Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
Blurb
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.
Review
I really need to stop reading books because of all the hype I see on Bookstagram because I am too often disappointed and this was no exception.
In all the books I have read over the years I don’t think I have ever read a book where I have hated so many of the characters. I nearly gave up several times but I kept going because I was convinced it would get better. Sadly, I was quite wrong.
The two main characters are Frank and Cleo. Cleo is a twenty something artist whose student visa is running out. She also has a tragic childhood that has affected her more than she or her friends realise. Frank is a forty something advertising executive who is successful and allows Cleo to live the dream life to follow her love of art. However, they are really not good for each other.
In fact nobody in this book seems to be good for each other. Quentin who is Cleo’s drug addict best friend couldn’t really care about anyone but himself. Zoe is Frank’s much younger half sister who has just wanted someone to love her and make her feel safe. Then there is Eleanor who works in Frank’s office. I’ve read quite a few reviews that rave about how Eleanor is their favourite character but I’m sorry I just don’t see it. I think she is probably the most likeable in the book but I still don’t like her.
This is a book of unlikeable characters, characters who are all on their own journeys. Some journeys revolve around love and lust which blinds them to all else and some journeys are journeys plunging further into the deep black hole. I personally need a book with at least some characters I like, that I care for but sadly by the end of this book I couldn’t care less about of any of them. I give this book 2 out of 5 Dragons.
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About the author
Coco Mellors is a writer from London and New York. She received her MFA in Fiction from New York University, where she was a Goldwater fellow. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband. Cleopatra and Frankenstein is her first novel.
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