Cuckoo

By: Gretchen Felker-Martin

Narrated by: Amy Landon, Avi Roque, Grace Rolek, Kirt Graves, Nicky Endres, Sena Bryer, Zeno Robinson, Zim Avaltrades

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

This program features multicast narration.

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

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Nightfire.

©2024 Gretchen Felker-Martin (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"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

"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

Great Storylines and even better characters

Easily one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. A combination of John Carpenter’s The Thing and Jordan Peele’s US, Gretchen-Felker Martin’s Cuckoo takes you by the throat and doesn’t let go!

Beautiful authentic queer characters

Another great story from a great author! I will read everything by Gretchen that I can get my hands on! The way she takes on the real issues facing the queer community within the context of incredibly well written horror and gut wrenchingly real portrayals of queer interpersonal relationships is *chefs kiss* just magnificent. This book is not for the faint of heart but neither is being queer in the world right now. As a queer adult raised by very conservative Christian parents, I have found both Gretchen’s books that I’ve had the pleasure to read to be safe places for me to process some of the deep and ugly trauma that even therapists haven’t been able to touch. 10/10 please keep them coming! I can’t wait to read what she writes next 🖤

Excellent, scary and ambitious

I enjoyed Manhunt enough to make this an instant buy when it released. It hits the horror, heart, and humor (no really! It's dry, but it's there!) just as well or better than that title did. The cast give it their all as these poor kids drag themselves through a gory, paranoid, claustrophobic nightmare of a story. Felker-Martin shows she can shift genre from near-future dystopia to near-past fantasy without missing a beat.