![Amazon prime logo](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/marketing/prime/new_prime_logo_RGB_blue._CB426090081_.png)
Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Learn more
1.27 mi | ASHBURN 20147
![Kindle app logo image](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/app/kindle-app-logo._CB668847749_.png)
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/grey-pixel.gif)
Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
-
-
VIDEO
-
Follow the author
OK
Cuckoo Paperback – June 11, 2024
Purchase options and add-ons
An instant USA Today bestseller!
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
Also by Gretchen Felker-Martin:
Manhunt
Black Flame
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTor Nightfire
- Publication dateJune 11, 2024
- Dimensions5.4 x 0.9 x 11.5 inches
- ISBN-101250794668
- ISBN-13978-1250794666
Frequently bought together
![Cuckoo](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81hZDDQ0aSL._AC_UL116_SR116,116_.jpg)
Similar items that may ship from close to you
- Horror Movie: A NovelHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
- Bury Your GaysHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
- We Used to Live Here: A NovelHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
- Camp DamascusHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
- Incidents Around the House: A NovelHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Friday, Jul 26
From the Publisher
![Cuckoo Gretchen Felker-Martin Roxanne Gay quote](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/87acbe3b-5ef4-4fc7-810e-910c7c3c83a9.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg)
![Cuckoo Gretchen Felker-Martin Paul Trembly quote](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/554ea66f-cd46-4ba1-bb15-525f365c70b0.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg)
![Cuckoo Gretchen Felker-Martin Hailey Piper quote](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/6882ed08-9d75-45f0-b5df-6f381870d378.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg)
![Cuckoo Gretchen Felker-Martin Eric LaRocca quote](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/40602763-a583-43ed-8bc1-ce7b26655605.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg)
![Cuckoo Gretchen Felker-Martin Carmen Maria Machado quote](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/9d39f32f-9468-4f57-a4e2-0d8e790b6901.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg)
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Cuckoo is, like Felker-Martin's previous novel Manhunt, absolutely masterful. It is gory and horrifying and brash. It is a parable slicked with blood and viscera. It is a condemnation of the ways the world tries to force queer people to become shadows of themselves by abandoning who they are. This book will leave you gasping and yearning, and it will stay on your mind long after you turn the last page."
―ROXANE GAY, New York Times bestselling author of The Bad Feminist
"Cuckoo is a breathtaking novel of body horror; a heartbreaking, angry, terrifying, unflinching indictment of Christian America's cruelty; and it's a soaring, boundless ode to queer survival. It's flat-out mesmerizing."
―PAUL TREMBLAY, author of The Pallbearers Club
“[An] ambitious and devastating coming-of-age tale...Laying bare grief, terror, and the tenderness that makes it all matter, this is horror at its best.”
―PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED review)
“One of the most important voices in modern horror.”
―PASTE MAGAZINE
"Cuckoo is a cry of grief and rage and, at its heart, a tribute to the queers who cup their hands around the guttering flame of hope and refuse to let it die. Brutal, relentless, terrifying, startlingly beautiful―I dare you to put this novel down.”
―CARMEN MARIA MACHADO, author of Her Body and Other Parties
"Beyond being just a really fucking good horror novel, Cuckoo is monumentally important. Felker-Martin wrote a gut-twisting banger of a book that makes fleshy the anti-trans movement."
―CHELSEA G. SUMMERS, author of A Certain Hunger
“A great work of horror.”
―NPR
“Tense and frighteningly visceral, Cuckoo is a masterwork of body horror thrumming with the high octane viciousness of a Richard Laymon novel while maintaining the literary sophistication of a piece penned by Clive Barker or Poppy Z. Brite.”
―ERIC LAROCCA, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
“Felker-Martin’s action-packed and intricately plotted second novel fairly vibrates with rage at those who seek to harm or fail to protect queer kids…. Kaleidoscopic and precise and suitably gross.”
―BOOKLIST
“Vividly gruesome and carefully observed, Cuckoo will be splattered across the inside of your skull long after you’ve set it down. Beneath the viscera and relentless prose, a vital heart beats within.”
―ANDREW F. SULLIVAN, author of The Marigold
"An instantly absorbing battle cry. Felker-Martin nests seamless psychic links with Lisa Tuttle and Stephen King, forming her unique nightmarish bear trap and fighting it with sustained, justified rage. Through all of Cuckoo's visceral brutality, it's the moments of kindness and bravery that broke my heart."
―HAILEY PIPER, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth
"A queer conversion camp thriller that is truly terrifying to read. Felker-Martin writes with sensitivity and righteous fury about the many torments the teenage characters are forced to endure in the name of heteronormativity."
―CRIMEREADS
"Cuckoo is vile, repulsive, putrid, and utterly without restraint―a relentless assault on the senses. I devoured every word, and they devoured me. Filthy, degenerate art at its finest."
―HIRON ENNES, author of Leech
"This vivid, unsettling, character-rich novel grabs you by the throat and won't let go."
―LUCY A. SNYDER, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Sister, Maiden, Monster
"With her newest book, Felker-Martin appoints herself the new High Priestess of splatter. Cuckoo serves up frantic action, cosmic body horror, and a level of profane, lusty carnage that would put a fundie in intensive care. And at the center of it all is a story of love, hate, and sacrifice that spares no suffering, but takes no pity. Bring tissues and a raincoat."
―TONY TULATHIMUTTE, author of Private Citizens
"Cuckoo is a nest of guts so red and inviting you'll find yourself slurping out of it like pasta before you know what's in your mouth. No other author can make the beautiful so grotesque, nor the grotesque so beautiful."
―MEG ELISON, author of Number One Fan
“I’ve been waiting impatiently for Felker-Martin’s next book since the millisecond I put down Manhunt and I wasn’t disappointed. Cuckoo is equal parts intensely tender and turbulently gross. Well-observed, enthrallingly paced, and downright brutal exactly where it needs to be.”
―MATTIE LUBCHANSKY, author of Boys Weekend
"Cuckoo is the gory, gooey, visceral horror story our present moment demands. It's an exploration of survival and loss in the teeth of interlocking material systems of violence like transphobia, homophobia, and racism. And it's also a radically queer homage to―or reimagining of!―some much-beloved genre classics, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers."
―LEE MANDELO, author of Summer Sons
"Burning with rage and sick as hell in the best way, Cuckoo is only further evidence that Felker-Martin is one of the best horror novelists working today. All hail the queen of body horror!"
―MAX BOOTH III, author of Abnormal Statistics
"Visceral, vivid, intense, and intensely memorable, Cuckoo is a remarkable and beautiful story of horror and queer justice."
―RYAN NORTH, author of Dinosaur Comics
"Felker Martin is a master of building tension, and of illustrating the horrors that play out all around queer and trans people every day. Cuckoo is required reading for any thriller fan."
―AUBREY GORDON, Your Fat Friend
"Cuckoo is brutal, confrontational, and gory, yet every page is informed by deep compassion. A compressed epic of oppression, revenge, and solidarity."
―NABEN RUTHNUM, author of Helpmeet
"With its wonderfully drawn cast of characters, Cuckoo deftly slips beneath your skin and squeezes your heart before violently erupting into something rotten and razor-toothed. A ferocious read, and an incredible follow-up to Manhunt."
―TREVOR HENDERSON, author of Scarewaves
"Felker-Martin's Cuckoo is as grotesque as it should be, but the weakness the monster exploits is human longing, human empathy, human love. The monster haunts our protagonists for decades through their yearning to see each other and be seen, a yearning which transcends their brokenness. I am more haunted by this book’s beauty and generosity than by the titular monster and its faceless vessels."
―MAYA DEANE, author of Wrath Goddess Sing
Praise for Manhunt:
#1 Best Book of 2022 (Vulture) • A Best Horror Novel of All Time (Cosmopolitan) • One of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 (Esquire, Library Journal, Paste, and CrimeReads) • A Top 10 Horror Debuts of 2022 (Booklist) • A Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Horror • A Best Book of 2022 (Tor.com) • A Best SFF Book of 2022 (Gizmodo)
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Tor Nightfire (June 11, 2024)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250794668
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250794666
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.4 x 0.9 x 11.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #85,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #38 in LGBTQ+ Horror Fiction (Books)
- #4,641 in Horror Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Gretchen Felker-Martin](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/u6amul4ug3uvkklis3le8v0on9._SY600_.jpg)
Gretchen Felker-Martin is a horror author and film critic living in Massachusetts.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
![A grisly and evocative novel](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/transparent-pixel._V192234675_.gif)
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
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.
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.
Even though you don't quite get the description of the monster chasing them, what you do "see" is horrible and grotesque, which I was here for. I did enjoy the idea of it whispering under the floorboards; it was creepy! You could feel the panic and desperation of the characters. It was as if something was always there, with glowing eyes and teeth watching everything. The horror scenes were superb and terrifying.
The author captured the camp's oppressive atmosphere and the desert's desolation. The writing explores horror that affects all your senses, whether you want it or not. Emotional descriptions of the abuse the characters endured were heartbreaking, which shed light on the emotional trauma of not being safe to be who you are.
Considering the number of characters, I had trouble with all the shifting POVs. I felt lost and had a hard time keeping up. I also thought that the explicit sexual encounters took away from the story and were in weird places in the storyline.
The suspenseful moments will keep the readers engaged. This novel is for anyone interested in LGBTQ+ issues, horror, and mystery thrillers.