Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Cleopatra and Frankenstein (2022) is Coco Mellors’s debut novel and is currently being adapted into a television series by Warner Bros, Inc. The novel explores modern love, the pressures and debauchery of the wealthy, and the conflict between youth and age. Written mostly in third person, Cleopatra and Frankenstein centers on 24-year-old Cleo and 45-year-old Frank, two broken people who find one another in a passionate and loving fling. With secondary characters to bring diverse perspectives to the novel’s central themes, Mellors creates a glittery Manhattan world that looks pretty but is rotting from the inside.

This guide references the 2022 Bloomsbury Publishing hardcover edition.

Content Warning: This novel includes discussions of drug abuse and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

On New Year’s Eve in New York City, Cleo and Frank meet on an elevator exiting a party. Frank is in his forties, a handsome and successful creative director of his own advertising agency. Cleo is in her twenties, a broke artist who is coming up on the expiration of her student visa and is desperate not to return to a broken family in England. Cleo and Frank immediately click, and their sexual relationship turns into a romance. Only a few months later, Cleo and Frank get married. No one pretends that this marriage is not one of convenience so that Cleo can get her Green Card. Even so, Cleo and Frank are genuinely in love with one another.

Not everyone is supportive of Cleo and Frank’s marriage. Cleo’s gay best friend Quentin is jealous of the time Cleo spends with Frank, and Frank’s young half sister, Zoe, is wary of Cleo’s intentions and access to Frank’s money.

As the weeks after their marriage go on, Frank and Cleo learn more and more about one another. Cleo notes that Frank parties a lot and is often drunk. Cleo stops taking her medication for depression, a condition she inherited from her mother, who died by suicide when Cleo was in college. Cleo sinks into her own depressive tendencies, worrying Frank.

Quentin gets involved with a mysterious man named Alex, who gets him hooked deeper into drugs. Zoe struggles with financing her lifestyle. While Frank has long provided for her, Zoe’s recently been cut off. She can’t pay off her outings in New York City while still being an acting student. Zoe tries to avoid Cleo, but eventually the two young women find common ground and become friends.

Frank’s best friend Anders pines after Cleo. They slept together right after Cleo met Frank when she and Frank weren’t necessarily exclusive. Even though it was a one-night stand, Cleo and Anders often think of that night. Both Anders and Cleo keep it a secret, so Frank won’t find out.

At Frank’s advertising agency, Eleanor, a new copywriter, starts a temp job. Eleanor was living in Los Angeles, writing for television, but moved back in with her mother in New Jersey. Eleanor’s father is sick, and her job in the city gives her the ability to help take care of her father. Eleanor quickly falls in love with Frank. They have a natural banter and make each other laugh. Cleo suspects that Frank is in love with Eleanor when she reads their email exchange.

As the weeks go on, Frank and Cleo fight more and more, mostly about Frank’s drinking. Frank, desperate to make Cleo happy, gets her a pet: a sugar glider. Cleo is thrilled about the sugar glider, and for a moment, Frank and Cleo come together to take care of another living thing. But one night, Frank gets drunk and forgets to close the toilet bowl, so the sugar glider falls in the water and drowns.

When Frank goes to South Africa for a few weeks on a job assignment, Cleo has an affair with Anders. She tells Anders she wants to leave Frank. When she doesn’t, Anders, heartbroken, moves to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Frank’s drinking and Cleo’s depression get worse. Cleo attempts to die by suicide by slitting her wrists in Frank’s apartment. Frank finds her, and Cleo gets hospitalized. Cleo’s life is saved, but her and Frank’s relationship is over.

Cleo moves in with Quentin, but when Alex moves in too, she quickly moves out. Cleo attends an art show for an ex-boyfriend, where she gets high and drunk and dumps a bucket of ice water on Anders. Meanwhile, Zoe, to pay off her credit card debt without asking her brother for help, joins an escort service. The first man she meets on the service, Jiro, pays her only for her companionship. They develop a close friendship, and Zoe reconsiders how she’s been thinking about herself, intimacy, and her future.

Cleo moves out of New York when she gets an art fellowship in Rome. Eleanor’s father dies and she decides to start living more for herself. She’s long quit the agency to avoid Frank but reaches out to him. Frank starts visiting her in New Jersey, and they quickly start dating. A script proposal Eleanor created for an animated television show is accepted, and she starts a new life with Frank. Eleanor encourages Frank to reach out to Cleo, who is clearly broken and in need of a family.

Frank visits Cleo in Rome. She’s doing well: She’s back on her antidepressants, she likes the European lifestyle, and she spends her days committed to making art with other artists. She’s jealous of Frank’s new relationship but ultimately happy for him—Frank has stopped drinking and seems lighter. Frank and Cleo agree that they’ll always have love for one another. They’ll get divorced but will remain as close as family.