The Cottingley Cuckoo by A J Elwood

I would like to thank Sarah from Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out Now

Price – £8.99 paperback £4.69 Kindle eBook

Captivated by books and stories, Rose dreams of a more fulfilled life, away from the confines of the Sunnyside Care Home where she works to support herself and her boyfriend. She hopes the situation will be short term.

Charlotte Favell, an elderly resident, takes a strange, sinister interest in Rose, but offers an unexpected glimpse of enchantment. She has a mysterious and aged stack of letters about the Cottingley Fairies, the photographs made famous by Arthur Conan Doyle, but later dismissed as a hoax. The author of the letters insists he has proof that the fairies exist; Rose is eager to learn more, but Charlotte only allows her to read on when she sees fit.

Discovering she is unexpectedly pregnant, Rose feels another door to the future has slammed. The letters content grows more menacing, inexplicable events begin to occur inside her home, and Rose begins to entertain dark thoughts about her baby and its origins. Can this simply be depression? Or is something darker taking root?

Fate or random chance which side of the coin are you on? When life changes unexpectedly is that just how is it going to be; the pull of the universe or something more sinister yet unexpected the infamous idea of bad luck? Have you ever considered you seem cursed for a bit? This ambiguity is explored in The Cottingley Cuckoo by AJ Elwood we explore our human desire to make sense from chaos; how we react to potential curses and also our own capacity for belief.

Rose is not living the life she wanted. Escaping to University to explore English Literature is curtailed by her mother being very ill and passing away. She now has just started a new job to make ends meet in a nursing home and there meets the enigmatic and controlling Miss Favell. Feared by other residents and staff alike for her sharp tongue and enjoyment of games. Rose though seems to fascinate her, and she starts sharing old family letters that tell the tale of how in the 1920s a man was writing to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about a recent experience his family had that looks like fairies were found in woodland and he relates the changes and strange events that follow their discovery. Ros eis transfixed trying to find more and more about what happened next and has to comply with Miss Favell’s requests for more information on herself. Then Rose finds she in unexpectedly pregnant and her life is going to change. Has this been Miss Favell’s agenda; is her mysterious family using her for some game themselves and can Rose ever live the life she wants for herself?

This story is about belief. It plays with the infamous Cottingley fairies a 1920s hoax that caught up Sir Arthur Conan Doyle putting the creator of Sherlock Holmes into claiming some obvious fake pictures were real. What makes people believe in magic? Is such a belief healthy? When another such encounter is being written how should we read it – someone seeking fame or someone whose life is changed by magic?

I really enjoyed how this story provides two mysteries to solve and stays ambiguous on both all the ay through. The fantasy fan in me is obviously intrigued by the idea of fairies and a family being cursed so exploring the 1920s mystery told though a series of one-sided letters is handled very well as we look for clues as to what is going on. The letters recount these moments with wonder, and yet try scientifically to explain them or at least what fairy culture may be like and how it impacts the young family we meet. We also get the eerie relationship between Rose and Miss Favell – who seems to know Rose is pregnant before she does; seems t read her own thoughts and motivations and later fears about having a baby herself. Rose starts to read into faerie lore and the idea of the changeling in particular starts to worry her. Miss Favell seems to have a dangerous interest in Rose’s life. Once the baby is born even stranger events suggest something is playing with her new family with parallels to the events shown in the letters. Elwood slowly but gently constructs a worrying idea of a young woman being used by other forces.

But what I enjoyed about this tale is that all the above can be read differently too that appeals to the psychological thriller fan in me too. A woman grieving the loss of her mother (and her ideal life) falls under the charismatic spell of an older woman. Rose could be a woman whose life is nowhere near what she thought it was going to be and is now given the idea that external magical forces like fairies could be responsible rather than chance or her own choices. Add in an unwanted pregnancy then an obsession to find answers sets up some disturbing ideas in Rose’s head. The modern-day story is told always from Rose’s perspective, so the reader has to consider how much they believe what Rose is now saying. Is she possibly a frustrated and now obsessed woman seeking to find some order out of the chaos her life is now in or someone finding she is being used by magic? The book gives us no firm answers, but events spiral and we see Rose getting more and more desperate to find the truth placing her and others in danger. The final scenes in both time periods we visit are confrontational, dangerous, and reckless and the reader will have to decide for themselves what will happen next.

The Cottingley Cuckoo is a disconcerting read. Its ca be darkly magical or psychologically gripping and I’m still not quite sure which answer I want it to be because neither gives me the comfort of a world under control or one where we can easily lose ourselves as we react to unforeseen events? That ambiguity may not be for everyone, but I enjoyed a tale that creates two perfectly possible narratives (if you believe) using exactly the same scenes and characters. A fascinating tale and well worth a look.