Overall, a very memorable journey that I doubt I’ll forget. The author definitely made me FEEL THINGS, that’s for sure. It can be heartbreaking to read about a character struggling with their mental health being continually let down despite reaching out to those they love.

I am thankful it ended on a hopeful note (seriously it made me so emo lol) but I do wish Cleo wasn’t done wrong and had more support. I think it was an interesting move, and showed how Cleo and Frank’s relationship impacted their friends at times, but some of them felt irrelevant and made me count the pages until I returned back to Cleo or Frank. I enjoyed but also struggled with the POVs of the side characters. The rest didn’t quite match that same energy, but was still great writing, albeit it, like I mentioned, extremely graphic at times. I read it twice and want to read it again. The first chapter is the most stunning first chapter I’ve ever read. But it felt so believable and raw and realistic. It was graphic (in many ways) and required me to turn down the brightness on my Kindle while I read it on an airplane lol. Ultimately, this chance meeting between two strangers outside of a New Year’s Eve party changes everything, for better or worse.Ĭleopatra 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.Stream of consciousness conflicting thoughts: I loved it and I hated it.

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. He is everything she needs right now.Ĭleo and Frank run head-first into a romance that neither of them can quite keep up with. She offers him a life imbued with beauty and art-and, hopefully, a reason to cut back on his drinking. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a green card. Twenty years older, Frank's life is full of all the success and excess that Cleo's lacks. Her student visa is running out, and she doesn’t even have money for cigarettes. Sure, she’s at a different party every other night, but she barely knows anyone. Coco Mellors is an elegant and exciting new voice’ PANDORA SYKES, author of How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right In the book, 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.

‘A tender, devastating and funny exploration of love and friendship and the yearning for self-evisceration. 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.

Cleo and frankenstein