As an English student who loves reading but never has the time to read for pleasure during term time, the one thing that I always love about our stupidly long vacs is the ability to re-immerse myself in a good book – one not on ANY sort of reading list. And that is how I found myself devouring both of Coco Mellors’ books Cleopatra and Frankenstein and Blue Sisters in an intensive reading stint over the first week of the summer vac.
I had, of course, already heard lots about her debut novel Cleopatra and Frankenstein, appealing enough just from its inventive title, and had it already sitting on my shelf for months prior, just begging to be read by me. With its beautifully designed cover – adorning a striking oil painting of a woman, a style she also adopts for her next novel (both painted by Gill Button), I was drawn to it from the get go. Later, I even managed to get my hands on a first edition signed copy of Blue Sisters from my local Waterstones. So when a resurgence of internet praise for Mellors occurred following the release of her second novel Blue Sisters at the end of May, I knew it was time to delve into her world at last. And it certainly didn’t disappoint.
Coco Mellors appeals to me primarily in the way she writes her characters. Don’t get me wrong, her descriptions of places – specifically cities, from LA to New York to London – and her use of metaphorical language certainly gives the novel’s depiction of everyday events a particularly alluring quality. However, it is the “real” way in which she constructs her characters that keeps me reading her work. She recognises this herself, claiming she is ‘extremely character driven as a writer’1. And we see this in her great feat of tackling seven different narrative perspectives in Cleopatra and Frankenstein, when it would certainly have been easier, and more predictable, to focus solely on the two protagonists’ point of view.
In an age where the modern novel is taking over, with authors like Sally Rooney leading the pack, I can see why Mellors’ novels are so popular. In a similar way to Rooney, her characters are all flawed and far from perfect, and she presents relationships in a muddled and messy manner, her love-ridden characters divided between choices and ensuing chaos at every turn. Every character she writes is different, yet, nevertheless, I found a way of relating to every one of them. In Cleopatra and Frankenstein I resonated with Cleo’s yearning to be free, both from the life she is currently leading and from the shackles of her complicated past that led her there. But I also sympathised with Frank’s desire to embody the role of the caregiver and leader that is demanded of him (similar to Avery in Blue Sisters), his love for Cleo impacting his ability to reason and leading him down a darker path that we eagerly watch him claw back from.
Mellors excels in her understanding of addiction, creating characters that are as addictive as the substances that plague them. In an interview with The Guardian, Mellor declares that “Addiction is a theme I never really chose to write about, but I cannot escape it.”2 In both of her novels, addiction and the world of alcohol and drugs certainly overshadows her characters and their lives. First, in Cleopatra and Frankenstein we see how addiction and love become closely intertwined, and we unpick the toxicity of the art industry world and how it perpetuates these addictions. Now, in Blue Sisters, we see how addiction can be biological, passed down through generations and notably here amongst sisters from their alcoholic father. We see how the four Blue girls tackle their respective addictions: alcoholism, drugs, kleptomania, pain, but also love – the most addictive of them all. Mellors doesn’t gloss over these hard truths of life, we travel with the characters to AA meetings, hospital rooms, and rehab facilities. We have hope for them to get better despite all that is stacked against them. We see all sides of it, some recovering fully, others trading one addiction for another, some relapsing and then trying sobriety again, and others never becoming able to escape the clutches of their addiction. And this vividly real approach makes sense when you take into account Mellors’ own struggles with addiction: “I’ve been sober for eight years and I come from a family of addicts and alcoholics, almost all of whom are sober as well, so I was interested in writing about addiction in families”. We hate her characters and we love them. We want to reach through the pages and help them get better, so we read on, hoping they help themselves, or at least one another.
In Blue Sisters, the central thread of the narrative is the passing of one of the Blue sisters, Nicky, which occurs before the timeline of the novel begins. We are reading about the repercussions of this death, and the way in which grief has manifested in the remaining sisters. Though dark and saddening, there are moments of light and love that keep the novel from becoming downright depressing. It’s this sisterly love that they share for one another that is the real foundation to this novel, and despite how their relationships with one another fluctuate, they always return to one another in the end, as family always does.
Cleopatra and Frankenstein was certainly a labour of love for Mellors, taking over five years to write. For a debut novel, I have to commend her; you can really see the time and love she put into it. And even though Blue Sisters took her nowhere near as long, you can tell she pours a lot of herself into this novel as well, taking time to craft it so meticulously that everything intertwines and plays out so succinctly. She says herself that her debut ‘was the best I could have possibly done for a first book. So I still stand with it, even with all its flaws.’ 3 I certainly think she also comes into her own more in her second novel, likely learning much from the experiences of her first and channelling these newly learnt skills into the narrative. With her currently working on a third novel, I am curious to see where she takes us next. I hope it’s just as gripping and pulls on my heartstrings the way her first two novels have.