“The Killer's Cousin” by Nancy Werlin

“The Killer's Cousin” by Nancy Werlin

The book is about the guilt. David is an attractive character who refuses to be paralyzed by his images, and has actual recourse to action, both physical and mental. He is a heroic figure. His personality is further developed through aspects of the narrative that draw upon the other genres. For instance, this is also a mystery (Anita 2006). The suspense builds gradually and the reader asks questions like, Did David murder his girlfriend Emily? What is Lily's involvement in her older sister Kathy's death? What is the meaning of Lily's apparent hatred and sabotage of David? This is also a school story that deals with David's arrival at a new school (Jane 1999). The novel doesn't stretch on the anxiety, however: Lily may have her emotional grounds, but her compulsion to control and her exploitation of her relatives are typical awful stone substance. David Yaffe has accidentally killed his beloved girlfriend during his final year of high-school. The circumstances reveal themselves in small flashes throughout his narrative, but the main story is about his eleven-year-old cousin Lily (Bernard Alger 2002). David boards with her family while repeating his final school year away from his old home and the bad memories (Patricia 2010).

So much of the book's enjoyment is that of a bright thriller, in fact, that the guarantee of expect and salvation for Lily at the end appear a bit anticlimactic regardless of its thematically practical closure-Lily's just more enjoyable to read about when she's evil. (SueAnn 2006). David senses her ghostly presence on many occasions, with her urgent message to 'help Lily'. Lily meanwhile is one very disturbed girl. With a hatred and cunning beyond her years she turns David's life into a daily nightmare (Anita 2006).

The reason for her behaviour is the crux of the novel. The killer's cousin is not who we think, and the climax comes when David saves Lily's life and punishes her by doing so. Punishment, as David knows is living with the fact that he has killed, and that 'normal' is no longer possible (Jane 1999).

'The more eminent approach outfit the book's ethical quizzical, which will intrigue readers' interest, and they'll be sucked right into the supernaturally perimeter tale of the lumber of the awful history and its consequence on the prospect. David observes their attempts at interaction with a wry detachment and a few chuckles (Bernard Alger 2002). He is a deep and engaging character whose raw honesty draws us into his skin. In The Killer's Cousin, Nancy Werlin has written a skillfully crafted novel for young adults that stay within the limits of the Gothic genre, but at the same time taps into other familiar genres (Patricia 2010). Werlin does not situate her 17-year-old male protagonist, David Yaffe, within the expected (male-dominated) form of the horror novel, which relies on gory details and charnel house effects created by vampires, ghouls, and demons to frighten the readers ...