You Know What You Did.
Years after their parents were disowned by their mother, eighteen-year-old Millie, Aubrey and Jonah are summoned to the family estate for a summer.
For Audrey, it's a chance to make her father proud. For Millie, it's a chance to solve the mystery of their parents' estrangement. And for Jonah, it's a chance for revenge.
But when the teens encounter their grandmother for the first time, things suddenly get a lot more complicated. As the cousins investigate, secrets come thick and fast. But some secrets are best left alone, and some people will do anything to make sure they stay buried...
The Cousins is a 2020 standalone from Karen M. McManus, author of One of Us is Lying, Two Can Keep A Secret, and You'll Be the Death of Me.
(Please note that this page has been heavily spoilered due to its suspense-heavy plot and very recent release. Proceed with caution.)
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Adam Story is the emotional variety towards his daughter Aubrey, treating her well only if he feels she's appropriately worshipful towards him and withholding affection if he feels she has displeased him.
- Amoral Attorney: The Story family lawyer enacted and enforced the disinheriting of the Story children without a word of explanation. Covering up Mildred Story's death and impersonating her to access the family estate was also his idea.
- Arc Words: "You know what you did." The words with which Mildred Story disinherited her four children twenty four years before the events of the novel.
- Alliterative Family: All of Mildred Story's children have names starting with the letter A, presumably to match their father Abraham. Adam, the eldest, is the only one who continues it into the next generation.
- The Atoner: Dr Baxter was trying to come clean with Archer Story about The Conspiracy, but due to advancing dementia he's unable to get his point across before his murder.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Aubrey is bad at standing up for herself, letting her father and her boyfriend push her around. She strongly suspects that Mildred Story chooses her as The Favourite grandchild because she's the demure one. However, when her father pushes her a little too far, haranguing her over the phone for not being "proactive" in charming Mildred, she finally blows up at him, asking if he means "proactive" like he was in knocking up her swimming coach and hangs up on him. She's also the one who solves the mystery after stealing a security card to access the house.
- Big Secret:
- Jonah Story is really Jonah North, whose parents were bankrupted by Anders Story. The real Jonah Story persuaded him to take his place at Gull Cove Island so he could go to the summer camp he'd been accepted to.
- Allison got pregnant at eighteen by local boy Matt Ryan, Teresa Ryan's son and the third point in Anders' Love Triangle with Kayla.
- Because of the above, Adam and Anders decided to Murder the Hypotenuse.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Storys.
- Adam Story (Aubrey's father) is The Favourite, the handsome, athletic, charming one. He views himself as a misunderstood genius on the strength of having written a bestselling book ten years earlier and nothing since. That book was about a
Gary Stu author who can't get away from his legions of fans. Refuses to take responsibility for anything, whether it's knocking up Aubrey's swimming coach or his part in Matt Ryan's murder. - Anders Story (Jonah's father) is a Corrupt Corporate Executive who scammed people out of their savings and got away scott free. His Lack of Empathy is his defining trait, viewing other people as merely tools to get what he wants and taking no responsibility for the damage he does.
- Allison Story (Millie's mother) is an Ice Queen whose marriage fell apart because she couldn't stop pushing people away.
- Archer Story is The Alcoholic and basically a drifter.
- Adam Story (Aubrey's father) is The Favourite, the handsome, athletic, charming one. He views himself as a misunderstood genius on the strength of having written a bestselling book ten years earlier and nothing since. That book was about a
- Blue Blood: The Story family can trace its roots back to the Mayflower and more or less owns Gull Cove Island. Jonah describes their level of wealth as, "fuck-you money and then some."
- Bystander Syndrome: Allison Story didn't kill Matt Ryan, and couldn't have saved him. But she could have reported her older brothers and didn't, hence Teresa Ryan's grudge against her.
- Convenient Miscarriage: Averted horribly with Allison. After the initial shock of learning she's pregnant and the heartbreak of being ghosted by the father, she decides she's open to the idea of having a baby, and that with her family's resources she's in a better position to cope than most teenage girls. Then she has a miscarriage, and it breaks her heart all over again.
- Cool Uncle: Archer ends up becoming this, especially to Aubrey.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Mildred Story died of a heart condition twenty four years ago. The Story children were really disinherited by her assistant, her lawyer and the family doctor.
- Distinguishing Mark: Aubrey has a port wine stain on her arm, identical to the one her grandmother Mildred has on her hand.
- Dramatic Irony: At the Summer Gala, Millie hopes her mother was happier at her own gala. This comes right after the flashback chapter revealing that Allison probably felt even worse.
- Gender-Blender Name: Aubrey is technically a boy's name (the female version would be Audrey), lending weight to Aubrey's belief that her father wanted a boy.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the climax, Teresa Ryan has Aubrey and Archer at gunpoint, intending to kill Aubrey as payback for Adam killing Ryan. Archer gets her to aim at him instead by pretending to have been in on Matt's murder, when in fact he knew nothing about it. Fortunately the "sacrifice" part is averted as Aubrey takes advantage of the gun being off her to tackle Teresa.
- Karma Houdini:
- In the backstory, Anders Story ran a pyramid scheme that lost many people their savings. However, no-one could prove he did anything worse than give bad financial advice. Jonah North is posing as Jonah Story in order to prevent any possibility of Anders being re-inherited.
- It's noted that there's no actual proof that Adam and Anders Story had anything to do with Matt's death, as the only testimony comes from a now-dead fraudster. In fact, the publicity briefly puts Adam's book back on the bestseller list.
- Paula Donahue, who has been posing as Mildred Story for twenty-four years as she, her sister, the lawyer and the family doctor bled the estate dry, gets away clean with whatever cash she was able to get offshore.
- Like Parent, Like Spouse: A variation occurs when Aubrey realizes that her relationship with her boyfriend is very similar to her relationship with her father, much to her disgust.
- Never My Fault: Adam and Anders Story.
- Adam Story cannot handle criticism of any kind, viewing his infidelity as "something that happened to our family rather than something he did."
- Anders Story ran a pyramid scheme that financially ruined people, including Jonah North's parents, walked away with no consequences and views his victims as adults who chose to invest their money with him.
- Both of them claim to have no idea what "You know what you did" refers to, although they both took part in murdering Matt. Granted, they might not know why their mother would disinherit them and their siblings over it, but the fact that Adam referred to the murder site in his book as "the place where it all went wrong" sort of indicates he knew something.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Dr Baxter really does have dementia, but he intentionally jogs the coffee table and fakes an episode to interrupt his granddaughter's interview with the cousins. Jonah thinks it's because the granddaughter is making Millie uncomfortable, but after Dr Baxter's murder realises it was because she was about to reveal a secret.
- Revealing Cover Up: Mildred Story's lawyer is so adamant about getting the cousins to leave Gull Cove Island, it makes Millie especially determined to find out what happened twenty-four years earlier.
- Revenge Before Reason:
- When Millie and Jonah are caught making out at the Summer Gala, Jonah could have protected Millie by explaining that they're not really cousins because he's an impostor, but instead chose to keep up the charade in an attempt to ensure Anders Story does not get re-inherited. He comes to regret that later, when he realises he cares more about Millie than his revenge.
- Jonah North, upon being exposed as an impostor, confronts Anders Story for ruining his parents. Anders retorts that the Norths were adults who chose to risk their savings on investments.
- Running Gag: Is "re-inherited" a word?
- Spotting the Thread:
- When the cousins are on their way to dinner with the lawyer, Aubrey is startled to hear that one of the beaches they pass is called Cutty Bay, as Cutter Bay is a location in her father's novel described as "where it all went wrong." Turns out this is where he and Anders drowned Matt Ryan.
- Millie realises Jonah isn't who he says he is when she sees him eat shrimp, as the real Jonah is allergic.
- Millie also recognises Chaz Jones as the missing Uncle Archer when he appears in an 80's cover band and sings Toto's Africa'', which Millie has seen the Story siblings singing together in an old video.
- When Aubrey spills coffee on Mildred, forcing her to remove her gloves, she sees that Mildred doesn't have the Distinguishing Mark that Aubrey inherited from her.
- Squick:
- Jonah is clearly attracted to Millie at first sight, before realising she's his cousin, and remains hyperaware of her appearance afterwards. They're not related, as he's an impostor, but he can't exactly tell her that.
- When the cousins meet Hazel Baxter-Clement to be interviewed for her thesis on island history, she seems to forget who she's talking to and repeats some gossipy rumours, including that Allison Story was knocked up by one of her brothers.
- A mass example of this occurs when Jonah and Millie are caught making out by everyone at the Summer Gala, all of whom think they're cousins.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Jonah certainly applies, which is one of the things that confuses Milly upon first meeting him, when she thinks he's her actual cousin.
- Adam Story also applies, both in the past and the present day, in spite of his extremely unpleasant personality.
- Wham Line:
- When the cousins arrive at the resort and realise their grandmother had no idea they were coming.
- Jonah is an impostor.
- Archer Story is on the island incognito...
- ...and is the person who really invited them to the island.
- She didn't have a birthmark.
- Would Hurt a Child: When Teresa Ryan has Aubrey at gunpoint, she muses that she'd like to kill Adam Story's only child, as he killed her son Matt.
This entire family is built on secrets, right? It's the Story legacy.
