Thanks to Tor and Gretchen Felker-Martin for the chance to read ‘Cuckoo’! The cover is almost as good as 'Manhunt' (which, despite my lackluster feelings, will remain in the top of my favorite covers). The description immediately grabbed my attention. I definitely liked the characters more than in Felker-Martin's previous work but this just wasn't for me. I don't tend to enjoy a lot of monster/sci-fi elements and yet I keep trying.

Loved getting to know our main group of characters and was really rooting for them by the end. The pacing was a little unexpected, not reaching the "adult" portion of the timeline until around 70%. We face the horrors of both what these young people are going through at the hands of adults who abuse them for being queer, and the sinister backbone behind what's really driving this conversion therapy camp's operations. In addition to the various references made in this book to similar horror stories, this one reminded me of IT in particular because of the juxtaposition between what the kids who went to this camp see vs. what the rest of the world sees. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, especially in the first 2/3. Some of the sex scenes felt excessive in that they seemed to hyper-sexualize the characters in a way that I did not enjoy. Despite this, I still enjoyed my reading experience overall.

Thank you Net Galley for my arc of Cuckoo! I actually thought this was tied to the upcoming film of the same name and when I found that out I was pretty bummed but read it anyway and it turned out to be pretty damn good all on it's own! Perfect for fans of Chuck Tingle!

This is a hard read because it is horror steeped in reality and the reality is places like this camp where children are gaslighted, belittled, bullied, dehumanized and otherwise treated with utter disrespect and disdain exist. Not only do they exist, parents make the choice to send their children there rather than accept the. For who they are and who they love. This is a powerful and painful horror novel with likable, rebellious young characters that represent a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and sexual identities who come together when their families send them away to be converted by a bunch of cruel religious camp owners and counselors who regularly inflict violence and ridicule onto the children to break their spirits. If this weren’t bad enough sinister supernatural forces are at work to rip into and destroy the main characters. A desperate escape plan is made but in the end not alll will escape this nightmare. A wide eyed stunning read.

DNF at 53%. Desperately wanted to finish this but I have no idea who anyone is and at a certain point stopped caring. Too many characters and I kept going because I thought it’d eventually come to me, but it just sunk me deeper into confusion. I also had a very very hard time grasping what was happening in action scenes. It was simple shit, like describing where we were physically, or how these monsters were speaking/using the bodies of these kids. The camp aspect was fascinating, but even that I found a bit unrealistic? They’ve been kidnapped and taken to an undisclosed location and they’re…doing dishes? Doing oral sex on each other in the middle of the night? Most of the teenagers who come back from those places talk about how they couldn’t even speak to other kids or they’d be punished, so I found this hard to believe. I think it works for the plot that they are rebelling and getting away with it, but in real life, I think they’d face intense consequences more often.

I loved this concept and I really was interested in how these kids end up though. Just not for me. Thanks Netgalley and Publisher for letting me read this eARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

The Thing meets Holes meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets It. I love all of those references and I almost loved this as well. It’s so incredibly descriptive—so much so that it became a little unclear what was happening sometimes—but when it’s good it’s so good. Disgusting and brutal and tender and lovely and just so heartbreaking, even if the ending felt rushed. As with It, I wanted more time with the characters as adults because the ways they evolved and grew apart before coming back together was so compelling. Found family stories never fail to get me and it was so bittersweet watching these characters show courage and love for one another when they often couldn’t muster it for themselves. Okay, maybe I did love it?

This book started out strong and really grabbed me, unfortunately the more I read the less I liked it. The amount of characters and switching of POV made it very confusing.

This book was absolutely freaking wild. I love a good revenge story especially when it deals with someone not being accepting of another person. I can’t wait to keep reading this author

A multi-POV horror novel about queer teens sent to a conversion camp, with a sinister and gruesome twist. Reminiscent of body snatcher horror and Stephen King novels (IT if it was more queer in particular — found family in traumatizing situations!!) Featuring a diverse cast with different sexualities, races, body types and gender identities.

I was instantly drawn to Gretchen Felker-Martin’s descriptive language. The body horror and gore especially was written extremely well. From the beginning, the mysterious identity of the “big bad” fascinated me and kept me on my toes. I enjoyed its cosmic horror origins and the gradual reveal/ discovery of its plan (the lessons very much did creep me out).

The book was very anxiety-inducing, with many intense and uncomfortable scenes. I was terrified and sad and happy throughout so it was definitely an emotional rollercoaster even though I didn’t grow as attached to the characters as I wish I had (though I did shed a tear). I felt like the characters were all utilized well, and despite there being a large main cast, they were all given enough backstory and development to keep me rooting for them. The characters had good chemistry and the dialogue felt authentic and not forced. There were a few side characters (in particular some of the camp staff or the mean girls who I just kept forgetting about) but other than those ones the side characters were interesting and memorable. The villains were well-written to be nefarious and terrible people and definitely left an impression on me.

Having not read much adult horror I was a little put off by all the sexual scenes (especially the sexual violence scenes) and I felt like there were definitely some that could have been excluded. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and will also be checking out Manhunt in the future! Would definitely recommend this book to any queer fans of Stephen King and body horror!

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I think the things this book set out to achieve were very successful, it just wasn’t the book for me. A very diverse queer cast of characters journey to survive a conversation camp. It was horrific and gory. With very vibrant characters. I had a hard time keeping up with the cast even though the audiobook was fully casted. In a different format I may have found this higher rated but my confusion took away from my experience. I did catch my self at times truly admiring the writing of this story . If you enjoy really gory horror and wide cast of characters I would still recommend. Didn’t hate it just didn’t love it either

This was as brutal and difficult to read as I'd hoped, and I mean that in the best way. Felker-Martin's ability to create extremely complex characters that are impossible to simply Like or Dislike is, in my opinion, one of her greatest strengths, and she definitely excelled in that area in Cuckoo. The portrayal of being a queer kid in the 90's was painfully accurate, and the very last scene will forever be stuck in my brain. The folks criticizing the sexual content were apparently never repressed, hormonal teens themselves.

This was SO fun and SO gross. I think it had a real forward trajectory and cohesive story (moreso than Manhunt) and it's a quick read despite the horrors.

A collection of horrific stories that center more on LGBT issues and prejudices. Recommended to read before Pride.

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin was a great, disturbing, bloody read. I had to take a few breaks, but I'm so glad I finished it. Not for the squeamish.

this is Gretchen Felker-Martin's weirdest book yet (complimentary) -- what a wonderful, surrealist premise that absolutely sweeps you up in a whirlwind mix of queer joy and devastation, chosen family, and apocalyptic survival

Warning 1.
Gory, fleshy, goo filled body horror fest! If you aren’t a big fan of paragraph after paragraph of intense body horror written about in-depth with highly descriptive language this may not be the book for you!!

Warning 2.
If you’re homophobic or transphobic or can’t tolerate reading about LGBTQIA people this isn’t the book for you as it’s full of trans, gay and lesbian characters!

A cross between
- invasion of the body snatchers (1956)(1978)
- camp Damascus by Chuck tingle(2023)
- inside out by Lor gislarson (2022)
- The Blob (1958) (1988)

A Christian reform camp takes your problem children who exhibit undesirable sexual orientation, gender identity confusion or other issues for three months and returns them to you a new more respectful, obedient and physically fit version of themselves. A child that is a productive and caring member of your community, church congregation and household rather than the delinquent child that you sent away. Is it too good to be true? Is this really your child or has your child been replaced with a better looking, better behaved and altogether better being and is not your child at all?

A group of LGBTQIA+ teens are about to find out what family really means and what they must to in order to live their lives as their true selfs. In order to not be replaced with a copy that their family’s can love, they must fight for their lives to survive the camp’s harsh conditions, find out what is going on behind closed doors of the camp, what’s happening to fellow campers and fight for their lives to escape.

This book was different than I had expected when starting it. I enjoyed how diverse the cast was and they were still learning about themselves all through the first part of the book. There was a lot of POV switching during chapters which made it difficult to follow when reading.

When I read the description of this I was so excited because this is not a genre I read and the premise sounded great. There is very little that is more horrifying than a conversion camp, so to take it to the next level and spin it into an actual horror novel? I am in, let's go!

The horror imagery was expertly done. You could really feel a lot of what our characters were feeling and the author made sure that all of our senses were engaged. I actually ended up getting a bit nauseous during some of the scenes that were depicted, which means success when it comes to horror writing.

Thanks for the galley!

3.5 stars and my thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the eARC.

I.
I honestly don't know how to review this book. Did I like it? Not really. Did I finish it? Despite my own feelings, I finished it.

The book follows several queer teens in the 90s sent to a conversion camp that sounds like a nightmare even without a supernatural element involved. After surviving, they come back as adults to finally put an end to the camp's reign of terror.

It was gross. It was so fucking gross. Body fluid horror is not what I expected, though from other reviews, that's not unusual in Felker-Martin's books. There was no indication in any of the blubs how fucking disgusting every page of this story would be. I finished this novel, but I don't think Gretchen Felker-Martin is an author I'll return to in the future.

Like her previous novel <i>Manhunt</i> Gretchen Felker-Martin's <i>Cuckoo</i> delivers on its promise of butt-kicking, queer and somewhat imperfect heroes, attempting to escape both otherworldly horrors and the everyday horrors of an unaccepting society. Set in a conversion camp for queer teens in the 1990s, and featuring plenty of gore and guts, I would recommend this book to fans of Felker-Martin's previous work, anyone who likes their horror extra gross, and those who can handle a little messiness and uncertainty in their fiction. This one isn't going to be tied up in a neat bow for you but you will be rewarded with a nuanced take on who the true monsters are.