Book Review: The Cousins by Karen M McManus

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The Cousins by Karen Mc Manus is delightful, young, involves a mystery and is a very very readable book. Read on to find why I found it "very very readable".

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BLURB

The Storys are the envy of their neighbours: owners of the largest property on their East Coast island, they are rich, beautiful, and close. Until it all falls apart. The four children are suddenly dropped by their mother with a single sentence:

You know what you did.

They never hear from her again.

Years later, when 18-year-old cousins Aubrey, Milly and Jonah Story receive a mysterious invitation to spend the summer at their grandmother's resort, they have no choice but to follow their curiosity and meet the woman who's been such an enigma their entire lives.

This entire family is built on secrets, right? It's the Story legacy.

This summer, the teenagers are determined to discover the truth at the heart of their family. But some secrets are better left alone.

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My Take


The Cousins opens with the three protagonists Aubrey, Milly and Jonah Story, the cousins, getting a letter from their grandmother offering them a summer job at an island she almost owns. Each of them leaves home to take up the job for a very personal reason and intrigued by a grandmother who has abandoned her four children soon after her husband's death with just a single line on a paper to their name.

We begin with a glimpse into the lives of these three youngsters and through them into the lives of their parents. The book is divided chapter wise between the three cousins and Milly's mother who seems to be an integral to the reason why grandmother severed all ties with her children.

The author takes her own sweet time to reveal the plot and that is not to say that you will either get bored or lose interest in the story, at all. On the contrary McManus takes us into the lives, emotions and highs and lows of the cousins while the stage is being set up for the final curtain raiser. And that is why I said in the very beginning that it is a "very very readable book". 


Though a mystery keeps you hooked to the pages, I am sure the YA audience at which the book is largely targeted, will find their emotions reflected in the personal journeys that Aubrey, Milly and Jonah undertake while on the island.

I found it very very readable also for the fact that it isn't a story that is very twisted. Don't get me wrong! I love my  share of twisted mysteries and suspense novels but this one felt absolutely fresh as it had a progression that moved towards solving a mystery yet not in a very sleuth-y way but as a matter of time...the secret whose time is up.

Let me know if you pick up this book and felt the same way!

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