Barbara’s Pick
November 2024
Cleopatra and Frankenstein
Coco Mellors
Bloomsbury Publishing, January 30, 2024
I’d been on the waitlist for a month or so when this became available, and I thought, how timely since I would be writing this around Halloween. But until I read it I would have no idea how well the title would relate to the characters. (She was a great beauty and he could be a monster–but actually, they were Halloween costumes.)
Cleo, a painter, and Frank, an advertising executive, meet in an elevator as both are leaving a New Year’s Eve party–she to go home, since she is broke, and he to get some more ice. He winds up walking her all over New York City and they somehow know they are meant to be together, especially since her green card is expiring. They quickly marry and then the trouble begins because they hardly know each other.
The author brings the reader along to show how both Cleo and Frank’s families and close friends have contributed to the awful childhoods and the adult lives’ house of cards. The most honest voice is a copywriter Frank was forced to hire; she may also have been the funniest voice.
By the end of the novel, the reader sees hope for Cleo and Frank, and no hard feelings. So not a happy ending, but a real one.