Overview

An instant USA Today bestseller! One woman's deadly obsession with a haunted archival film precipitates her undoing in Black Flame, from the author of Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin. A cursed film. A haunted past. A deadly secret. The Baroness, an infamous exploitation film long thought destroyed by Nazi fire, is discovered fifty years later. When lonely archivist Ellen Kramer--deeply closeted and pathologically repressed--begins restoring the hedonistic movie, it unspools dark desires from deep within her. As Ellen is consumed by visions and voices, she becomes convinced the movie is real, and is happening to her--and that frame by frame, she is unleashing its occult horrors on the world. Her life quickly begins to spiral out of control. Until it all fades to black, and all that remains is a voice asking a question Ellen can't answer but can't get out of her mind: Do you want it? More than anything? Also by Gretchen Felker-Martin: Manhunt Cuckoo

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9781250348012

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Reviews

"Praise for Cuckoo ""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 ""Beyond being just a really fucking good horror novel, Cuckoo is monumentally important. Felker-Martin wrote a gut-twisting banger of a book that makes fleshy the anti-trans movement."" --CHELSEA G. SUMMERS, author ofA Certain Hunger ""Tense and frighteningly visceral, Cuckoo is a masterwork of body horror thrumming with the high octane viciousness of a Richard Laymon novel while maintaining the literary sophistication of a piece penned by Clive Barker or Poppy Z. Brite."" --ERIC LAROCCA, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke ""Vividly gruesome and carefully observed, Cuckoo will be splattered across the inside of your skull long after you've set it down. Beneath the viscera and relentless prose, a vital heart beats within."" --ANDREW F. SULLIVAN, author of The Marigold ""An instantly absorbing battle cry. Felker-Martin nests seamless psychic links with Lisa Tuttle and Stephen King, forming her unique nightmarish bear trap and fighting it with sustained, justified rage. Through all of Cuckoo's visceral brutality, it's the moments of kindness and bravery that broke my heart."" --HAILEY PIPER, Bram Stoker Award-winning author ofQueen of Teeth ""Cuckoo is vile, repulsive, putrid, and utterly without restraint--a relentless assault on the senses. I devoured every word, and they devoured me. Filthy, degenerate art at its finest."" --HIRON ENNES, author of Leech ""This vivid, unsettling, character-rich novel grabs you by the throat and won't let go."" --LUCY A. SNYDER, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Sister, Maiden, Monster ""Cuckoo is a nest of guts so red and inviting you'll find yourself slurping out of it like pasta before you know what's in your mouth. No other author can make the beautiful so grotesque, nor the grotesque so beautiful."" --MEG ELISON, author of Number One Fan ""I've been waiting impatiently for Felker-Martin's next book since the millisecond I put down Manhunt and I wasn't disappointed. Cuckoo is equal parts intensely tender and turbulently gross. Well-observed, enthrallingly paced, and downright brutal exactly where it needs to be."" --MATTIE LUBCHANSKY, author of Boys Weekend ""Cuckoo is the gory, gooey, visceral horror story our present moment demands. It's an exploration of survival and loss in the teeth of interlocking material systems of violence like transphobia, homophobia, and racism. And it's also a radically queer homage to--or reimagining of!--some much-beloved genre classics, likeInvasion of the Body Snatchers.""--LEE MANDELO, author of Summer Sons Praise for Manhunt #1 Best Book of 2022 (Vulture) - A Best Horror Novel of All Time (Cosmopolitan) - One of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 (Esquire, Library Journal, Paste, and CrimeReads) - A Top 10 Horror Debuts of 2022 (Booklist) - A Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Horror - A Best Book of 2022 (Tor.com) - A Best SFF Book of 2022 (Gizmodo)"

"Praise for Cuckoo AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER ""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 ""Beyond being just a really fucking good horror novel, Cuckoo is monumentally important. Felker-Martin wrote a gut-twisting banger of a book that makes fleshy the anti-trans movement."" --CHELSEA G. SUMMERS, author ofA Certain Hunger ""Tense and frighteningly visceral, Cuckoo is a masterwork of body horror thrumming with the high octane viciousness of a Richard Laymon novel while maintaining the literary sophistication of a piece penned by Clive Barker or Poppy Z. Brite."" --ERIC LAROCCA, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke ""Vividly gruesome and carefully observed, Cuckoo will be splattered across the inside of your skull long after you've set it down. Beneath the viscera and relentless prose, a vital heart beats within."" --ANDREW F. SULLIVAN, author of The Marigold ""An instantly absorbing battle cry. Felker-Martin nests seamless psychic links with Lisa Tuttle and Stephen King, forming her unique nightmarish bear trap and fighting it with sustained, justified rage. Through all of Cuckoo's visceral brutality, it's the moments of kindness and bravery that broke my heart."" --HAILEY PIPER, Bram Stoker Award-winning author ofQueen of Teeth ""Cuckoo is vile, repulsive, putrid, and utterly without restraint--a relentless assault on the senses. I devoured every word, and they devoured me. Filthy, degenerate art at its finest."" --HIRON ENNES, author of Leech ""This vivid, unsettling, character-rich novel grabs you by the throat and won't let go."" --LUCY A. SNYDER, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Sister, Maiden, Monster ""Cuckoo is a nest of guts so red and inviting you'll find yourself slurping out of it like pasta before you know what's in your mouth. No other author can make the beautiful so grotesque, nor the grotesque so beautiful."" --MEG ELISON, author of Number One Fan ""I've been waiting impatiently for Felker-Martin's next book since the millisecond I put down Manhunt and I wasn't disappointed. Cuckoo is equal parts intensely tender and turbulently gross. Well-observed, enthrallingly paced, and downright brutal exactly where it needs to be."" --MATTIE LUBCHANSKY, author of Boys Weekend ""Cuckoo is the gory, gooey, visceral horror story our present moment demands. It's an exploration of survival and loss in the teeth of interlocking material systems of violence like transphobia, homophobia, and racism. And it's also a radically queer homage to--or reimagining of!--some much-beloved genre classics, likeInvasion of the Body Snatchers."" --LEE MANDELO, author of Summer Sons Praise for Manhunt #1 Best Book of 2022 (Vulture) - A Best Horror Novel of All Time (Cosmopolitan) - One of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 (Esquire, Library Journal, Paste, and CrimeReads) - A Top 10 Horror Debuts of 2022 (Booklist) - A Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Horror - A Best Book of 2022 (Reactor) - A Best SFF Book of 2022 (Gizmodo)"

Praise for Black Flame ""Nasty, erotic, kinky, vicious, suspenseful....Felker-Martin uses the trope of the cursed movie and creates something utterly unique that manages to horrify, beguile, and empower in equal measure. If you are going to read one horror book this year, make it this one."" --JOHANNA VAN VEEN, author of My Darling Dreadful Thing Praise for Gretchen Felker-Martin ""Cuckoo is, like Felker-Martin's previous novel Manhunt, absolutely masterful."" --ROXANE GAY, New York Times bestselling author of The Bad Feminist ""Manhunt is a modern horror masterpiece."" --CARMEN MARIA MACHADO, author of National Book Award finalist Her Body and Other Parties ""With [Cuckoo], Felker-Martin appoints herself the new High Priestess of splatter....A story of love, hate, and sacrifice that spares no suffering, but takes no pity."" --TONY TULATHIMUTTE, author of National Book Award finalist Rejection ""Disgustingly rendered and brilliantly imagined.... A fresh, stomach-turning take on gendered apocalypse."" --NPR on Manhunt ""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, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie ""A grisly, gory, glorious work of splatterpunk social horror -- and the perfect introduction to both subgenres."" --BUSTLE on Manhunt ""Tense and frighteningly visceral, Cuckoo is a masterwork of body horror thrumming with high octane viciousness."" --ERIC LAROCCA, author of At Dark, I Become Loathsome ""Felker-Martin can write: Manhunt expertly drops one political target after another, breaks your heart with nearly every character, and keeps up a relentless velocity-- all while just being plain fun as hell."" --TORREY PETERS, PEN/Hemingway Award winning author of Detransition, Baby

Author Information

GRETCHEN FELKER-MARTIN is a Massachusetts-based bestselling horror author and film critic. Her debut novel, Manhunt, was named the #1 Best Book of 2022 by Vulture, and was one of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 by Esquire, Library Journal, and Paste. Her sophomore novel, Cuckoo, debuted on the USA Today bestseller list. You can read her fiction and film criticism on Patreon and in TIME, The Outline, Nylon, and more.

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