A Lover’s Note to Uncomfortable Truths: Cleopatra and Frankenstein Reviewed

This piece was originally published in the August 2025 issue of Pandora Curated.

Illustration by Mukta Nitin Desai

Often, it is the books chosen on a whim that linger with you the longest. That was my experience with Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors. It was the bittersweet and painful portrayal of modern, aspirational life that refused to let me leave it unfinished. 

Coco Mellors’ debut novel, Cleopatra and Frankenstein, centres on two main characters: Cleo—a beautiful 24-year-old British artist with an expiring student visa—and Frank—a charming 45-year-old advertising executive with emotional baggage. The two meet in an elevator on New Year's Eve in New York City. 

Cleo’s beauty and allure initially attract Frank, evidenced by a line in the book, “And it was a performance, her face.” They date for a few months, and those months lead to a hasty marriage—as Cleo’s student visa is nearing expiration and she needs a green card—which the rest of the book grapples with. 

Mellors’ rich and descriptive language elevates her character-driven narrative. For example, Frank’s wedding vow was nothing short of  poetic: “When the darkest part of you meets the darkest part of me, it creates light.” 

Mellors’ work builds on the literary lineage of the “New York novel”, leveraging the style and preferred setting of renowned authors like Joan Didion, Jay McInerney, and Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar). However, her genre of work is more closely associated with contemporary authors like Sally Rooney (Normal People), Ottessa Moshfegh (My Year of Rest and Relaxation), Rachel Cusk (Outline), Hanya Yanagihara (A Little Life), Raven Leilani (Luster), and Zadie Smith (White Teeth). Mellors combines Sally Rooney’s evocative writing and Zadie Smith’s sharp social observation to produce a broad commentary on society, structures and culture.

The essence of the book is perfectly encapsulated within a conversation between Cleo, Zoe (Frank’s half sister) and Audrey (Cleo’s close friend and former roommate). Zoe recalls a story about a man falling into a hole and several people—a Rabbi, a priest, a politician, a psychiatrist, a nihilist, a spiritualist—urge the person to get out of the hole through their understanding of life. To this, Cleo says, “The hole is loneliness […] You can’t stand above someone and tell them to get out of it. Or teach or preach it out of them. You have to be in it with them [...] That’s why it’s a riddle. Someone else being in the hole with you means you’re no longer in the hole.”

A Love Letter to Reality: Themes Reviewed

Nathan Englander, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, reviews the book as “a love letter to New York”, but that description only partially captures its thematic breadth. Though the choice of the city accelerates—and celebrates to a certain extent—the anxieties and aspirations of the characters, it may be more befitting to read the book as a love letter to the reality of human connection and longing. 

Cleo’s struggle with loneliness, depression and belonging amidst a foreign land digs deeper scars for her. Mellors writes, “That was the real inheritance from her mother, she thought, more defining than any facial feature or mannerism. They both wanted to disappear.” Personal grief, coupled with cultural displacement, is what triggered Cleo to seek shelter from a man twenty-something years older than her. The line, “He became the hook upon which she hung her whole self”, aptly describes her dependence on him. 

Quentin, a Polish-American and Cleo’s best friend, also struggles with seeking his own identity. His relationship with Cleo builds on shared experiences and understanding since they both have complex familial relationships and his charismatic and protective nature provides her solace. 

Quentin and Audrey, Cleo’s bold, loyal friend and former roommate, provide Cleo with support and camaraderie.

Frank, too, had a complicated relationship with his estranged father and emotionally unavailable mother. The burden of being a provider entails heavy responsibility and expectations, which he struggles to cope with. Alcohol provides temporary respite but permanently damages his relationship with his wife. 

Additionally, Zoe, his 20-year-old half-sister, is emotionally and financially dependent on him, similar to Cleo. Zoe navigates personal autonomy and self-worth in the dynamic urban landscape. In her search for stability and autonomy, she turns to sugar dating as a means of survival after being financially cut off from her family. 

Zoe’s introduction to Jiro—a man she meets on a dating website—prompts her to rethink her choices and priorities. Jiro’s wisdom and care towards Zoe are exhibited through this painfully enlightening dialogue: “Who knows what you will be? You are still becoming.”

Through Eleanor, Mellors sheds light on the struggles of mental illness and ruthless beauty standards. Eleanor’s relationship with her body is very aptly described through a line in her section of the book: “Finally, I stand in front of the mirror, and I see…soft belly, coarse hair, thin lips, thick waist. I am a Jewish man in drag.”

Each character’s amplified pain ripples outwards and affects their social groups, an example of how trauma and pain are connected in communities. 

Constructing the Modern Love: Power Dynamics Reviewed

Love may be liberating or imprisoning. For Cleo and Frank, it was marked by a perpetual tension between Cleo’s fierce independence and Frank’s desire to provide for her. 

The power dynamics between the duo are established in the initial chapter. The big age gap combined with the material imbalance poses pertinent questions about authority, control and boundaries. Additionally, Frank’s refusal to disclose his age, understood through these lines, foreshadows his problematic tendencies: 

“I’m older than you. My generation had to memorize these things in school.”

“How old?”

“Older. What’s your name?”

Frank’s—nicknamed Frankenstein—emotional volatility, alcohol addiction, paternalistic tendencies, material dominance, and unresolved trauma bring him to the verge of personifying the monster his nickname conveys. 

Cleo stands in a weaker and more vulnerable position in the story in comparison to her husband. She finds herself frustrated with the pressure to conform to assigned roles of being ‘Frank’s wife’ or ‘the beautiful muse. ’

Her desire to reclaim power and shape her narrative is seen through acts of self-exploration, resistance, and even self-destruction.

This novel challenges a pertinent assumption surrounding heteronormative relationships: that they are the ultimate form of attaining meaning, comfort, support and love. She charts out various non-romantic connections (through the supporting characters in the story) that offer Cleo the same level, perhaps more, of connection, love and intimacy.

The City as a Character: New York’s Role Reviewed

The novel is set in New York City, which plays an active role in mimicking the characters’ emotional chaos. Mellors’ fast-paced, aspirational, 21^st-century New York highlights deep social fragmentation and alienation.

New York City serves as an echo-chamber of emotional turbulence, highlighting the city as a site of financial inequality, social fragmentation and hyper-competitiveness. For example, Zoe’s choice of engaging in sugar dating highlights the commodification of love and the insecurity of survival in neoliberal cities. Additionally, Eleanor’s thoughts mimic the emotional instability, which is magnified by the city:

“I need to make money. I need to write today. I need to clean the bathroom. I need to eat something. I need to quit sugar. I need to cut my hair. I need to call Verizon. I need to savor the moment. I need to find the library card. […] I need to develop a relationship with a God of my understanding.”

The promise of ‘reinvention’ offered by the city—through stories like Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion, Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney, or even the New York Trilogy by Paul Auster—becomes about survival in this novel and not self-actualization as intended. 

Cleo’s precarious visa status and immigration into the country are a poignant reflection of the uncertainty of belonging in today’s world. Her apprehension reflects the anxieties of millions of others around the world living on borrowed time and borrowed papers. 

New York exposes the struggles of identity, success, and purpose, which are emblematic of the 21^st-century metropolitan experience.

Love, Loss and Last Words: Final Reflections Reviewed

One can love someone deeply yet not be good for them. Coco Mellors’ debut was a sobering reminder of the humanness of life. Cleopatra and Frankenstein blend intimate emotional battles with dominant cultural forces, highlighting the struggles of loneliness, vulnerability and estrangement amidst the merciless churn of capitalism.

While the numerous perspectives of Mellors’ ensemble provide nuanced perspectives on gender, trauma, and mental health, the shifts diffuse the emotional intensity, making the secondary characters serve mere symbolic purposes. 

Mellors’ refusal to provide a satisfying conclusion places the book in the theme of raw realism, rarely offered in genres of love and romance. 

This book is a must-read for people who are passionate about literary fiction rooted in urban realities. I found Mellors’ debut to be a balanced blend of social commentary, isolation in the urban sphere and emotional depth.

Her writing style is characterised by complex, vibrant and intimate characters by employing multiple perspectives. Her works are politically and socially conscious, inclining her towards the genre of realist, contemporary and modern themes. I highly recommend this book to young adults and adults who prefer reading realistic books over those with fairy-tale endings. 

Ultimately, Coco Mellors’ debut, Cleopatra and Frankenstein, is not just a love letter to love and loss, but a confrontation of uncomfortable truths and the messy realities of life. Though this novel centres on love, it also addresses all that love must withstand to sustain: difference, decay, connection, and change.

Edited by the Curated Editorial Team

Harnoor Kaur Uppal (she/her), an undergraduate student of Global Affairs with a minor in Public Policy, is a writer at Pandora Curated. Her research interests lie at the confluence of media, politics and cultural studies, with a particular focus on the preservation of tribal identities and indigenous knowledge systems and their living traditions.

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