Book Review : Cuckoo by Sophie Draper

Cuckoo by Sophie Draper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Picture the scene,I was scrolling through Netgalley (as most book addicts probably do every day) when I came across this book. It had no synopsis,no title,it didnt even have a cover yet. Very intreguing and mysterious and being a person who can't resist books that are intreguing and mysterious,I just had to request it. Sometimes taking a risk on something works and sometimes it doesn't. In this case the risk was most definitely worth it.

Cuckoo is a haunting tale set in a beautifully described isolated house. It was the perfect setting for a spooky mystery with gothic overtones,there was even a glass summer house in the overgrown back garden. Unfortunately there wasn't any hidden doors or passageways which was rather disappointing. I loved the descriptions of how alien the world becomes when the landscape is covered in deep snow and how everyday sounds become muffled. I loved the gothic tales that Caro was doing the illustrations for,I loved the graphic,vivid descriptions of the pictures that she painted to go with the stories. As for Caro herself,I had a lot of empathy and understanding about her feelings of being an outsider,I have also felt that way for most of my life. I could also understand her struggle to trust people,after you have let people into your life and they then mistreat you in some way,it makes you wonder if it is worth the risk trusting other people in the future. She definitely had some major issues some of which were understandable due to how she was treated when she was younger by her step mother Elizabeth and the fact that she had just escaped an abusive,controlling relationship. I thought she was a very frustrating character at times especially when she had her,I can't be happy unless I am with a man moments.

The longer Caro stays in her isolated childhood home,the more memories that she has buried for a very long time start to reemerge and she starts seeing and hearing frightening images and sounds. Sounds like the noise that the mysterious and sinister pear drum used to make when Elizabeth used it to terrorise Caro when she was a young girl.Is Caro losing her mind or is she being tormented by a unknown enemy. Does her sister Steph really want to make up for events that happened in the past? Can she really trust handsome neighbour Craig who conveniently appeared and helped her when she had a unpleasant encounter with Angus McCready? Could it be Angus or any of the other people who live in the village and treat Caro with contempt whenever they saw her. Or could her new American friend Mary Beth not be the kind,caring person she appears to be?

Cuckoo is a gripping gothic thriller that had me hooked in from the first page right through to the surprising ending that had just a touch of poetic justice. This is a enthralling story that contained untrustworthy characters,intense danger scenes,pagan rituals,murder,bullying,abuse and some unexpected twists and turns. Unfortunately I did figure out one of the major twists quite early in the story but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of this well written,debut psychological thriller and I look forward to reading more books written by this author in the future.

                                                                 AUTHOR BIO

Sophie Draper is a Derbyshire based author. Cuckoo is her first book and won the Bath Novel Award 2017. She also won the York Festival of Writing Friday Night Live Award 2017. A second book is due to be published later in 2019.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Website : https://sophie-draper.webnode.com/
Twitter : @sophiedraper9

E BOOK PUBLICATION DATE : 29th NOVEMBER 2018

PUBLISHER : Avon Books UK

GENRE : Thriller,Crime,Suspense

PRE ORDER AND PURCHASE LINK...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cuckoo-haunting-psychological-thriller-Christmas-ebook/dp/B07D469M5Z/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1541018507&sr=1-5&keywords=cuckoo