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The Story Just Wanted To Be Told
Cuckoo Heartfully is a quirky and fun adventure book following a cast of intriguing characters. How did the idea behind this book start and change as you wrote?
This is really a “kind of sequel” to The Cuckoo Colloquium, though it can stand alone. I just wanted to take the characters farther because there’s so much more to do with it. Although I don’t think one needs to read these books in sequence, I’m actually writing the third book in the series now and it will be out next year.
I enjoy the way you develop and write your characters. Who was your favorite character to write for in this novel?
For this novel, my favorite was probably Titti Bingo, as she’s the one who endures the greatest changes as far as character arcs go, I believe. She appears in the third book, too, and even suffers worse (I fear). Pinky Bell is my guiding light, however; everything will always revolve around her.
What scene in the book was the most challenging for you to write?
Boy, that’s hard. Every chapter can be grueling, but I might go with one of the culminating chapters like the rescue of the cuckoo. I also suppose the script format for the Randy Vagabond chapter also presented unique challenges for me. On the whole, this one was easier to write than some others. The story just wanted to be told, I guess.
I enjoyed the humor embedded in the story. Was there anything in the book that made you laugh out loud?
As an introvert, I’m on the quiet side, unable to let loose with a real belly laugh. But I giggle a lot. Really, if a chapter does not make me giggle, it’s probably headed to the chopping block.
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Things pent-up inside the townspeople are coming out—the repressed longings, the resentments, the dread. They’re bursting forth in staggering admissions across the staid community, thanks to the magic of a small souvenir, a stuffed cuckoo shrike, that Pinky Bell has brought home from her academic colloquium in the jungle of Borneo.
The little bird has somehow come alive, provoking mass confessions and saturating Kyoto with the mayhem of unbottled inhibitions.
Maybe all this “heartfulness” is not such a good idea after all, and Pinky Bell realizes it’s up to her to return the cuckoo to the rain forest, which has dispatched its own dark agents to sniff out the thief.
The young Pinky Bell must also keep her teen virtue intact from scheming rascals, while at the same time a tremendous supernatural clash looms between the cuckoo shrike and Kyoto’s own contending powers.
In a featherbrained world of cross-dressing professors and accidental space orbit solos, the characters inside an electronic game become self-aware, and the Borneo jungle—now minus its cuckoo shrike mentor—adopts a whole new curriculum, that of Nihilism 101.
Welcome to a new colloquium—one with heart.
Cuckoo Heartfully
Michael Greco’s Cuckoo Heartfully is a mystical and beautiful book. It tells the story of Pinky Bell, Windy, Moonch, Puso, and Nini after they leave a colloquium in a Malaysian rain forest. After their encounter with supernatural entities in the forest, they hope that they can get back to their usual lives. However, this proves difficult, especially since Pinky Bell carries something from the forest with her back to her home in Kyoto, Japan.
This triggers a multitude of strange events that affect everyone in the town. Eventually, Pinky Bell has to find a way to return what she stole and deal with the consequences of what happened in the Malaysian rainforest. On the other hand, Moonch tries to find stability in her chaotic life while Windy tries to explore a love interest. Ultimately, all the characters in this book are struggling with handling the changes in their lives, some of which are being caused by mystical forces.
If there’s one thing that makes this book unique it’s the writing style the author employs. It’s witty, fun, and playful. This makes the book a joy to read, especially since doing so makes you feel like you are solving a puzzle. Clearly, the author is adept at leaving readers yearning for more and generally wondering where the story is headed. However, this can sometimes make a reader feel like the different storylines are unrelated, but don’t be fooled. In fact, the first chapters of the book can lead you to believe that you’re reading a compilation of different short stories. Eventually everything is woven together into an intriguing story.
The different supernatural beings and occurrences in this book are fascinating and I wish we could have been given more explanations about them because I thought they were intriguing. As a reviewer I was wondering whether to categorize this book as science fiction or fantasy, but I put that aside and decided it is a wonderful blend of both genres.
It’s undeniable that the plot of this book was fully conceptualized and expertly executed. Also, it’s clear that the author has done a lot of research into Asian culture, which is a central focus of the book. Cuckoo Heartfully is an imaginative and fun adventure book that I heartily enjoyed.
Pages: 217 | ASIN: B09YNMLDT9
LITERARY TITAN 