For readers drawn to intimate character studies of self-destructive relationships set against a vividly rendered urban backdrop, the answer is yes — with caveats. The central relationship between Frank and Cleo is what Publishers Weekly calls 'involving,' built on two psychologically specific protagonists whose intoxicating chemistry persists even as the damage accumulates. The main reservation is unevenness: Publishers Weekly finds the novel 'involving if strained,' with a satirical supporting cast that too often tips into caricature and an overall tone that can feel scattered. Readers who prize a strong central relationship and atmospheric New York setting over a perfectly balanced ensemble will get the most out of it.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Name: Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
Author: Coco Mellors
ISBN: 1639730702

by Coco Mellors

$14.33 on Amazon Read our full review

At a glance

Pages352

First published2022

SettingManhattan, New York City, 2007

AudienceAdult

ISBN1639730702

About the Author

Coco Mellors

1 book reviewed

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LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Readers who enjoy ensemble-driven, psychologically textured debut fiction about self-destructive relationships and the creative-class milieu of early-2000s New York City.

Worth it if

You're drawn to intimate portraits of doomed, chemistry-fuelled marriages and can appreciate an ambitious, uneven debut that reaches simultaneously for social satire, romantic devastation, and psychological depth.

Skip if

You need a tightly focused narrative with a fully realised supporting cast — if caricature and a scattered, meandering second half tend to pull you out of a story, this one is likely to frustrate.

What readers & critics say

Kirkus Reviews awarded the novel a starred review, calling it "a canny and engrossing rewiring of the big-city romance" and praising its assured, sensitive debut. Publishers Weekly found it "involving if strained," singling out the central relationship as genuinely compelling while noting the satirical supporting cast tips too often into caricature and the overall tone feels scattered.

“A canny and engrossing rewiring of the big-city romance.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“Hers is a city of flash and fluttering movement, as if deliberately designed to distract its inhabitants from seeing that, beneath the surface, there's no there there.”

— Los Angeles Times

Sources: Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Cleaver Magazine

4.2from 13,594 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

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Cleopatra and Frankenstein is Coco Mellors' debut novel — a sharp, satirical portrait of a doomed Manhattan marriage between Frank, a charismatic ad executive with a worsening drinking problem, and Cleo, a British painter twenty years his junior, whose whirlwind union slowly unravels under resentment, infidelity, and unresolved childhood wounds. The central relationship is genuinely compelling, driven by two psychologically specific protagonists whose chemistry persists even as the damage accumulates — but readers should know the supporting cast can tip into caricature, and the novel's overall tone runs uneven. Ideal for fans of intimate, urban literary fiction who can embrace an ambitious debut that doesn't always land every note it reaches for.

Is it worth reading?: For readers drawn to intimate character studies of self-destructive relationships set against a vividly rendered urban backdrop, the answer is yes — with caveats. The central relationship between Frank and Cleo is what Publishers Weekly calls 'involving,' built on two psychologically specific protagonists whose intoxicating chemistry persists even as the damage accumulates. The main reservation is unevenness: Publishers Weekly finds the novel 'involving if strained,' with a satirical supporting cast that too often tips into caricature and an overall tone that can feel scattered. Readers who prize a strong central relationship and atmospheric New York setting over a perfectly balanced ensemble will get the most out of it.
Similar books: Readers who respond to Cleopatra and Frankenstein's portrait of a flawed, unequal relationship set against urban literary milieu will find kindred reads nearby. Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy explores another age-gap relationship with psychological acuity, while Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver shares the novel's unflinching engagement with addiction and its corrosive effect on intimate relationships. For those drawn to the marriage-in-crisis angle, Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Fleishman Is in Trouble and Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation offer similarly sharp dissections of New York partnerships coming apart. Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends shares Mellors' interest in the emotional dynamics of young women navigating desire, ambition, and self-destruction.
Who should read this?: Cleopatra and Frankenstein is best suited to adult readers who enjoy intimate literary fiction about self-destructive relationships — particularly those with an appetite for New York creative-class satire alongside genuine emotional devastation. Barnes & Noble recommends it especially for readers interested in the textures of young(ish) urban life and making sense of ambition, desire, and damage in a city designed to distract. Readers who want a tidily balanced ensemble or a redemptive arc will likely find it frustrating; those comfortable with moral ambiguity and an uneven but ambitious debut will find much to engage with.
About Coco Mellors: Coco Mellors is a British writer known for her work in fiction and various writing roles, including copywriting, journalism, and scriptwriting. Cleopatra and Frankenstein is her debut novel, published by Bloomsbury.
What are the main themes?: The novel's central themes are the corrosive dynamics of a marriage built on chemistry rather than stability, addiction and its inherited emotional cost, and grief — Frank's mother was an emotionally distant alcoholic, and Cleo's died by suicide. Woven through the personal drama is a satirical interrogation of Downtown Manhattan's creative class: the intersection of art and commerce, the precarious glamour of trust-fund bohemianism, and how a city 'deliberately designed to distract its inhabitants' enables self-destruction. Cleaver Magazine notes that Mellors tackles all of this 'without embarrassment,' refusing to flinch from the uncomfortable.
Is it a good book club pick?: Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a strong book club choice for groups who enjoy debating structural and character choices alongside emotional themes. The decision to skip the courtship entirely and open on the wedding reception — flagged by the Los Angeles Times as a deliberate formal device — invites rich discussion about what Mellors is saying about romantic idealization. The uneven supporting cast (why does Eleanor's storyline succeed where Santiago's and Zoe's tip into caricature?) gives groups a concrete craft question to wrestle with, alongside the novel's harder themes of addiction, grief, and infidelity.

Summarize this book

Is it worth reading?

Who should read this?

About Coco Mellors

What are the main themes?

Is it a good book club pick?

Summarize this book

Cleopatra and Frankenstein opens on New Year's Eve in Manhattan, 2007, when Frank — an award-winning advertising executive with a worsening drinking problem — meets Cleo, an aspiring British painter twenty years his junior, in an elevator ninety minutes before midnight. The novel leaps directly from that charged first encounter to their wedding day six months later, a structural choice the Los Angeles Times notes deliberately renders courtship as a heedless blur. What follows is the slow disintegration of their marriage under the weight of resentment, infidelity, and deep childhood wounds — Frank's mother was an emotionally distant alcoholic, and Cleo's died by suicide — all set against a vividly satirized portrait of Downtown Manhattan's creative class.

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Age & Reading Level

Recommended age

Ages 16+

Reading level

Adult

Browse all 16+ books

Content to know about

alcoholism and addiction

suicide (parental, referenced)

infidelity

emotional neglect and childhood trauma

Best for: Adults / mature 16+ — themes of alcoholism, infidelity, parental suicide, and emotional damage throughout

Skip if you're looking for a hopeful love story or a neatly resolved portrait of marriage

Editorial Review

Coco Mellors' debut novel pairs two magnetic, damaged people — Frank, a successful ad executive with a worsening drinking problem, and Cleo, an aspiring British painter twenty years his junior — whose whirlwind Manhattan marriage unravels under the weight of resentment, infidelity, and unresolved childhood wounds. Published by Bloomsbury, the novel is praised for its wit and emotional ambition, though Publishers Weekly notes it is "involving if strained," with satirical supporting characters that tip into caricature even as an enticing core keeps the novel alive.

Read the Full Review

Books like Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Curated picks for readers who enjoyed Cleopatra and Frankenstein, with our reasoning for each match.

If you liked Cleopatra and Frankenstein

In our catalogue

Demon Copperhead

Barbara Kingsolver

Addiction portrayed with full moral complexity and zero sentimentality — for readers who wanted Frank's alcoholism given more narrative weight and consequence.

If the addiction thread running through Cleopatra and Frankenstein was the part that gripped you most, Demon Copperhead is the deep dive you're looking for. Barbara Kingsolver's Pulitzer-winning novel retells David Copperfield through a boy growing up in the opioid-devastated Appalachian mountains, and it treats substance dependency with a forensic compassion that Frank's storyline gestures toward but doesn't fully commit to. Where Mellors uses alcoholism as one strand in a relationship portrait, Kingsolver makes the systemic machinery of addiction the entire architecture of the book. The prose is warmer, the scope is wider, and the social critique is more explicit — but the emotional core is the same: watching someone you care about make choices that destroy them, and understanding exactly why they keep doing it. A strong pick for anyone Googling 'books about addiction like Cleopatra and Frankenstein'.

Not your thing?

In our catalogue

Half His Age

Jennette McCurdy

If the satirical distance in Cleopatra and Frankenstein kept you from connecting emotionally, this age-gap story is rawer, more confessional, and closer to the bone.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a brilliantly constructed novel, but its satirical lens can keep readers at arm's length — especially readers who wanted to feel the Cleo-Frank relationship rather than observe it from a slight remove. If that emotional distance was your sticking point, Jennette McCurdy's Half His Age is worth picking up instead. McCurdy writes from inside the experience of a younger woman in an unequal relationship with an older man, and the register is confessional and immediate in a way Mellors' third-person omniscience deliberately isn't. There's less structural ornamentation and more raw emotional exposure — you're not watching a character process damage, you're sitting with the narrator while she processes it in real time. For readers who searched 'books like Cleopatra and Frankenstein but more emotional' or felt the novel was too clever for its own heart, this is the right pivot.