My Perfect Cousin

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Pub Date 30 Oct 2019 | Archive Date 1 Jun 2020

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Description

Rural Ireland in the late 1980s and, stuck in a rut in a small unnamed village, are sixteen-year-old cousins Laura and Kevin. The close cousins and constant companions ache to abscond to somewhere bigger, better, more exciting, where they are free to do what they want to do, free to become who they really are.

But things are holding them back. As well as having to cope with family tragedies, the troubled, music-obsessed teens must also negotiate the tricky terrain of burgeoning sexuality, the pitfalls of adolescence, and issues of homosexuality that seem, confusingly, to impinge upon them.

And then there is Laura’s own serious affliction, epilepsy, which comes and goes when she least expects it. Only cousin Kevin knows how to handle this tricky situation, or handle her: with gentleness, with sympathy, and with maybe just a little too much in the way of love and affection.

The months and the spiraling family crises serve only to bring them closer together: but how close is too close?

And then there is the strange matter of the nearby pond: this small body of water keeps drawing them near. Laura is convinced that something lurks down there, but Kevin eschews, putting it all down to the psychological trauma she is going through. Are they prepared for whatever secrets might come bubbling to the surface, monsters real or imagined that could come rising from the depths?

Colin O’Sullivan returns to a familiar (and formative) Irish setting with this punchy novel that grows in pace page by page. 1980s references abound, not only with music giants of the time, Boy George, Madonna et al, but also the politics of Gorbachev and Reagan, literal and figurative walls that are about to be torn down and imminent societal changes. Although rooted in the past, this fraught and frantic work is startlingly relevant and makes us consider today’s current affairs.

Rural Ireland in the late 1980s and, stuck in a rut in a small unnamed village, are sixteen-year-old cousins Laura and Kevin. The close cousins and constant companions ache to abscond to somewhere...


Advance Praise

“Colin O'Sullivan's writing is an antic, mordant and perverse plunge into strange and unnerving worlds.” Colin Barrett

“Colin O'Sullivan's writing is an antic, mordant and perverse plunge into strange and unnerving worlds.” Colin Barrett


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9780993433184
PRICE £3.50 (GBP)

Average rating from 7 members


Featured Reviews

My Perfect Cousin is one of those "coming of age" stories that really does leave you yearning to relive your own experiences in that arena - not perhaps in the time and place that O'Sullivan so ecstatically brings to life here, but the moments, the moods and the momentum that he describes is spot on. Except for the things that suddenly lift this book out of a familiar milieu and into a far more sinister place. And that's what makes this book read so well.

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In rural Ireland, in a small Irish village, cousins Laura and Kevin, 16, are constant companions. Both are to some extent outsiders, misfits, and struggle with their unsatisfactory home and school lives. Each is struggling with the problems of adolescence, with family tragedy, and in Laura’s case, serious illness. The restrictions of small town life weigh on them and it’s no surprise that they draw closer and closer to each other. As their relationship intensifies, so do the pressures of growing up. I loved this book. It’s sensitive, intelligent, insightful, narrated in a measured and non-judgemental way, and I was immediately invested in Laura and Kevin’s fate. An excellent and highly recommended read.

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I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley and Betimes Books. From the outset I was drawn into the narrative written from a 3rd person perspective. The author creates a setting full of nuance and a limited but important cast of characters. He also created twists to that narrative that messed with my head as my mind created potential developments. It is full of emotion light and dark - oh so dark. I think it gives a new angle to LGBT writing. It is an individual piece of work only slightly marred by the author's need to use as many long or little known words from the dictionary I bet he had a thesaurus glued to his hand as he wrote this.

It is difficult to slot this into a genre I would suggest it has elements of mystery / thrill / horror and yet this doesn't define its literary elements. The LGBT has great significance in the end but is not the whole story

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This one is a bit dark- brooding might be the best word. You know from the first chapter life is not going to be all lollipops and rainbows for Laura and Kevin, and so when bad things happen, you aren't surprised, BUT....it's the depth of things with our modern take, that make us gasp and scream at the characters to NOT do the things they are about to do, and then when it gets really really bad, you're actually surprised at the characters, and their strength and resolve. It's a tale of assumptions and bad decisions, and one that will stay with you for awhile!

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