel, and the characters, grew on me as it progressed as it highlighted some of the every day fears we can all see reflected at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Dementia and Death of parent

afternoondreamer's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

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

aislinn_h's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Alcohol