Cousins Ruby and Yasmin have grown up together in their close-knit family. But that doesn’t mean they have to like each other, does it? Ruby can’t stand the oh-so-perfect (perfectly snide) Yasmin, that’s for sure. As for Yasmin, she certainly loves lording it over Ruby. But is everything as it seems? Or are both cousins hiding secrets? And aren’t there always two sides to every story? Author Karen McCombie shares the inspiration behind her new Barrington Stoke novella, My Perfect Cousin.
The idea for ‘My Perfect Cousin’ came about after a get-together with my old schoolfriends, Yulinda and Alison. The three of us have been friends since we were thirteen, and decades later, we still meet up a couple of times a year and chat and laugh, just as we always have done. Back in secondary school, we’d been vaguely aware of each other, but only really clicked when we were 13 and ended up in the same class for Art (our favourite subject). Apart from adoring all things arty, it turned out we loved the same music and had the same silly and surreal sense of humour.
When the three of us get together now, we mostly catch up on our present-day lives, and only occasionally find ourselves reminiscing about our time at secondary. During that particular recent meet-up, we did slip into a “Do you remember so-and-so?” schooldays chat, then realised we all had a different perspective on the boy we were talking about.
That evening, after I gave Yulinda and Alison big “see-you-next-time” hugs, I began to think about three distinctly different students I knew well from my teenage years. Here’s a quick snapshot of each…
GRACE: Our school had a very predictable uniform policy; navy blazer, navy skirt (no trousers allowed for the girls – boo!), white shirt and the inevitable and ugly stripy tie. But Grace was a rebel when it came to bending the rules around appropriate clothing… she’d accessorise the uniform with patterned tights in different, loud colours and black tap shoes (with the noisy taps taken off, thankfully!). Most intriguing of all, Grace wore black, fingerless gloves all year round, with lacy pairs for summer and woolly ones for winter. Plenty of people thought she was a bit of a freak because of the way she dressed, but I loved Grace’s quirky style.
HEATHER: A manic worrier, often super-shy and socially awkward… these days, I guess you’d say Heather suffered from anxiety. Speaking aloud in front of people she’d freeze in fear (not great in our German class, when talking in the language was part of the lesson!). When it came to exams, I remember her being almost physically sick in the run-up to them. She even missed an amazing school exchange trip to Germany because her head was in a terrible tangle about being so far from home. She was a sweet kid who got frustrated with all the worrying and awkwardness and anxiety holding her back.
RIA: Our school was a normal state school, with around half the students coming from the distinctly posh end of town, and the rest from nearby social housing. Ria lived with her family in the only high-rise block in the area. The way it worked out, most of Ria’s friends came from the posh end, and Ria would often hang out at their bigger houses after school or at weekends. Her own flat was nice, and her neighbours were great, but I knew Ria felt uncomfortable with inviting her friends back to her place… she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder about the difference in where they all lived. It took a while for her to trust that her friends didn’t care, plus they loved the novelty of going up in a lift and seeing the amazing view from Ria’s 15th storey bedroom window.
Okay, so why am I telling you about these long-ago girls I knew, and what does it have to do with my latest book? Well – plot twist! – Grace, Heather and Ria are all me, all different aspects of my younger self, colliding into one messy teenage Karen. So yes, the ‘Grace’ side could’ve appeared brave (or weird!) to outsiders, but she represented the one area in my life where I felt I could express myself. In most other areas I was an uncomfortable muddle of ‘Heather’-esque stress and shyness. And like ‘Ria’, I lived in a council flat, and slowly came to realise my friends didn’t look down on me because of it, although certain people did… Another schoolfriend’s mother treated me with absolute distain whenever I was round at their house. The prejudice oozed out of her, and however polite and friendly I was I’d be met with a snobby put-down.
Obviously, I’m using my younger self as an example here, but everyone is a collection of personality traits; some brilliant, some negative, with grades of variations in between. The trouble is, humans have an unhelpful habit of making knee-jerk assumptions about others very quickly and stubbornly hold onto to those assumptions from that point forward. But if we take a minute and acknowledge that our own personalities are made up of diverse layers, it’s worth doing the same for other people.
Which brings me to ‘My Perfect Cousin’. Ruby has a very fixed idea of what makes her more successful – and devious – cousin Yasmin tick. But as the story unfolds, the reader starts to spot what’s actually going on in both girls’ lives, and understand the truth behind Ruby and Yasmin’s toxic relationship…
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Ruby can’t stand her “perfect” cousin Yasmin. Yasmin is pretty, popular and has a gorgeous boyfriend Max. She’s set to get excellent grades in her GCSEs and her parents won’t stop going on about how brilliant she is.
Ruby always feel small and hopeless around Yasmin, and whenever she gets any attention, Yasmin tries to make sure the spotlight turns back to her.
Or that’s how Ruby feels anyway. But is there another side to the story?
Particularly suitable for readers aged 11+ with a reading age of 7.