A story of different generations living their lives and what happens when expectations clash. A couple of older advertising exec guys get more than they bargained for when the latest of a very long line of much younger women turns out to have a complex life and character of her own that doesn’t fit their usual disposable attitudes towards women.

Turns out Cleo is just as exploitative as Frank and Anders in her way, as is Frank’s sister Zoe. Eleanor is an even more problematic character, an older, less attractive woman who offers the promise of the family life that Frank missed as a boy.

I was quite challenged by this book - there are lots of characters making poor choices and living their lives that starts to feel like a netflix bingewatch and can be overwhelming to keep up with all the characters.

There’s some lovely writing and a pure thread that comes out towards the end of the book, but the almost stereotypes of issues and characters and the sheer number of unexplored threads made the book less successful for me.

This was an odd reading experience for me. I enjoyed the writing style, it definitely has echoes of a Sally Rooney type – dislike comparing current authors but I thought of this a lot while reading it. I didn't like the main characters at all but I felt like I got their motiviations and the bubble they're in.

But then there's this whole cast of supporting characters. Ones that we follow for far too long to stay engaged but never find out enough about to be worth it. Unfortunately that really put a damper on the book for me and about halfway through I started having to skim these pieces because otherwise it would become a DNF.

Nevertheless I would try something by the same author again because some parts were fantastic. The characters are a bit love to hate, but it's interesting to go along with them. It's ostensibly a love story that feels less full of love than it does moments of passion followed by moments of disgust or irritation. It had me thinking about relationship dynamics and I enjoyed the challenge of it. So all in all, I'm not sure where I come down on enjoyment yet but I'll definitely remember it.

It is hard to believe that Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a debut; it is written with so much care and precision with a perfectly paced plot and well developed characters. It’s funny, acerbic, human and I could have read another 200 pages of it!

The blurb of this book really appealed to me and what I like to read. But sadly this wasn't quite for me.
It is well written and the writing is witty but I found it difficult to connect to any of the characters.
None of them are particularly likeable, which isn't necessarily always a bad thing, however in this case it stopped me from truly caring about any of them.
It started well but didn't live up to that the whole way through.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well, where to start? This novel is stunning in so many ways, from the high-octane opening, to the tragedy ensuing in the middle, through to the beautiful ending. I loved 'Cleopatra and Frankenstein' and really hope that this book does well.

Cleo is a British art student in New York. Her visa is running out. She feels directionless, aimless, not knowing what is coming next. Then, one night, she bumps into Frank leaving a party. And this marks the tumultuous story of Cleo and Frank. They get married. They live an exciting life. But things are not what they are cracked up to be and their lives unravel shortly after.

Most of the novel is in the third-person, dealing with Cleo and Frank, but also Anders, Frank's old friend, Zoe, his sister, and Quentin, Cleo's over-the-top best mate. However, when Eleanor comes into the story, the perspective shifts; she tells her own tale and her voice is juxtaposes perfectly with Mellors' narration. Towards the end, Eleanor's role becomes more prominent and her voice beautifully consistent and relevant to the story.

The ending had pathos but is also quite uplifting - and Mellors doesn't labour the point, which is important. I loved this book and definitely recommend it. Just one thing: on one of the last few pages, Frank is very surprised that Cleo knows what a 'murmuration' is - '... surprising him, again, with the breadth of things he did not know she knew.' I am not particularly surprised she knows this - it seems a little implausible that she wouldn't know. Anyway, it's a minor point. This is superb and a book that you should read if you haven't already.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein is (eventually) a tender book about human relationships across all spectrums. Maybe I am skewing as fucked up as these characters because a lot of what the author had to say resonated with me now and then, via these fucked up people. I think what I found most disappointing is the very broad strokes they are painted in, because sadly very little is later filled in. Spoilers.

I found it hard to invest in the idea of Frank and Eleanor because to me their relationship just reads as the same honeymoon infatuation that he and Cleo enjoy at the beginning of the book. We are led to believe it's serious this time because he's six months sober. Zoe lucks out on her first go as a sex worker with the best daddy ever, has her first orgasm and becomes a sort of sex therapist? Quentin's gender awakenings are reduced to a corset worn in public but then he gets hooked on meth and is never seen again. I think the writing shows that Mellors is capable of more, so I hope to see it in future endeavours because I didn't hate this book as much as other reviewers seem to.

‘“Wanker,” said Cleo and took a bite. “You’re in America now,” Frank said. “Here, I’m just an asshole.”‘

DNF at 57%

CW: Drug use, drinking, alcoholism, gender dysphoria, graphic sex scenes, emotional cheating, physical cheating, marriage unfaithfulness, depression, death of parent (remembered), animal neglect, animal death

I’m not usually a contemporary book reader, and even less regularly a literary fiction person. But something about the blurb of this really appealed to me, so I thought I’d try it.
I liked… maybe the first 30%. Although the characters weren’t necessarily all likeable, some of them were interesting - the side characters more so to me than the main characters. I enjoyed the characters that explored their sexuality and their identity, and I liked some of the writing.
But then we just hit one chapter, one character, and for me it started to go downhill. There were stirrings of cheating which made me uncomfortable - only emotional at the start, but it was the physical cheating that pushed me to DNF. There’s also not quite animal abuse but animal neglect and I just didn’t like it.
I’m kind of disappointed because I did enjoy the start, but I also know I shouldn’t be entirely surprised because, like I said, I stepped out my comfort zone with this one anyway.

This book is definitely well written and modern. I particularly enjoyed the dialogue which was was witty, clever and impactful. But ultimately this was such a sad story and left me feeling a little low.

I am so impressed by this debut novel and found it very moving, witty and clever in its observations of relationships and friendships.

The story is centered around Cleo and Frank who meet and have an instant romantic connection which leads to marriage very quickly. We follow the many highs and lows in their marriage and the challenges they face together and individually, from the 20 year age gap between them, Frank's drink problem and Cleo's struggles with loneliness and mental health.

The narrative occasionally moves away from Cleo and Frank and focuses on a friend or family member whose connection to the couple has an impact on their life or outlook. While it took me a while to realise the significance and bigger picture of these plot threads, the author did a fantastic job of weaving them all together to give us a broader perspective and enabling us to see the central couple through different lenses.

The book is an honest and open examination of the complexities of relationships and how two people coming together can change the lives of those around them too. I loved the depth and uniqueness of the characters and felt fully invested in their journeys from the beginning.

I think Coco Mellors is an author to watch out for if her debut novel is anything to go by.

Thank you to Netgalley and 4th Estate for the ARC.

Not my usual kind of genre but I really enjoyed reading something different, I thought it was a nice read and something I would recommend to my friends and family.

I was here to celebrate this debut (great title! great cover!), but alas, I had to stop reading at 51 % percent because I just couldn't bear it anymore, and I hardly DNF books. On New Year’s Eve 2006, 24-year-old British artist Cleo meets Frank, a wealthy 40-something advertising executive in New York City. First romance, then turbulance ensues, as Cleo's artistic ambitions do not develop as expected and Frank drinks quite a lot. Both protagonists are largely unsympathetic, which wouldn't be a problem (when it comes to writers like Ottessa Moshfegh, it's the whole appeal) if they were interesting. 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).

The text jumped the shark for me when, apparently to illustrate peak quirkiness, Frank impulsively buys an animal from an obviously shady animal trader, he and Cleo think it's super funny to cluelessly purchase such a creature and to keep it in their apartment although it's forbidden in the whole city and they don't know how to provide for its needs, and then neglect it. These people are assholes (maybe assholes with a trauma, but that's no excuse), but the way these animal cruelty passages are written, it seems like the writer disagrees and thinks that Cleo and Frank are...bohemians?

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...*siiiigh*. It's a cast right out of a 90's sitcom. And the text is way, way too long, there is not enough plot or depth to support this many pages. The lives of all of these people, their feelings and the events they attend feel stale, like déjà-vus.

I wish I could have loved this more.

I really struggled to get through the first 30%. Maybe because each chapter was concerning a different person, which I used to love but didn’t in this circumstance. I think it meant I couldn’t connect to the story as quickly.

This book is definitely well written and modern. I particularly enjoyed the dialogue which was was witty, clever and impactful. But ultimately this was such a sad story and left me feeling a little low.

I liked this, I liked that it's a larger cast of characters than I initially expected -- I especially enjoyed Eleanor's chapters. I wasn't too drawn in by the main relationship itself -- at its highest or its lowest.

This debut novel had me hypnotised from early on. Firstly I was intrigued by the title. Was Cleopatra the beauty I envisaged and Frankenstein the monster, who was impossible to love. Cleo wasn’t just young in years she was immature, impulsive, reckless, and in need of a green card. Frank, twenty years older, is successful in his career, but a full-blown alcoholic that should have given up wild parties long ago.

The pair were drawn to each other, both needing something at that moment in time. Frank was too set in his ways, and Cleo was too immature to deal with his needs, let alone her own. They were thrown together in a whirlwind of parties and wild living, but they were worlds apart, with friends that had nothing in common.

This story just seemed to play out in my mind as I read it, each character alive and taking on their role trying to find a different missing link that neither of them fit. I wanted this to work, but the toxic relationship that it was, was destroying them. When you live your life making choices just to hurt your partner, then you simply aren’t living. I couldn’t leave it alone. It is a fabulous debut.

I wish to thank Net Galley and the publisher for a copy of this book that I have reviewed honestly.

The cover hinted at a class, and a classic tale, that the author didn't deliver.

This isn't a full review, as I couldn't finish this tale. The book's cover makes you think you're going to get something a bit arty and perhaps a bit Parisian-French in how it pans out, with an aloof female and the guy who has to work to win her, but it had a Brit female lead who at 24 (I think) sounded jaded, like she didn't love the art that she professed was her passion, and it read very cliche.

I didn't like the attitude of the bodega owner, which screamed bad stereotyping of Latinos when they see a Caucasian woman, and I didn't like that the Caucasian male lead felt the need to come to the rescue of the Caucasian female lead, when he didn't know her, when she didn't ask him to, and when she could easily have gotten herself out of the situation. Why portray men so toxically so soon into the tale.

I DNF'd when the let's-get-to-know-each-other went from repressed Brit coquette to talk about clitoral orgasms and similar. It just felt like the author tried too hard to make the female lead sound cool and chic and independent, but in reality, the dialogue was utterly contrived and it all read faux.

This isn’t the type of book I usually enjoy – the kind where everyone is kind of unlikeable but not in a fun way, in the everyday co-worker you can’t stand way. And I definitely struggled with the beginning of the book, the dialogue was very try-hard and a little trite. But I ended up loving this. The characters were very well-rounded and I’ll be thinking about Cleo and Eleanor for a long time. I didn’t really connect with Frank’s point of view, but this book did work to make you feel empathy for everyone, even those you don’t like. Cleo’s story in particular was very effective and I was literally sobbing by the end. There were definitely sections where the book felt a little too meandering, but the last couple of chapters saved it for me.

The likelihood is, if the characters get married at the start of the book, the ending might not be a happily ever after.

Cleo and Frank meet by chance on New Year's Eve when leaving a party of a mutual friend; as if drawn together by fate, the two spend the night together, caught up in the possibilities they offer one another and the coincidences of a 24-year-old British artist meeting a New York ad writer in his forties. Then, six months later, they discover what one of those possibilities might be by marrying one another and taking on a fledgling relationship when they still have much to learn about themselves.

The characterisation in this novel is nothing short of phenomenal. Without delving into details that takes away from the main plot line, Mellors writes such interesting characters with such varying motivations, poignant pasts and dreams for the future that still manage to propel the narrative onwards. The small reveals add up to so much during the reading experience and it felt like an exposé behind the magic of the first encounter between Cleo and Frank, and how their relationship cracks and melds around the other people in their lives.

And while their relationship is intoxicatingly painful to read about, it was the passages between their friends and family I found most gripping which, given that not all the characters have equal time spent on the page, is quite the feat. Santiago and Zoe continue to be my favourites; I felt invested in each of their storylines and want to know more even now. This is definitely attributed to Mellors' writing style that, while grounded in realism and often dark in its theming, has an almost magical quality to it that makes it impossible to put down. Perhaps it is in this way the most raw passages of the novel became all the more poignant for breaking through the spell.

This debut novel centres around the relationship of Cleo and Frank primarily based in New York city. There's a large age gap between these two protagonists who decide to get married quite quickly after meeting. It's an absorbing tale about love, loss, mental health and human relationships. Great characters are introduced throughout and the story kept me captivated to the end. A well written tale and at times pulls at the heartstrings. Coco Mellors is certainly an author to keep a watch out for in the future. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the advance copy of this book.

Brilliantly modern, an author to look out for.

Perfectly captures the fleeting feeling of youth!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

I was really intrigued by the title and concept of the book.

It started off really strong with the introduction of Frank and Cleo and the characters in this book but I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters or the storyline because it feels like nothing really happens.

They each have their secrets but the reader has a hard time connecting with the characters because they and the rest of the cast are so unlikeable.

I couldn’t finish this book beyond 26% unfortunately.