Review: The Cousins - Karen McManus

Review: The Cousins - Karen McManus - December 2020

After reading Karen's two previous books One of Us is Lying and Two Can Keep a Secret and enjoying them, I was excited to read The Cousins. In this book, we meet the Story family. We have the head of the family - the unknown Grandmother Mildred and her four children - Adam, Archer, Alison, and Anders. Years ago when their father died and the tragedy occurred in the smalltown - all four children were written out of their families' will and received a message from their mother disowning them and one sentence "You know what you did". The thing is that the children had no idea what they did, but they acknowledged their mother's wishes and went their separate ways. Now twenty years later, the next generation - Mildred, Aubrey, and Jonah have all received letters from their grandmother to come and stay with her for the summer. Neither grandchild wants to go, but their parents are forcing them. When they arrive, it seems that no-one was expecting them and also their grandmother doesn't want them around. Something strange is happening in the small cove and now that the Cousins are here - there are a few people worried that their dark secrets will be uncovered and truths that have been hidden for 20+ years are about to come to light. I have to admit I did not see that twist coming at the end, it was very much OMFG seriously WTF. The Cousins compared to her previous two books is a very slow-paced story but once you get to about the half-point the book gets exciting with all the twists and turns.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2LDDWNp