Cuckoo by Keren David

Cuckoo by Keren David
Buy Cuckoo by Keren David at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens, Literary Fiction, General Fiction
Reviewer: Alex Mitchell
Summary: A well-written and gripping story about how fame doesn't always equal happiness.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? No
Pages: 272	Date: August 2016
Publisher: Atom
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 9780349002354
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Jake is a household name thanks to his role on the UK's most popular soap opera.

But his character went upstairs to his bedroom six months ago and never came down again, and now Jake is facing an uncertain future. Add to that his dad's anger issues, the family's precarious finances and the demands of a severely autistic brother; Jake's home feels like a powder keg waiting to explode.

It's easier to spend nights on friends' sofas and futons, but what happens when you feel like a cuckoo in every nest?

The structure of the story is quite unique. It is set out as what seems to be a transcript of a web series, created by Jake. The dialogue is not laid out in prose form, as such, but instead is more like a transcript. Each chapter is called an 'episode' instead, and has the cast of Market Square portraying either people Jake interacts with or themselves. At the end of most of the chapters is the comments section, in which fans of the series or characters in the books comment on the videos, and occasionally hurl abuse at each other (as is the way with the internet).

Our protagonist is Jake Benn, a former star of Market Square (an Eastenders-style soap opera), who is going through massive challenges in his personal life, struggling to balance work and school, and living in a financially precarious family. His father Neil, who has been out of a job for three months, has terrible anger and stress problems, which are exacerbated by his son's floundering career. His brother Adam, who has severe autism and requires near constant looking after, certainly doesn't help. So James ends up relying on friends and fellow cast members in order to shelter him until everything blows over at home.

Overall, this is a well-written and gripping tale of teen fame, teen homelessness and isolation.

Further reading:

Being Billy by Phil Earle – a slightly darker story of the challenges of being a teenager
Unbecoming by Jenny Downham – a similar tale of struggling to balance school with personal problems.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Cuckoo by Keren David at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Cuckoo by Keren David at Amazon.com.

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