A review by takecoverbooks
Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 Let’s get this out of the way early: Cuckoo’s title, theme, and subject are undeniably well-trodden narrative tropes. Now, with the familiar-sounding dust jacket synopsis appropriately lamp-shaded, I want to sing Gretchen Felker-Martin’s praises. The author has proven she’s no stranger to rekindling the embers of burned-out ideas. Cuckoo is no different.

Without spoiling too much, Cuckoo immediately ups the ante on gay conversion camp narratives. While not denuding the novel of empathy, Felker-Martin refuses to sugarcoat the craven and hateful ideologies, social pressures, internalized hatred, religious zealotry, and other contributing infanticidal factors urging parents to submit their children to the psychological and physical torture of denying fundamental pieces of who they are.

It’s not all dour, though: Cuckoo saves its empathy for the kids comprising its list of protagonists. These young characters are wonderful: flawed, funny, sympathetic, and sketched with efficient depth. Consequently, Felker-Martin makes you dread your genre expectations eventually being met.

Which brings me to my final point: this book kicks ass. It’s well-paced, packed with unspeakable horrors, and poignantly insightful in its observations of the violence humans are only too happy to inflict upon one another. Seriously, just read it.  
Expand filter menu Content Warnings