Cleopatra and Frankenstein: ‘Move over Sally Rooney: this is the hottest new book’ - Sunday Times

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Needless to say, they are not: Wayward Cleo flexes with the fact that her husband pays, Frank lives his life like he's collecting stories he can tell at drug-fuelled parties (which should also show that this is clearly not an effort in the vein of Sally Rooney, the politics are fundamentally different and here, feminism mainly features as a rhetorical gimmick). I also found Mellors’ writing about other races and cultures a bit too confident and often super generalising in a way that felt quite ignorant or tokenising.

There were very many characters in this book that I didn't like, but also I wasn't supposed to, but also even when I'm not supposed to I usually do anyway, often more than when I AM supposed to.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. served with dialogue about childhood trauma, masturbation and a four-in-a-half year old who had her first orgasm.

And then there is a whole cast of family and friends that are broadly described, although they hardly add to the main storyline and remain equally cliched: The mean stepmom, the jealous sister, the gay best friend. but alas, I had to stop reading at 51 % percent because I just couldn't bear it anymore, and I hardly DNF books. There isn't much of a plot to speak of, beyond the shifting dynamics and relationships built between them, namely Cleo and Frank, a semi-green-card marriage built mostly on passion and age difference, and those around them: Frank's younger half-sister, Zoë; Frank's friends, Anders, and another more boring and half-hearted inclusion whose name I don't remember; Cleo's best friend Quentin; Zoë's best friend Audrey; and finally, ELEANOR.

the characters themselves were selfish, self-pitying fools (derogatory) without one redeeming quality at all. Cleo and Frank, the eponymous couple (though those are not their legal names, but 'cute' nicknames they give each other early on in their relationship), meet on New Year's Eve and are married within six months. Later, as they lay naked in each other’s arms, the mosquito net breathing softly around them, Cleo turned to his profile”.

After graduating with an English Literature degree and taking on a Communications job, Sophie's Edit focuses on her love for literature and film, good food, pop culture and her love for Scotland. Coco Mellors also adds some gritty and dark storylines to the mix, which for me makes the story have a deeper layer to it rather than romanticising being in your 20s and living in New York City. 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. The younger characters spend the novel ‘finding’ themselves in a city which has too much of a personality for you to find yourself with any ounce of integrity. though i love it, i can admit that this type of literary genre or niche does tend to not have the substance you’d expect an overtly hyped book to have and often appears juvenile.

A good book is a book that captures my mind so intently that it makes me suffer, it torments my heart and haunts me long after I've turned the final page. 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. Whether that’s my want to like the female protagonist which has been engrained in me since I was young, or just the nature of the novel, is yet to be decided. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a green card. I am too used to seeing the male being the unstable character (although please don’t take this for me saying Frank wasn’t – his alcohol addiction and behaviours weren’t likeable either).