The Considine Curse
by Gareth P. Jones
Published by Bloomsbury
The Considine Curse is about 14-year-old Mariel and her mother Lynda. The story starts when they come back to England from Australia for Mariel’s grandmother’s funeral. It is only then that the teenager discovers she has five uncles, four aunties and six cousins. Why would her mother keep this from her for her whole life? However, Mariel doesn’t get the warmest of welcomes from her cousins. She starts to wonder if there was a good reason why her mother kept her family from her.
Mariel soon finds out that her instinct is correct as her younger relations start behaving in wild ways…
Gareth P. Jones’s writes really well and gives the reader enough clues to make you want to keep on reading. The characters, a mix of girls and boys, are drawn with such variety that any reader is sure to like one.
My favourite was Mariel because she is very funny and told the story in an exciting way. I didn’t really like her mum because she didn’t tell Mariel about the family, and was also going to make her leave Australia without asking her opinion.
I recommend this book for children in Years 7 and 8 as it is a very good read and will make you laugh and jump out of your skin.