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 writing is lovely, but in relation to the people it creates and summons. I guess, considering that it's been a month since I read this and I haven't been able to stop reading or talking or thinking about it, five stars.įor me, this is a book of characters. 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.Īnd also, in addition to this, there was a character I loved so much that I cried through her chapters (of which there are only two), an insanely earnest and vulnerable moment the likes of which has never occurred to me ever. Update: dropping this to 4.5 because there is one thing that bugs me too much to leave this at a perfect 5. NYU MFA graduate Coco Mellors's CLEOPATRA AND FRANKENSTEIN, a portrait of a brief marriage between a painter and an advertising executive, dealing with themes of mental health, addiction, maturity, and the joys and challenges of marriage, to Grace McNamee at Bloomsbury, for publication in winter 2022. 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. 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.
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