Cuckoo by Sophie Draper is the thriller that started off as Can You Keep a Secret? for early reviewers with a bit of a twist to the marketing campaign. It also seems to now be listed under Cuckoo and The Stranger in Our Home so I’m not totally sure what the final title for this one will be, perhaps the differences are for different locations.

Anyway, the story centers around Caro who was raised by her stepmother, Elizabeth, in Derbyshire but left home as soon as she could. Caro hadn’t really kept in touch with her stepmother and her relationship with her sister had also grown apart so when their stepmother passes the girls are left the inheritance and the decision of what to do.

When Caro’s sister claims to not want anything to do with their stepmother’s things or any part of the inheritance Caro chooses to move back home to sort things out while fleeing a bad relationship. After arriving back in town however Caro begins to find things aren’t as she remembered and the secrets of the past begin to surface.

As one might be able to guess from my rating I didn’t exactly go cuckoo for Cuckoo and found this one really not to be my cup of tea. The story is another incredibly slow paced read which I can sum up pretty easily with spend a bunch of time making sure the reader knows it’s a unreliable narrative then wrap up with a twist that I saw coming. It does have that creepy, atmospheric vibe to it that some will love but I personally just felt it had all been done before.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book is a strange mix. In parts atmospheric and unsettling, in others almost pedestrian. It has a lot of the classic gothic horror elements: isolated farmhouse, young woman alone, whispering villagers, things that go bump in the night etc but somehow didn't come together well enough to be scary for me. I did want to know the ending tho!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC

Cuckoo is a creepy, utterly compelling and claustrophobic book, with vivid descriptions of snow and fog in the Derbyshire Hills that give it a gothic and spooky vibe.

The main protagonist - Caro - returns to the house she grew up in after her stepmother dies, while waiting for the will to be finalised and decide what to do with the house. She regains contact with her long estranged sister and meets a guy who she isn't sure what to make of - one minute he's all over her, the next he disappears for days. Meanwhile odd things keep happening at the house; objects misplaced, strange noises and the disturbing Pear Drum and all its associations with Caro's miserable childhood.

To add to the eerie atmosphere, Caro has been commissioned to illustrate the pictures for a dark fairy tale book. She has trust issues after escaping an abusive relationship with her ex so is unsure of who is genuine, the majority of the locals seem unfriendly and suspicious of Caro's return and she has memory lapses of her unpleasant childhood and stepmother.

The suspense throughout the book just doesn't let up. There are so many unresolved mysteries and head scratching moments - i just couldn't wait to get to the bottom of them and find out what was going on. The twist when it comes is a good one. I have to admit to half guessing what was going on by the end, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of an all round fab book.

With thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the opportunity to read this ARC, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Caro returns to her childhood home after the death of her stepmother. Their relationship wasn't a good one and Caro feels uncomfortable living in the home and reliving some of her memories of childhood. Caro's sister, Stephanie, encourages Caro to stay and use the time to get herself back on her feet. Meanwhile, weird things keep happening. Throughout most of the book I felt a gothic shadow hanging over Caro and the house. There is a good reason for this! The story was good. The character development was good. It was a good book. However, it didn't live up to the hype and most of the twists were easy to figure out ahead of time. This didn't detract much from an otherwise interesting story.

Caroline “Caro” Crowther returns to her childhood home in Derbyshire after the death of her stepmother. Her estranged sister, Steph wants nothing to do with the estate, so Caro moves into Larkstone Farm to put the house in order while the estate is in probate. This is the perfect opportunity for Caro to start fresh as she just left her abusive boyfriend and had nowhere else to go.. Now that Caro is back at the farm, memories start to return and secrets are slowly revealed. Secrets that have the potential to destroy Caro, but also may give her insight as to why her stepmother hated her so much. Can Caro come to terms with the painful secrets of her past and finally be free or will these secrets destroy Caro once and for all?

Cuckoo by Sophie Draper is one hell of a creepy read! Caro moves into the home where her stepmother died and a blood stain is still soaked into the wood, strange things begin to happen along with Caro waking up from terrifying nightmares. Things are not where Caro places them and she starts to wonder if she is going crazy. I’ll admit I was pretty creeped out and I found myself wondering how Caro could even stay in that house. I would have run for the hills!

Draper really set the stage right at the beginning and I found myself drawn in right from the first page. The build up is slow and steady, but also had me antsy wanting to flip to the last chapter to find out how the story ends. No, I didn’t do it, but I wanted to so badly! Draper captivates with her chillingly descriptive text, eerily sinister storyline and a lore about a pear drum that can easily give you nightmares. I was completely and thoroughly hooked!

Caro has not always had an easy life. She was child of abuse and in her adult years met a man who also abused her. When I think of Caro, I can’t help but to feel sorry for her as her past slowly emerges throughout the story. It is heartbreaking to see what she went through as a young girl and how it still affects her decision making skills today especially when it comes to her mysterious neighbor. In a lot of ways I felt Caro grew as a person as her memories slowly came flooding back, but at the same time it seems as if she is repeating the same patterns of the past. Caro makes a lot of stupid decisions and at times I really wanted to shake her so she could see what was right in front of her. I must say though, the ending really fits in line with Caro’s character. It was absolutely brilliant and one of the best endings I have ever read.

“Have you been bad enough, Caroline?’

This quote right here gives me the chills and really sets the tone of the story of the pear drum, a musical instrument that was often times the nightmare of Caro’s dreams. The story of the pear drum really holds such a significant impact on Caro and as the story progresses the meaning behind the pear dream becomes very clear and very frightening. The story of it is based on an old folktale about two little girls who are promised a reward if they behave badly, but with any story like this there are consequences. Caro’s story along with the two little girls from this particular folklore converge and I can see parallels between the two. It was such an interesting and eerie concept that was added to this story.

Cuckoo by Sophie Draper is an intense and chilling psychological thriller full of secrets, lies, and twists and turns that blend what is real and unreal as one woman’s past slowly starts to unravel. This story is addictive! Cuckoo is the epitome of psychological suspense at its finest. I highly recommend this five star read!

When I requested this book for review I was given no information about it other than “Can You Keep a Secret” as the title and an instruction to not review it or talk about it until after Halloween. I had no idea what I was getting into other than a psychological thriller but I was intrigued by the secrecy and the drama. I took a chance and I don’t regret it at all! This ended up being a quite unique, unpredictable book and was a real page turner. At the beginning I was intrigued by the creepy and ominous atmosphere of the old house. Was this going to be the story of a haunting? The answer is yes, and no. The main character is most definitely haunted by her past and I’ll leave it to you to discover how and why. Caro is a classic unreliable narrator and not entirely likable although she did grow on me a bit as the story progressed. There were several twists that caught me off guard and I had to stop reading more than once to process what I had just read.

I was a bit unsatisfied by the ending. I don’t expect everything to be wrapped up in a shiny bow and I don’t mind a bit of open-endedness but in this case it felt like there was a lot of story left that we were missing out on. Just one more chapter or an epilogue would have made it feel more complete. Other than this small complaint I found the book to be very well done with good writing, a distinctive and unusual plot and vivid characters and setting. It is well worth clearing an afternoon to settle into this one. Just make sure you don’t have anything else to do because you will be hooked!

Thank you to Avon and Avon Books UK for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

An excellent debut novel from Sophie Draper. A dark, twisted story of disturbing secrets from within a fractured family. Caro returns to her childhood home in Derbyshire after the death of her stepmother and rekindles her estranged relationship with her elder sister. Her sister, Steph offers her the family home to live in and Caro gratefully accepts. However, events take a chilling turn when memories of her miserable childhood are discovered in everything she finds among her stepmother’s belongings. Frightening events make her question her sanity. Is she seeing ghosts, hallucinations or reliving memories in vivid dreams? A tense story of life and death that unfolds in many dramatic twists. I look forward to reading more from this imaginative author.

This was marketed as Can You Keep A Secret? A mystery book, no idea of title or genre and the idea intrigued me. Had I read the synopsis for Cuckoo I probably wouldn’t have requested it and that would most definitely have been my loss.

I found it slow in places but it ramped up and sucked me in. It was eerie and thrilling with a twist I didn’t see coming.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

When her stepmother Elizabeth dies, Caro returns to her childhood home. The farmhouse offers refuge from a bad relationship. But going through Elizabeth's belongings stirs up bad memories that Caro would have prefer that they had stayed buried. Especially the story about two little girls and the terrible things they did. But since her arrival at the family home, strange things have been happening. When she goes to the town everyone seems to snub her. There are several things that Caro has erased from her childhood memories. But why did Elizabeth treat Caro so horribly but not her sister Steph?

When I requested this book I had no idea what the book was called or who the author was. I was also asked not to leave a review until Halloween. There was no descriptive blurb either. Well all this caught my attention straight away. But this story is a bit of a slow burner. Caro has been abused, mocked and neglected all her life. Back in the family home to clear out her stepmothers possessions, the ghosts of her past have come back to haunt her. We are taken on the journey of Caro's creepy past. Family secrets that bring several twists. I would describe this book as a gothic mystery.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Avon Books UK and the author Sophie Draper for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The marketing for this book, being so secretive, was exceptional. I deliberately delayed my reading of the book to close to the publication date so as not to ruin the surprise of the reveal!

Caro's cruel and cold stepmother dies in a strange accident and herself and her newly reaquainted sister discover the house is theirs through a trust their father had set up before his death some years before. Strange things are going on in the house and the villagers are unusually distant with Caro, who moves into the house to clear the contents. There are gaps in Caro's memory so we don't know why the villagers are stand-offish or what happened in the house when she was younger. I found book to be particularly slow, especially the first half. I struggled to pick it up and the story didn't really keep and maintain my attention. I did finish it but only because I wanted to know what happened. The ending was satisfying though.

The marketing for this book was amazing! Sadly, the book just did not hold me as much.

Caro returns to her family home after her step mother's mysterious "accidental" death. Her father had passed away, and her sister wants nothing to do with their family home, so Caro moves in. This is a house that she has stayed away from for a long time, but she is finally returning after all of these years.

Bizarre things start to happen around the house, and everyone in the village seemed to ignored and despise Caro. What happened at that house to make everyone hate her? And did it have something to do with the missing parts of Caro's memory?

This book was just ok. A great thriller for someone being introduced into the genre, but not necessarily a storyline that I fell in love with. Overall, this book was good, and I would recommend with you want a spooky tale.

A really creepy psychological thriller, I really enjoyed this.
Caro is very naive but her past experiences explain a lot of that, her journey to the "edge of madness" is enhanced by the use of the darkly gothic, old fashioned fairy tales. The writer creates a tension that resonates throughout, you can almost hear the musical score in the background.

A great story. Well written and scary in parts. A twisting tale which you wont be able to put down. Characters were believable and worked well in the clever plot. Would love to read more by this author.

I admit I was initially just totally suckered in by the A+ marketing ploy the publishers used on Netgalley. The book was listed as "Can You Keep a Secret?" with few details given, and asked that you request it not knowing anything about it. Fine, I'm intrigued.
Through about the first half of this book, I was thinking it was solidly 3 stars. It had a bit of a gothic feel to it as Caro returns to her childhood home after years away when her stepmother dies, and it seems that the house holds plenty of mysteries and repressed memories. However, the second half held plenty of surprises and a quicker pace that bumped the star rating up.
It's a moody story with dark fairy tales woven in, and the isolated, wintery setting makes this one perfect for a snowy evening of reading.

When her step-mother dies Caro agrees to clear out the remote, rambling home she was brought up in. Snowed in, she has time to discover unnerving things about her family and her estranged sister.
I found this read slow initially and even when the pace increased, the way events developed seemed too unlikely. I struggled to gain any empathy with any of the characters. So sorry, this just was not for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books UK for the opportunity to read it

Have you been bad enough? Caro knows how to be bad. But is she bad enough?

Can You Keep A Secret is a lurid, eerie, sinuous tale that keeps you guessing. It makes you realize that everything in life comes at a price. How much are you willing to pay? 4 stars for this read!

Caro, the protagonist, is an illustrator of children’s books, living in London but not really part of the social/commercial scene – a bit of a loner. Following the death of her step-mother Elizabeth the house in Derbyshire is left to Caro and her sister (who lives/works in the States. At the suggestion of her sister, Caro decamps to her family home in Derbyshire. Cue spooky house, vivid memories, childhood trauma and hostile neighbours. On the plus side: her sister suggests that Caro should accept the inheritance in full as she does not need it; and she meets a hunky neighbour Craig. Perhaps Caro’s life is on an upswing.

The ground is laid for an interesting, intriguing plot and I was a happy reader. However, as I settled in to the book, I found I was not enjoying it. I was bogged down in too much detail about the planting in the garden; the state of the house and I was too worried about where she was going to sleep – surely first point of call is to sort out a proper sleeping place. Ah well! I can’t say I am a particular fan of Caro, I could shake her at times but isn’t that a sign of a good character to promote a reaction?

The second thing that got to me was the fairy stories. Clearly is she is to complete her commission she must paint and must represent the fairy story. Way too much for me. I wasn’t interested in the stories and could not visualise either her illustrations or understand her colours. In all fairness, my interest did spike again towards the end of the book which dwelt with more realistic situations that helped the plot along and was well thought out.

The whole thing with its magical/mystical element reminded me of Angela Carter’s novels, but they often left me confused as well.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

When you read the original version of most fairy tales, you immediately realize that Disney has been lying to you all your life. Cannibalism, incest, necrophilia… they would traumatize the most mature of children. In that regard, Cuckoo is a fairy tale, but not the one that features “and they lived happily ever after” anywhere in the plot. Caro comes back after the death of her evil stepmother to claim her kingdom… in this case, her share of the dilapidated family home. After many years of not talking to each other, she gets back together with her sister and, even if her life is not great it’s still seemingly improving. Caro doesn’t remember much from her childhood but she knows that it was far from happy. Her wicked stepmother made Cinderella’s seem adorable. Caro is an illustrator, working on a book of fairy tales, and the writing is so accomplished that you can see her drawings by the way they are described. The stories depicted in the collection she is illustrating are also briefly retold and they add an extra layer of ambience, added to the description of the house and environs. I figured out one of the twists from the beginning but the rest were truly unexpected. I had to read one part twice to make sure I was grasping how it was changing the story. Caro is damaged, sad and not especially likable but she is so complex that you can’t help but root for her. TW, if you’re an animal nut, you may have to skip some parts.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/ Avon Books UK!

First of all, since I received this book as an ARC when it was still very secretive, I never got a chance to admire the cover. So, I'd like to say: gorgeous on that end. Love the cover. Creepy and beautiful at the same time.

On to the book. This one was verrrry slowwww for me in the beginning. I had a hard time keeping myself interested in the book and really feel like that really gives credence to my 3 star review. Although I did enjoy the book, and thought the ending was also good, I just kept putting it down. It really took me a long time to get going on this one. Caro was also annoying at times, although I feel she was well written, I just didn't care for her.

When I first started Cuckoo I wasn’t sure I was going to like it but I’m so glad I stick with it. As the book progresses you are fed more and more information then come the twists and turns!

It’s dark, sinister and intriguing and ended up being a very enjoyable read that had me hooked to the very end. Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books and the author for the chance to review.