The Cousins

Product Information

Mildred invites the teenagers into her home for brunch and to attend the Summer Gala. Things do not go well at either event. Mildred focuses her attention on Aubrey and Jonah. She ignores Milly. This upsets Milly and creates friction between her and Aubrey. Mildred and Donald catch Milly and Jonah kissing at the Summer Gala. At this point, they believe that Jonah is Milly’s cousin. Jonah tells Mildred that his father, Anders, hates her. Then Anders arrives with the real Jonah Story and tells everyone that Jonah North is an imposter. It turns out that Jonah North wanted revenge because Anders lost his family’s money through bad investments. Donald has everyone escorted away. I love the way Karen McManus writes. (I particularly loved One of Us is Lying and Two Can Keep a Secret.) She hooks you right away and keeps you guessing, and while I don’t know that I loved the way everything wrapped up in this book, I still couldn’t get enough. I’m curious to see if she writes a follow-up to this one, because she set it up perfectly! The Cousins started off decent, and proceeded to decline rapidly. I was really interested in the concept of estranged grandchildren being invited to their mysterious grandmother’s island, with possible murders to come. Except nothing of considerable note happens until beyond the halfway mark. By then, I was dozing off while reading due to the failings of the first half. Jonah is the son of Anders, the charismatic and cold-hearted second son--his most recent newsmaking turn is running a financial scheme that bankrupted people. Jonah's a bit much, really, but even though he has a major chip on his shoulder, that doesn't stop him from liking his cousins rather a lot, really... but will those warm, fuzzy feelings stop him from doing what he came to the island to do? McManus yet again puts all the pieces in place to create a contemporary reality of mostly good looking, young, rich and white people, that have enough flaws and idiosyncrasies to be engaging and draw empathy. The main mystery is as well crafted and nicely managed, as is the norm by McManus, however it is also a bit more traditional and mainstream than her other books. Lastly, there is pretty much zero character development of any of the possible protagonists, which I would have preferred. Still a fab young adult read that is more fun, than it is social commentary, and works well because of it. 7 out of 12

For instance we have three cousins whose characters are all very similar to those in “One of Us is Lying”. We have Milly who’s basically Bronwyn, we have Jonah who’s like Nate and we have Aubrey who’s the equivalent of Addy. Their characters reminded me a lot of those three and at times it felt like only the names were changed and they were put into a different environment. Which isn’t exactly bad but it isn’t something new either and it made it very easy for me to see where the plot would head. So in the end I saw some of the twists coming from miles away because I only had to remember ��One of Us is Lying” and already knew what would happen next. It’s hard to describe this but I hope you get what I mean?!Years later, when Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah Story, all 18 years old, receive an enigmatic invitation to spend the summer at their grandmother's resort, they are forced to satisfy their curiosity and meet the lady who has been such a mystery their whole lives. Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised… and curious. Pero, pero... ¿entonces por qué cuatro estrellas? Pues mira, porque creo que la autora sabe manejar perfectamente los tiempos, las escenas, los diálogos y la narración, las participaciones de los personajes de manera dinámica, el misterio... Es muy buena, de estas que te cuentan un acto simple como comer con un arte que te mantiene en vilo. No sé, especialmente respecto a los personajes, cuya profundidad está trabajada desde el principio y vamos descubriendo poco a poco más y más sobre ellos. Sounds interesting, right? I applaud the advertising team for making me think so, because this was quite literally the most anticlimactic mystery novel I have ever read. The characters were bland, the twists entirely random, and the plot meandered until the 90% mark.

With a premise based on everyone’s worst fear — family drama — and no shortage of deadly secrets, The Cousins is a fun thriller that never pauses for breath. As The Cousins begins, it appears as if Mildred Story has invited her teenage grandchildren, Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah, to spend the summer living and working at an island resort she owns. The invitation surprises the cousins because Mildred disinherited their parents years ago. The cousins have never met her. They met each other when they were children, but they have not seen each other since. Once introductions were made, it was full speed ahead into a plot filled with twists, turns and jaw-dropping moments. It seemed that every time there was a head-spinning revelation, another was waiting right around the corner. There wasn’t a single event that didn’t push the roller coaster forward; not one conversation failed to add another layer to the mystery.

I received a review copy from Penguin Random House SA. All opinions are my own. Review Characters – 6/10 There’s a romance between Jonah and Milly. Now if you’ve read the book you’ll know they’re not actually related. However, when they meet and sparks fly, we don’t actually know that they are not related yet. The implied incest there just made me squirm. If you have to say “well technically it’s not incest” then you need to rework some things. I think secrets are so interesting because everybody keeps them. But I feel like it's a very human thing to look at your own secrets very differently from someone else's, and to be able to justify and explain why you're keeping yours and, at the same time, desperately wanting to know somebody else's. So that's kind of the balance that I try to strike with my characters. They always have reasons for not being forthcoming with whatever it is they're trying to hide. And it might be that they just plain don't want other people to see them differently. They don't want to see themselves differently or they're trying to gain something. And so I try to tie that to whatever their character arc and their own personal growth arc is. And, oftentimes, getting that secret out there and accepting the truth is a crucial step to them becoming the person that they are supposed to be.

Everybody has secrets,” she says, taking a sip of her drink. “That's non-debatable. The only question is whether you're keeping your own, or someone else's.”Everybody has secrets,” she says, taking a sip of her drink. “That's nondebatable. The only question is whether you're keeping your own, or someone else's.”The Goodreads plot summary of the The Cousins tells you everything you need to know going into this novel. Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story, the titular cousins, are each keeping secrets. Their parents have been keeping secrets for decades. And their grandmother Mildred—who disinherited her own children with a simple letter cryptically stating “you know what you did”—may have the most secrets of all. I was able to predict one of the twists at one point though, but there were many subtle hints leading up to it so it wasn't much of a surprise, but STILL. I predicted it and I'm counting it since I rarely ever do. I really liked the setting. Small island towns are just my vibe, and it played into the mystery aspect very well. I would have liked to have seen more of the hotel and the town, but the snippets we got were excellent. Writing – 6/10 Moving from the forties to the present, from the country to the protests of the cities, Cousins is the story of these three cousins. Thrown together as children, they have subsequently grown apart, yet they share a connection that can never be broken. I felt like the story delivered a decent amount of twists, some of which took me by surprise. I thought I had it all figured out at one point only for one final plot twist to steal the show at the last minute. While I think the execution of the final twist was spot on, I did feel like the minor reveals earlier in the story were overly explained, lessening their impact.

It should come as no surprise then to hear that McManus’s latest novel, The Cousins (available now from Delacorte Press), is full of many of the twists and turns that her readers adore. But what sets this book apart as, perhaps, the author’s very best work is the way McManus also weaves a detailed family story that’s simultaneously poignant and tragic. Following three cousins who find themselves searching for long-buried secrets among the lush oceanfront views of Gull Cove Island, The Cousins is a masterwork of familial angst and multi-perspective storytelling all wrapped up in a thrilling young adult mystery. Summary: The Storys are the envy of their neighbors: affluent, gorgeous, and close-knit, they possess the largest piece of land on their East Coast island. till everything breaks out. The mother of the four kids abruptly leaves them with just one sentence:

Select a format:

And in my professional life, I'm really proud of the fact that there's such a wide audience for my books, and particularly, I hear from so many teens and kids who say they don't like to read, but they like my books. That's such a great thing to hear because reading was such a huge part of my life as a kid. And if I can bring a kid into that sphere, who doesn't typically like to go there, and they find it worthwhile, and then they want to find more books than I think that's potentially life changing for that kid. And that's really exciting.