A review by rmakenzie
Cleopatra and Frankenstein, by Coco Mellors

medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I genuinely can’t tell if I enjoyed this book, but I’m leaning towards no. It randomly had really beautiful prose at times, but the rest of the time I was gritting my teeth and forcing myself to finish it. It’s almost like it was written like a movie. Too fast. Too much jumping through time. This book has almost no plot, so it should be character driven, but I felt like most of the characters were so….hollow. When you finally learned something about a character, or there was a breakthrough, the chapter would end, two months would pass, and suddenly you’re reading from someone else’s point of view. 

I wish this book gave us more of Zoe. She was a funny, insufferable, not entirely likable character.

 I hated the way Cleo was described throughout this book. We GET IT. ashes young! Blonde! Small! English! Angelic! Intense! If I have to read one more sentence about how innocent and cherubic and childlike she looks I’ll scream. 

I liked Eleanor alot. She was clever and raw. When the book was in Eleanor’s point of view I actually enjoyed the prose.

In summation, good for them I guess. 
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