Book Review: Cousins by Aurora Venturini

I picked this one up for the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do  - HRCYED 2026 

Once of the challenges is to read books with relatives in the title. Voila. 

THIS is a fantastic book, and I am glad I did have the prompt.  I am overall not finding the HRCYED to really be encouraging me to read more diversely or find new books.  Instead I find I am pocking around seeing what might fit what challenge and that is less fun than I expected.  The challenges involve things like "Weather on the cover"  which... well... isn't really that inspiring.  I hoped this would really lean into reading more diversely, but it's very easy to ignore that part and just read books with weather on the cover that are all romances, set in comfortable cozy small towns, or books with relatives in the title that are not at all diverse. So, will I do it again?  Right now I am thinking No  because I've picked up so many books to fulfill prompts that were particularly bad books. 

However, Cousins  is a wonderfully surprising small novel.  Translated From Spanish, this is an Argentinian author that published this in 2007 at the age of 85. 

I loved it.  The writing style is unique. The story is unique, and dark and funny all at the same time. I found myself alternately troubled, then giggling, then surprised all within about 200 pages. 

Without spoilers, our main character is Yuna and she reflects so many feelings over time that I could heavily relate to. She's disabled by a lisp, but she takes heart that at least she isn't in a chair like her disabled sister.  over time, she takes some art lessons, and while her family scoffs, her teacher sees her promise and sets her on a path towards her own independence through her skills.  Yuna narrates all the events she and her cousins experience in a straightforward and factual manner and her narration style improves as she ages and works to further educate herself.  Along the way, Yuna is witness to numerous tragedies that befall young women across the globe. 

There is SO MUCH to un pack and pick apart in these 200 pages. 

\There are family relations, obligations, friendships. There are power imbalances, and coming of age moments.  There's family expectations, and the behavior of women among themselves... and more. 

I did love this entire experience. I feel it is BEST on Audio book - especially as the unusual punctuation can just drive a person wild.  PERFECT BOOK CLUB BOOK for gen Z, but be cautious of triggers. 

STATS

First Published:  2007

Pages: 206

Available as an Audio Book :  Yes 6 hrs

Trigger Warnings: disability, SA, pregnancy, abortion, Child abuse, poverty, blood, feces, and urine mentions. 

(this is not a full list, read responsibly)