Reviews with content warning for Dysphoria - Cuckoo

Reviews tagging 'Dysphoria'

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

4 reviews

shrikebait's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Cuckoo is a love letter to queer resistance.

Felker-Martin explores so many diverse, distinct, and developed characters while maintaining an easy-to-follow central narrative. I especially loved the unflinching examination of gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia as these kids battle both internal and external demons.

There is so much packed into these pages that I thought the book was longer than it actually is...in a good way. I found the details immersive and delighted when they pay off.

I'm grateful to Tor Nightfire for the chance to check this ARC out for free. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.

Content Warnings

clarke's review against another edition

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dark 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? It's complicated

3.75

Beginning in the 90s, Cuckoo follows a handful of queer kids kidnapped and taken to a conversion camp in the middle of nowhere, for the crime of being themselves. They’re subjected to gruelling work and torment from the camp staff, alongside internal and external prejudice. As they’re consistently beaten down, their mental health suffers further from strange dreams and even stranger creature. The kids become a family intent on fighting back against the hate, abuse, and the blooming mortality - queer kids are dying and nobody cares. They’re expendable, with their families already wishing they were different, the camp latches on and takes advantage in more ways than one.

Cuckoo cruelly explores the abuse these kids face at the hands of pretty much everyone and everything in their lives. It's overflowing with fatphobia, internalised homophobia, and descriptions of kids genitals, sexual acts, and sexual imagery. Its detailed descriptions of their bodies and sexual activity was repugnant and gratuitous, serving more like fodder for paedophiles than any other narrative purpose. It also had multiple extremely detailed references to period sex, alongside frequent rape/SA. The violence and abuse continues this exploitation, leaving the kids begging for the end. It's also rife with pop culture references, and is clearly heavily influenced by horror icons, most notably Stephen King and Clive Barker, and beloved media, being incredibly similar to IT with a dose of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Thing - though it is self aware enough to note this influence.

The book has a strong start but then volleys the pace between captivating action and drudging slowness. The horrors return to the group as adults, again similar to IT, except with less mocking and more drugs for a quick and tidy ending. There is a horde of characters, with POVs from a few, but I found they were not too distinguishable from each other. I enjoyed the supernatural horror, and the pervasive abuse the kids are subject to was done well. There was WAY too much gratuitous sex, outnumbering Stephen King with descriptions of children's genitalia. The queer identities were rigorously explored, though the internalised queerphobia was too heavy handed, as was the fatphobia - god forbid someone with a bit of extra weight be deserving of love - both things I had issue with in Manhunt. I prefer Cuckoo of the two (as you can probably tell by the fact I finished it): the story is more compelling and the issues were handled better. I love all horror, the more twisted the better, but not at someone else's expense. The impact of 'religion' is weaved throughout, sometimes subtly and sometimes smacks you in the face, with reflections and comparisons easily made to today's political climate with increasing attacks on LGBTQ+ people and rights. Conversion camps are still legal, and the same abuse continues to be perpetrated 30 years on from the books setting. It's an unflinching exploration of how that affects these kids. The supernatural horrors are fun but also acts as an allegory for a world that wishes to change these kids at the very core of who they are. They’re desperate for help but have nowhere to go, quite literally when they’re in the middle of nowhere but for every aspect of their wants and needs. They find homes within each other, forced to explore their deepest fears and desires, much like the queer community IRL.

The majority of the book is immersive and enjoyable, but I did find myself checking the % around the midpoint as things started to drag. It details the physical and psychological pains well, but as mentioned the superfluous fatphobia and graphic sex/genital descriptions ruined this for me. Almost everything is explained in graphic detail, including the smell of period blood more than once. The time jump and final showdown was too quick and easy, especially for something that has haunted them their entire lives. Overall it's decent and there's lots to analyse further, but these points reduced the star rating for me. Thank you to netgalley for the arc and queerphobes can get fucked.

Content Warnings

paracosim's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So, to preface this, let me make it clear that I enjoyed Cuckoo FAR more than Manhunt. The beginning was incredible, the horror was much better this time around, and there was no Fran. (Thank fucking g-d, there was no Fran. My entire book club detested her LOL.) And also the cover? Stellar.

That said, many of the same issues I had with Manhunt are ones I had with Cuckoo.

I’m beginning to think Felker-Martin and I just don’t mesh well, stylistically; I dislike how short each POV is, making the book feel like a series of vignettes rather than a cohesive story. Just like in Manhunt, she absolutely fails at establishing the passage of time. It mentions around 65% in that the kids have been at the camp for literal weeks…but there is nothing suggesting that. If anything, it felt as though they’d been there for a few days. A week would be generous. I did a mental double take when I read the line specifying how much time had passed. Nothing felt in any way grounded in the progression of events.

There was quite a bit of whiplash at the start of the book, with characters being introduced left and right with little to no breathing room. And just when you think you’re settling in and have figured out who is who, there’s someone new. Each POV begins with action and at times it was hard to differentiate between the experiences of the characters. Don’t get me wrong, the action was great—Felker-Martin’s strength lies in heavy action scenes. The finale of Manhunt was incredible and she’s managed to improve her skills even more in Cuckoo.

Another strength of hers is in her characters. There are a ton of people to root for. Even some of the kids you don’t initially expect to like, you’ll find yourself on the edge of your seat with worry over by the end. There were some moments at the end that actually made me tear up.

Which brings me to my next point: the kids.

*Commercial voice:* Hello there! Are you one of those lucky readers who read Steven King’s “It”? Have you spent the last thirty-eight years desperately craving more of the child orgy scene you happened upon in the crisp autumn of October 1986? Why, then look no further than Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin, where you can read bizarro drug-induced child orgy scenes in droves!

Okay in all seriousness, I don’t mind reading about teens having sex. Kids are having sex whether we like it or not; that’s just a fact. What I do mind is (and this will sound very petty)…Gretchen Felker-Martin’s sex scenes lmfao. There is something about them that makes me deeply uncomfortable. A prime example is from Manhunt (tw for rape here), when

Robbie rims Fran’s unwashed ass while Beth lies in post-rape agony, bleeding and crying, like five feet away. Like…girl?? You haven’t had access to toilet paper in literal weeks, and you’re letting this stranger tongue you while your purported best friend suffers mere feet away from you?

GIRL?? Absolute insanity.

Cuckoo has the same weird, gratuitous sex. It has it in droves. I’m not above begging for it to stop.

Another thing it has, is racial slurs. I’m 99.9% certain Felker-Martin is white, and I would consider myself racially white in the US, so maybe this is just my whiteness speaking, but the fact that there are so many racial slurs written plainly makes me…a little uneasy. You are supposed to dislike the characters using them and it’s explicitly a bad thing, which makes me FAR less likely to point fingers and scream, “racist!” when a malicious character saying heinous things is in no way indicative of the author’s own views. (In other words, I really don’t think she’s a racist.) But I think it should be stated so readers know what they’re getting into. There are racial slurs used in this book. Specifically anti-Japanese, anti-Vietnamese, and anti-Mexican ones.

Now onto the body horror. Can I say, yes please? Give me more, queen? The body horror (and the horror in general) in Cuckoo was exquisite. It was decent in Manhunt, but she’s really upped the ante this time and boy did it pay off. There were scenes and descriptions that made me actively sick to my stomach. (This is a good thing.)

So, did I enjoy Cuckoo? Yes and no. Will I read more of Gretchen Felker-Martin’s books? Absolutely, if only for more excellent horror. And I will be cringing at the weird sex scenes all the way through.

Content Warnings

etpreads's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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