Cuckoo

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars | 115 ratings

Price: 21.65

Last update: 11-07-2024


About this item

This program features multicast narration.

From Gretchen Felker-Martin, the acclaimed author of Manhunt, comes a vicious new novel about a group of teens who must stay true to themselves while in a conversion camp from hell.

"A soaring, boundless ode to queer survival. It's flat-out mesmerizing."—Paul Tremblay, author of The Pallbearers Club

Something evil is buried deep in the desert. It wants your body. It wears your skin.

In the summer of 1995, seven queer kids abandoned by their parents at a remote conversion camp came face to face with it. They survived—but at Camp Resolution, everybody leaves a different person.

Sixteen years later, only the scarred and broken survivors of that terrible summer can put an end to the horror before it's too late.

The fate of the world depends on it.

“Tense and frighteningly visceral, Cuckoo is a masterwork of body horror thrumming with high octane viciousness.”—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire.


Top reviews from the United States

Jenny
5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult read but so good
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2024
Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin is a very dark horror about a group of queer kids whose parents send to a conversion camp. There, they are tormented by a religious group who run the camp to try and "fix" them. And if that evil wasn't enough, there's something else haunting them.

This was such an amazing story and really starts off with a bang! There was so much going on that was twisted and cringey, and I felt like I was holding my breath through the entire story. There are some really hard scenes to read, so please check triggers. The entire story felt like a fever dream, and I really enjoyed it. It's in multiple povs. I love the diverse group of the queer cast represented.

I listened to this one on audiobook, and I would very much recommend it. It had a multicast narration that brought the characters to life.
Ashley
4.0 out of 5 stars Terrifying and Emotional
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2024
I rated this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Cuckoo follows a group of kids who are sent to a religious conversion camp by their families who want to "fix" them. After a few days being worked to complete exhaustion, the kids start hearing a voice in their dreams and notice that the ones who are sent to the mountains at the end of their stint come back as completely different people...and they realize they need to escape or they will cease to exist as the people they truly are.

This story started out with a bang in the prologue; lots of body horror and gore, which definitely was terrifying and set the tone for the rest of the novel. After that we meet various characters, and learn their tragic back stories about how they were ripped from their homes and sent to this camp to "convert" them into the kids their parents wished they had. It was extremely triggering and depressing to see how these kids went through this, and felt so alone and unloved. Once at the camp, the horror picks up again. It definitely felt like a combination of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and It. I do think this was more of an LGBTQIA+ verison of It, with the kids fighting this monster that no one believes exists, only to come back and finish what they started years after the fact when they were adults. Overall it was very emotional, the horror scenes were very terrifying and graphic, and the plot was very well-fleshed out.

I did get a bit confused at times, as a couple of the characters were trans, so they were referred to multiple times either by their names given at birth or their chosen names. There also were a lot of characters in general to keep track of, so that was just another level of complexity added to the story. Also, I do feel parts of this book dragged on past the 50% mark, and there wasn't a lot of growth from the characters as they got older, which I would have liked to see since I felt an emotional connection to some of them from the beginning. The ending also seemed a bit rushed, and if some of the fluff was removed and more attention added to the ending instead, this would have been a 5-star read for me.

Overall this was an emotional roller-coaster and I enjoyed it a lot.
Elyse Roberts
3.0 out of 5 stars Not quite horror
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2024
This book is horror, but it is less scary and more gory. I don't want to say "gross-out" bc I don't want anyone to think I am alluding that gay sex scenes are "gross", but the sex scenes are VERY numerous and VERY graphic. This includes sex scenes WITH the monsters. Wasn't for me.
PReads
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and devastating
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2024
I’m writing this with tears drying on my cheeks.

I haven’t read Manhunt so I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. The prologue could stand as its own short story, but is a hell of a bit of foreshadowing. We know exactly what the kids in the novel are going to face but the slow, dread-building pacing as they creep closer to that revelation is addictive.
S. Mahaffey
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2024
Felix, Gabriel, Joanna, John, Malcolm, Nadine, and Shelby find themselves in the middle of the desert at Camp Resolution, They expect the usual conversion camp treatments. They are queer teenagers and find that the camp is church-run. They find themselves in the middle of a desert. They discover that there is something else in the desert but what is it? That something wants their bodies and identities. There are some in the camp who do not seem to be the same when they have graduated and now going home. What has happened? Will the seven teenagers survive the conversion camp? They decide that they must escape the camp but are not sure how they will do it. They separate on their own ways to live and try to forget what they saw. Felix gets them together to kill what wanted their bodies. Will they succeed?

The author has written a horror story. This may not be an easy book to read as it includes a conversion camp, transphobia, queer phobia, child abuse, allusions to childhood sexual abuse, and gore. At times, it was hard for me to think of what I have heard about conversion camps. I do think that this novel is good as it gives you a chance to see how teenagers deal with these “problems.” It’s a great way to discuss and discover what should be done that is still not being done.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author/publisher from Netgalley. I wasn’t obligated to write a favorable review. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

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