OutlawPoet's Reviews > Cuckoo

I definitely liked the Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe here. I was also surprised and delighted that this becomes pretty full-on horror. It doesn’t stint on giving you some seriously messed up situations!

Readers sensitive to blood, gore and sex, may wish to tread carefully.

Where I struggled was with some of our characters. Many of them blended in so thoroughly that I wasn’t sure who I was reading at times. In fact, there’s one character who pops up later in the book that, while ostensibly in the book the whole time, I seem to have wiped from my memory! I mean they’re suddenly in the book, all the characters know them and reference them as being part of the first part of the book, and I’m completely blank. Even after finishing the book, I would swear that this character did not exist in the first part of the book! (Note: it is entirely possible that this is a me problem. Maybe my reading comprehension was off?)

It wasn’t just this character, though. Transitions between character points of view were a bit shaky here and there and caused confusion.

Overall, I did like the book. I just needed a bit stronger characterization to really engage.

• ARC via Publisher