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A review by anatomicalpuppet
Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin
4.0
I really expected this to be a 5 star read throughout the first half, but by the end, I was honestly considering bumping it all the way down to a 3.5. I did really fuck with the writing style, though, so 4 felt right.
The prologue, as everyone and their mom has already established, is probably the strongest part of the whole thing. On one hand, it's great to start off with a bang, but, on the other, it did make a lot of the subsequent events sort of pale in comparison. As I said, though, the first half was really doing it for me! I thought all the camp stuff was fun, very Holes-esque, just a lot nastier. I didn't really have any issues keeping up with the larger cast of central characters, as some other reviews have mentioned. They felt distinct enough from one another that I could follow them pretty easily, even though some of the background campers did definitely start to blur together. I had more trouble keeping track of all the counselors, honestly. I liked Shelby and Felix the most, but none of the characters really expanded or grew as much as I hoped they would.
The It parallels were fun at first, but as things went on, it almost felt lazy how many similarities there were. I also thought the alien explanation for the Cuckoo felt kinda lame. It just feels like a cop-out, and I would've found the creature much more compelling if we weren't told where it came from. The gore descriptions were fascinating and gross in a really fun way at first, but they got stale pretty quick, and I had too much trouble envisioning the Cuckoo to really be scared of it. The random bunker in the woods also felt really out of place and far too convenient, especially since it never really gets explained or expanded upon other than the fact that it's... there. I guess. Unless I missed something.
The last third was way weaker than the rest. It's a SIGNIFICANT increase in the pacing, which really works to its detriment. Honestly, I would've preferred if it ended earlier. Maybe show them as adults in an epilogue, have them find out that there are still Cuckoo camps killing queer kids, but what the hell are they gonna do about it? They barely got out the first time, and they all have other priorities. End it on the tragedy of them not being able to stop the cycle instead of speedrunning a rescue mission that ends in not one, but two incredibly unmoving deaths. I'm sorry, Jo's death did nothing for me, and Lara's wasn't much better. And I liked both of them! But I just... didn't care. They died so quickly and without fanfare that I honestly didn't even think Lara was actually dead until the epilogue.
This is making it sound like I disliked this, but I genuinely didn't. I thought the writing was really fun and I liked a lot of the concepts and characters, it just really fell apart at the end for me, and it's left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Definitely still want to read more of this author's work, though!
The prologue, as everyone and their mom has already established, is probably the strongest part of the whole thing. On one hand, it's great to start off with a bang, but, on the other, it did make a lot of the subsequent events sort of pale in comparison. As I said, though, the first half was really doing it for me! I thought all the camp stuff was fun, very Holes-esque, just a lot nastier. I didn't really have any issues keeping up with the larger cast of central characters, as some other reviews have mentioned. They felt distinct enough from one another that I could follow them pretty easily, even though some of the background campers did definitely start to blur together. I had more trouble keeping track of all the counselors, honestly. I liked Shelby and Felix the most, but none of the characters really expanded or grew as much as I hoped they would.
The It parallels were fun at first, but as things went on, it almost felt lazy how many similarities there were. I also thought the alien explanation for the Cuckoo felt kinda lame. It just feels like a cop-out, and I would've found the creature much more compelling if we weren't told where it came from. The gore descriptions were fascinating and gross in a really fun way at first, but they got stale pretty quick, and I had too much trouble envisioning the Cuckoo to really be scared of it. The random bunker in the woods also felt really out of place and far too convenient, especially since it never really gets explained or expanded upon other than the fact that it's... there. I guess. Unless I missed something.
The last third was way weaker than the rest. It's a SIGNIFICANT increase in the pacing, which really works to its detriment. Honestly, I would've preferred if it ended earlier. Maybe show them as adults in an epilogue, have them find out that there are still Cuckoo camps killing queer kids, but what the hell are they gonna do about it? They barely got out the first time, and they all have other priorities. End it on the tragedy of them not being able to stop the cycle instead of speedrunning a rescue mission that ends in not one, but two incredibly unmoving deaths. I'm sorry, Jo's death did nothing for me, and Lara's wasn't much better. And I liked both of them! But I just... didn't care. They died so quickly and without fanfare that I honestly didn't even think Lara was actually dead until the epilogue.
This is making it sound like I disliked this, but I genuinely didn't. I thought the writing was really fun and I liked a lot of the concepts and characters, it just really fell apart at the end for me, and it's left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Definitely still want to read more of this author's work, though!