Name: mariola's review of Cleopatra And Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
Item: Cleopatra And Frankenstein
Rating: 3
Author: mariola

Coco Mellors

For readers of MODERN LOVERS and CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.

New York is slipping from Cleo’s grasp. Sure, she’s at a different party every other night, but she barely knows anyone. Her student visa is running out, and she doesn’t even have money for cigarettes. But then she meets Frank. Twenty years older, Frank’s life is full of all the success and excess that Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a green card. She offers him a life imbued with beauty and art—and, hopefully, a reason to cut back on his drinking. He is everything she needs right now. 
 
Cleo and Frank run head-first into a romance that neither of them can quite keep up with. It reshapes their lives and the lives of those around them, whether that’s Cleo’s best friend struggling to embrace his gender identity in the wake of her marriage, or Frank’s financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates after being cut off. Ultimately, this chance meeting between two strangers outside of a New Year’s Eve party changes everything, for better or worse.
 
CLEOPATRA AND FRANKENSTEIN is an astounding and painfully relatable debut novel about the spontaneous decisions that shape our entire lives and those imperfect relationships born of unexpectedly perfect evenings.

Cleopatra And Frankenstein

"For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage. Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted. Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last. As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent"--

Cleopatra and Frankenstein

desisti de ler esse livro na página 17. não sou muito tolerante a cringisse.

yas 

— Então você pode deduzir que a pessoa não come boceta. Ou, você sabe, pau, se essa for a sua praia.

 — Boceta — logo respondeu Frank —, é a minha praia. 

Ela olhou-o com um dos seus jeitos divertidos. 

— Minha praia? Pau. — Ela riu e inclinou a cabeça para pensar melhor. — Talvez eu levasse para a praia uma bolsa de bocetas. Mas só uma, pequena. Como aquelas carteiras elegantes que se usam para ir à ópera. 

— Exato. Ao contrário, por exemplo, de uma mala de paus.

clara

“Sweetheart, love is humiliating. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that?” “Who would have told me that?” “Do you know the word humiliate comes from the Latin root humus , which means ‘earth’? That’s how love is supposed to feel.” “Like hummus?” “Like earth. It ground’s you. All this nonsense about love being a drug, making you feel high, that’s not real. It should hold you like the earth.”

People are like this too, you know,” he says eventually. “We break. We put ourselves back together. The cracks are the best part.

"And you're smarter than you look," said the American.

"People only ever say that to women," said Cleo.

For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.

Jade 

"Being underwhelmed is part of being young. My generation has higher expectations than yours." 

Cleo looked at him with pure contempt. “Those have got to be the saddest words a person can utter.”

“Because it shows a total unwillingness to change. That is not just who you are, Frank. It's who you've become, who you choose to be. You just refuse to acknowledge the choice."

Ausrine Blazyte

“Each starling is only ever aware of five other birds," she said. One above, one below, one in front and one either side, at like a star. They move with those five, and that's how they stay in in formation" "But who's the leader? Who decides which way they go? There isn't one." Cleo smiled. "That's the mystery. 

“Who are your five, then?" asked Cleo. "The ones you watch?"

"My five people?" Frank thought for a moment. "Well, Zoe's one, of course. Santiago, too" He looked at the ground, which indeed was scarred with bird shit. "And Anders." I'm glad' said Cleo, meaning it. And now Eleanor:" Frank glanced at her from the corner of his eye. She was nodding slowly. "And you. That's five."

"Exactly. And it wasn't perfect-her parents divorced when she was young, and she had this weird relationship as a teenager with an older guy but I could tell she felt safe in that house. She grew up feeling safe and fiercely loved" When he looked up, he was surprised to see that Cleo's eyes had glazed with a thin film of tears. "That sounds nice," she said quietly. "And you and I didn't get that, not because we didn't deserve it, we just got dealt something else. But the people who did get that love, they grew up to be different from us. More secure. Maybe they're not as shiny or successful as you and I feel we have to be. But it's not because they're not interesting. They just don't feel they have to do the tap dance, you know? They don't have to prove themselves all the time to be loved. Because they always were." 

When the darkest part of you meets the darkest part of me, it creates light.

Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.
Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older.
Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.
As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.

this made me giggle so hardd…Not i tried it on myself tho…just to know how it feels 😭

hafi mazlan

 She'd let Frank slip his hands inside her underwear in her stair- well the first night they met. It had felt like he was tracing the alphabet on her clit. L, M, N,O... POW! 

Klara Hansen 

She wanted to pull apart the threads that held the last twelve months together, unpick the stitches like a dress being let out for someone new She wanted to be the someone new.

Okay, so I am not pretty. Some people have diabetes. Some people have six toes. Some people get caught in forest fires and suffer third-degree burns all over their body. Some people have headaches they ignore for months, then finally go to the doctor only to find out it's a brain tumor that kills them within weeks having never achieved their life's potential. I did not end up pretty. Big whoop.

Frank‘s flirting skills are extraordinary 🥵

Tabea

"So." he said. "Do you have someone in particular you're, um, having these orgasms with?"

maud gruenewald

"People are like this too, you know," he says eventually. "We break. We put ourselves back together. The cracks are the best part. You don't have to hide them." 

utsa

This subtle world of shades and lines Cleo occupied, ostensibly so full of meaning, potentially so meaningless ... Frank felt like he was trying to open a package with the instructions written on the inside.

Abigail Mills

"And you and I didn't get that, not because we didn't deserve it, we just got dealt something else. But the people who did get that love, they grew up to be different from us. More secure. Maybe they're not as shiny or successful as you and I feel we have to be. But it's not because they're not interesting. They just don't feel they have to do the tap dance, you know? They don't have to prove themselves all the time to be loved. Because they always were. 

He had never really known if she was any good as an artist. She had certainly been unhappy enough to be good. But what did that mean? Talented people were often unhappy, but unhappy people were not often talented. Frank always thought that Cleo's main gift was her way of being. She was uniquely attractive, not just in her looks but in her essence. She had a way of bringing the light into a room with her, like a window being flung open.

"I should have known she wasn't right for me" Levi says. "When she designed our band flyer using Comic Sans."

Accelerated intimacy, that's what Zoe was good at. She'd learned early that it was quicker to bond with another person over what you didn’t ike than what you did, and that the easiest way to feel close to someone was to do something transgressive together. That's why smokers always made friends. 

He became the hook upon which she hung her whole self. 

Frank, who had been planning to work all next week in the empty office, had never been much of a spontaneous traveler-but he liked the idea that he could be. He had the means, just not the incentive. And here was Cleo with the opposite. 

mariola

definitely felt like watching a train wreck. 

like i often feel when i read contemporary fiction, i don’t really know how to feel! i was entertained, but also felt so devastated for some characters where it feels like things were not fully explained or they just had some terrible ending. i definitely did not like that it felt like only the two main characters had a happy ending and also that all of the terrible things of their relationship didn’t seem to like,,, traumatize them after? idk lots of strange things

Clara Gauthier

definitely felt like watching a train wreck. 

like i often feel when i read contemporary fiction, i don’t really know how to feel! i was entertained, but also felt so devastated for some characters where it feels like things were not fully explained or they just had some terrible ending. i definitely did not like that it felt like only the two main characters had a happy ending and also that all of the terrible things of their relationship didn’t seem to like,,, traumatize them after? idk lots of strange things

all the way back in February and, at the time, it was my first 10/10 of the year. This book is clever, witty, dark, and hit really hard for me as an unfiltered look into an assortment of doomed relationships between men and women. And make no mistake, almost every heterosexual relationship presented in (the first half of) this book is doomed, toxic, abusive, dying, or all of the above. This book has charming moments between charming people, but it’s clear that we’re supposed to view these characters like the bridges are destined to burn.

Also, I’m convinced this is one of my most publicly hated favorites. Every time I see this book on booktwt or elsewhere it’s a 1 star or 2 star review. People HATE this book, and I’ve seen a mix of criticisms that are sometimes valid and sometimes utterly ridiculous.

There are plenty more complaints I’ve seen about this book. You need not look far to find a review from someone saying it’s the worst book they’ve read in years. Honestly, seeing all these reviews pop up in my feed over the past 8 months made me question my own taste: was the book actually any good? Was I ignoring faults in the book that I should’ve caught while reading it? Why did I even like it, especially since it’s such a big shift in writing and tone from most of my other favorites?

After having 8 months to sit on it: I do still really like this book. I really enjoyed witnessing the housefire that is Cleo and Frank’s relationship, the perspective shift that came with Eleanor’s entrance into the story, and what the book has to say about modern day interactions between men and women.

Fun was fine when you were young, but as you got older, it was kindness that counted, kindness that showed up.

What had she done, marrying Frank? She should have married Quentin. She should have married no one. How did a person learn to live? Learn to be happy? She had surrounded herself with people who didn't know.

However, I still think my rating deserves an adjustment, especially after having several other 10/10s since reading this book that I love quite a lot more.

smile

I read Cleopatra and Frankenstein all the way back in February and, at the time, it was my first 10/10 of the year. This book is clever, witty, dark, and hit really hard for me as an unfiltered look into an assortment of doomed relationships between men and women. And make no mistake, almost every heterosexual relationship presented in (the first half of) this book is doomed, toxic, abusive, dying, or all of the above. This book has charming moments between charming people, but it’s clear that we’re supposed to view these characters like the bridges are destined to burn.

Also, I’m convinced this is one of my most publicly hated favorites. Every time I see this book on booktwt or elsewhere it’s a 1 star or 2 star review. People HATE this book, and I’ve seen a mix of criticisms that are sometimes valid and sometimes utterly ridiculous.


The themes are shallow and unexplored: I think this is a fair critique to make of the book. There’s certainly more that could’ve been said about what the book wants to dive into, but I think the amount of characters in the main cast that we shift between makes it difficult to really dig deep into one theme in particular. Mellors seems to want to spread the story wide with a big cast, and I agree that it would’ve been better with a smaller group to really hone in on what she wanted to talk about.

The writing is cringe: This is subjective, and I really enjoyed the writing style! I could see how some might close the book after the first chapter though.

The characters have no redeeming qualities: That’s the point.

The book is an objectively worse version of a Sally Rooney novel: I haven’t read enough of Rooney (yet) to know if this really is a valid take, but I think it’s kind of toxic to make this comparison about someone’s debut novel that took seven years. I highly doubt Mellors spent those seven years thinking I want to write a book that reads JUST like Sally Rooney, especially when Rooney’s first novel was published in 2017.

There are plenty more complaints I’ve seen about this book. You need not look far to find a review from someone saying it’s the worst book they’ve read in years. Honestly, seeing all these reviews pop up in my feed over the past 8 months made me question my own taste: was the book actually any good? Was I ignoring faults in the book that I should’ve caught while reading it? Why did I even like it, especially since it’s such a big shift in writing and tone from most of my other favorites?

After having 8 months to sit on it: I do still really like this book. I really enjoyed witnessing the housefire that is Cleo and Frank’s relationship, the perspective shift that came with Eleanor’s entrance into the story, and what the book has to say about modern day interactions between men and women.

Fun was fine when you were young, but as you got older, it was kindness that counted, kindness that showed up.

What had she done, marrying Frank? She should have married Quentin. She should have married no one. How did a person learn to live? Learn to be happy? She had surrounded herself with people who didn't know.


However, I still think my rating deserves an adjustment, especially after having several other 10/10s since reading this book that I love quite a lot more.

9/10

What in the Normal People?? Sobbed. Eleanor keeping me sane.

Indi

korfai 

So raw, real and predictable in the most captivating and beguiling way

Isis Berk

this was as if rupi kaur wanted to write sex and the city and normal people story combined. 

can't really explain why I feel that way about it. maybe it was just too long for my taste, was not really interesting for me to read about since I literally couldn't relate to any single one of the characters, and it was millennial-ishly cheesy sometimes. 

Anna 

this was as if rupi kaur wanted to write sex and the city and normal people story combined. 

can't really explain why I feel that way about it. maybe it was just too long for my taste, was not really interesting for me to read about since I literally couldn't relate to any single one of the characters, and it was millennial-ishly cheesy sometimes. 

𝒜

A Little Life except it’s with every terrible character trait and girlypop - toxic characters and no real plot other than lives unfolding, an entertaining read but the thought that people like the characters exists IRL makes me scared LOL

Ianna Chia

This wasn’t what I expected it to be. It was in the same vein as a Sally Rooney book but I liked this better. Coco Mellors did some brilliant writing that sucked you into the storyline and empathizing with the characters by switching between first and third person point of view. There were two scenes that were uncomfortable and threw me out of the book so hard I decided I didn’t like it. The ending is what set this book apart from Sally Rooney and others in this same genre. Redeemable. 

Liz Hunsaker

This wasn’t what I expected it to be. It was in the same vein as a Sally Rooney book but I liked this better. Coco Mellors did some brilliant writing that sucked you into the storyline and empathizing with the characters by switching between first and third person point of view. There were two scenes that were uncomfortable and threw me out of the book so hard I decided I didn’t like it. The ending is what set this book apart from Sally Rooney and others in this same genre. Redeemable. 

p.s Elenor is my fav. 

This is one of those books that really sucks you in - it felt like brown nosing a car crash, getting to see a glimpse of a disaster through an outside perspective. The surprise introduction of first person view really switched the feel of reading it, as you go from standing outside to being flung directly into the spiral of someone else's doomed relationship. Each character's ending was almost entirely predictable, yet I still found myself shocked and either disappointed or excited for each of them. Every character was fleshed out and explored, and it really felt as though I was within this social circle, and knew each of them personally. 

camille paradis

the book was alright, they kind of lost me in the middle of the book, and Anders in the bathroom was a hard read, had to put the book down and say ew, but love the last chapter, i wish cleo also found someone but she’s still soooo young 😌

debbie <3

i had higher expectations for this book. there are sooo many unnecessary parts, especially with the supporting characters. i just think it could be better if just focusing on cleo and frank to make us deeply immerse into their storyline. but overall it's actually enjoyable

Ashleigh Izaguirre

a fucking delight.

perfectly melancholic. 

i am so sad it’s over. 💔

Honestly i dont know how to feel. It did try but that is it. Have mixed feelings about It And would sum it up as pretentious. 

Also some trigger warnings i think would have been good.

Celina Irena Kuhn

Honestly i dont know how to feel. It did try but that is it. Have mixed feelings about It And would sum it up as pretentious. 

Also some trigger warnings i think would have been good.

impulsive love. i don't like the characters. just, meh. 

eleanor's pov is the only one that's decent (barely) :/ skim read most, if not all of this book

rain/anagha

big ab

think about the worst absolute people you have ever met in your life.. that’s what this book is about <3 was it soooo entertaining? oh for sure. and at times hilarious! but oh my god it is very depressing and frustrating to read. imagine if sally rooney wrote a book set in new york about the most annoying, self centered, eclectic group of people that are all addicted to substances and also addicted to attention. that’s this book.

Eva Ströberg

Cleopatra & Frankenstein - Coco Mellors
.
⭐️⭐️
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This book feels like potato chips to me. Good, but empty calories. I feel like I get nothing out of reading this book, yet the story between Cleo and Frank, and their incompatible and destructive lives are interesting. As a non-white person, I also feel like their problems are trivial and exclusively reserved to the privileged ones. Running out of visa? Ask those illegal immigrants toiling every day to get decent lives for their children back home? Alcoholism? Well “at least” he doesn’t have kids where the abuse can leave a scar. 
.
Maybe I’m oversimplifying, but I have no sympathy for the main characters, also the supporting ones, but the writing is good enough to keep me hooked and that I didn’t DNF this book
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#cocomellors #cleopatraandfrankenstein #currentlyreading #2023readingchallenge #2023reads #bookstagram #drama

so there might be something to learn from this but all j learnt was that the sugar glider should not have died

anya

It's interesting at first but as I went on reading it becomes too dull. What I don't really like are the sub plots of characters that doesn't connect with the two main character and I think is really pointless to read.

The author should have focused on the two main couple in the story, it would've been fantastic. It touched on too many issues but never seem to really nail down the message. It's dissapointing and the ending was not it. All in all, it all seems meaningless but I do enjoy it. It wasn't just my cup of tea.

Sheila Mae Moradas

It's interesting at first but as I went on reading it becomes too dull. What I don't really like are the sub plots of characters that doesn't connect with the two main character and I think is really pointless to read.

The author should have focused on the two main couple in the story, it would've been fantastic. It touched on too many issues but never seem to really nail down the message. It's dissapointing and the ending was not it. All in all, it all seems meaningless but I do enjoy it. It wasn't just my cup of tea.

My last best reading. A punch in the stomach for those who like delusional romance.

Jessica Kent

A beautiful melancholic read of how two people made for each other aren’t good together. :)

gishelle

The story was, unfortunately, boring. It mostly centered around Clea and Franck and didn't really go anywhere. It felt like a story about privileged kids complaining about their family problems and using them as an excuse to do whatever they wanted. Overall, it just wasn't my thing.

Bilge Ince

tori 👻

It took me time to finish my read and it was mostly because this book made me sad. But there is beauty in the melancholic way Cleopatra and Frankenstein is written.

It's the story of two people who meet at new year's eve, two people from two different universes that for a moment, for a spark make sense. I feel like this book narrates the never ending search for a way to never let that spark fade.
Stories like this do intrigue me, when love is not enough, when love is actually just a word used to hide something else - something corrosive and toxic, like addiction. It is always about that one moment (and I appreciate how the chapters are divided by time skips), which obviously can never last longer than what it is set to last. I find it sad the urge to recreate, not to create and let me be honest, I just think the story of Cleo and Frank is really fucking sad.

Also let me be honest for a second time: I can see a lot of people absolutely hating this book as I can see a lot of people loving it.

mariola &
Cleopatra And Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

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