Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Cousins

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

93 reviews

kit_kat006's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Overall I like this book. I absolutely adored One of us is lying. This one did not hit the mark as the other but I still found it enjoyable. Lot of twist and turn and a YA romance included. A good read.

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kjwit's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I read this book for reading olympics and I really enjoyed it. It was one of my quicker reads recently and I found it enjoyable. Some of the mysteries the reader was given the clues to figure out themselves while other secrets you have to read to the end to find out. It had a good message and the three main characters went through incredible development in their relationships with themselves and each other.

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jadeandherbunny's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

McManus does the same thing over and over again
Same characters, same narrative scheme as her other books
I won't read any of her books again

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matonnhermann's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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thenovelmaura's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It's not a secret that I love how McManus writes teenagers, and I often recommend her as a great YA mystery/thriller author. This wasn't my favorite book of hers but I thought it was solid; good twists, cool Martha's Vineyard-esque setting, lots of money and family secrets. It's also a thoughtful commentary on how children can be unfairly punished for the actions of their parents and kept in the dark about past events that affect their current situations.

This might have been 4.5 stars if it weren't for the forced romance, since I think the book would have been much better without it. Again, even if you're not a fan of McManus, her books would be perfect for a teen in your life who likes stories with drama and intrigue.

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anna_hepworth's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book started slow, and even the shifting between the viewpoints of the three cousins didn't really help with that. It did do good things for filling in a range of background, as well as setting up a number of details that didn't become relevant until much later.

It wasn't until the first major twist, at something like a quarter or a third through, where I started getting invested. I have some spoilery thoughts about the twists and turns of this story, so I've put that below.

For all that I found this slow paced, according to the reading app it too me an hour (across multiple commutes) to finish, which seems much shorter than I would have assumed.

I loved that most of the twists had to do with identity. And that the various people all had such interesting ways of interlacing their two selves. There are definitely some parallels that can be drawn between being a Story (or pretending not to be) and pretending to be a Story.

I was frustrated by the inevitable confrontation followed by risk to life and limb, but eh, I accept that that is a trope of the genre. It is just one of the things that make me not love the murder mystery genre.

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