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My Sister Rosa
What if the most terrifying person you know is your ten-year-old sister?
Seventeen-year-old Aussie Che Taylor loves his younger sister, Rosa. But he's also certain that she's a psychopath--clinically, threateningly, dangerously. Recently Rosa has been making trouble, hurting things. Che is the only one who knows; he's the only one his sister trusts. Rosa is smart, talented, pretty, and very good at hiding what she is and the manipulation she's capable of.
Their parents, whose business takes the family from place to place, brush off the warning signs as Rosa's -acting out.- Now that they have moved again--from Bangkok to New York City--their new hometown provides far too many opportunities for Rosa to play her increasingly complex and disturbing games. Che's always been Rosa's rock, protecting her from the world. Now, the world might need protection from her.
Seventeen-year-old Aussie Che Taylor loves his younger sister, Rosa. But he's also certain that she's a psychopath--clinically, threateningly, dangerously. Recently Rosa has been making trouble, hurting things. Che is the only one who knows; he's the only one his sister trusts. Rosa is smart, talented, pretty, and very good at hiding what she is and the manipulation she's capable of.
Their parents, whose business takes the family from place to place, brush off the warning signs as Rosa's -acting out.- Now that they have moved again--from Bangkok to New York City--their new hometown provides far too many opportunities for Rosa to play her increasingly complex and disturbing games. Che's always been Rosa's rock, protecting her from the world. Now, the world might need protection from her.
405 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2016
433 people are currently reading
13036 people want to read
About the author
Justine Larbalestier
27 books761 followersJustine Larbalestier is an Australian young-adult fiction author. She is best known for the Magic or Madness trilogy: Magic or Madness, Magic Lessons and the newly released Magic's Child. She also wrote one adult non-fiction book, the Hugo-nominated The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction (Best Related Book, 2003), and edited another, Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century.
Her surname has been pronounced in several different ways, but the FAQ on her website says that Lar-bal-est-ee-air is correct:
Q: How do you pronounce your surname? A: Lar-bal-est-ee-air. It can also be pronounced Lar-bal-est-ee-ay or Lar-bal-est-ee-er. Those are all fine by me. Friends at school used to pronounce it: Lavaworm. I have to really like you to let you get away with that one, but.
Larbalestier was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. She now alternates living between Sydney and New York City.
In 2001, Justine married fellow author Scott Westerfeld.
Her surname has been pronounced in several different ways, but the FAQ on her website says that Lar-bal-est-ee-air is correct:
Q: How do you pronounce your surname? A: Lar-bal-est-ee-air. It can also be pronounced Lar-bal-est-ee-ay or Lar-bal-est-ee-er. Those are all fine by me. Friends at school used to pronounce it: Lavaworm. I have to really like you to let you get away with that one, but.
Larbalestier was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. She now alternates living between Sydney and New York City.
In 2001, Justine married fellow author Scott Westerfeld.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,617 reviews
February 10, 2016
4.5 stars!! Maybe a 4.75, I don't know, I'm still reeling from the ending.
This was phenomenal. Rosa is so twisted, creepy and scary. I would be terrified if I had a sister like her!
Despite all she has done to him, and put him through, Che still cares deeply for Rosa, even if he too is a little scared of her. He was a wonderful protagonist. Probably one of the most realistic teenage male characters I have ever come across. The way he has so many conflicting emotions, his decisions, his voice, it was all so incredibly believable and true.
There was quite a lot of build up, which made this a bit of a slower read towards the start and could have been condensed a little more. But at the same time it made the climax so much more intense! The last 100 pages really just... wow. Wow. I can't say much more. WHEW.
This was phenomenal. Rosa is so twisted, creepy and scary. I would be terrified if I had a sister like her!
Despite all she has done to him, and put him through, Che still cares deeply for Rosa, even if he too is a little scared of her. He was a wonderful protagonist. Probably one of the most realistic teenage male characters I have ever come across. The way he has so many conflicting emotions, his decisions, his voice, it was all so incredibly believable and true.
There was quite a lot of build up, which made this a bit of a slower read towards the start and could have been condensed a little more. But at the same time it made the climax so much more intense! The last 100 pages really just... wow. Wow. I can't say much more. WHEW.
February 28, 2018
3.75⭐️
Pheeeww, where to begin...
The story's told from the first person POV of Che and as much as I dislike first-person narratives with a passion, surprisingly, I didn’t seem to mind it here because it's a coming of age story in which Che reaches many of the important benchmarks of being a teenager and mainly because the book is about a record of his thoughts, emotions, and feelings as to how deeply he's disturbed by his sister, his family, and other matters that surround his life.
Here's where I get a bit contradictory, when I first heard about this novel I assumed it would talk about psychopathy focused on children, i.e Rosa, from a medical standpoint, however, there are no professionals involved nor are there official diagnostics in any way shape or form. Aside from The Hare Psychopathy Checklist, a benchmark against which Che uses as a comparison in Rosa’s behavior, the whole book is about his doubts and fears as to what Rosa really is, her power over his entire life and how he has to go about “preventing the bomb from exploding”, which was a bit of an unexpected disappointment, hence the low rating.
Another issue is the writing, which I found to be too repetitive. The book is dialogue-heavy so there is a great deal of repetition in the character interactions, in particular, Rosa and Che’s conversations which I can understand to a certain degree because despite not being able to get through to her, Che has to constantly repeat himself to Rosa as to what she should and/or should not do over and over again. But when the repetitiveness reaches even the exposition is when I stop being forgiving. Che’s inner monologue about his feelings toward Sid-the girl he instantly falls for-, in which he constantly repeats the same things, be it about her looks, how much he wants to kiss her or how beautiful she is, so on and so forth, though endearing, at a certain point I'm going to need a new material to read.
Leaving aside those issues, I loved how the book was incredibly eerie-not as eerie as I would’ve liked but enough to feel a cold chill down the spine-.
Throughout the novel there’s a steadily rising tension—every time Che starts to feel at home in New York, like make friends or feel closer to Sid, Rosa does something to remind him that she’s the one pulling the strings. It had that subtle creep-factor that was omnipresent and always threatening to strike.
There is also a wide variety of nuanced and complex diverse characters in this book which is always a great thing.
✨ Che:
“having rosa for a sister makes me view people differently. I don’t trust charm... the only people I instantly trust are the ones who are uneasy around Rosa.”
“Rosa was a toddler when I first made her promise not to kill.”
Che, one word, wow.
How do you keep it together when you know a train crash is approaching but no one believes you?
“I sometimes wonder if rosa is an alien virus. Everyone she touches is infected with the same inhuman DNA: she turns us grey. I'm sure I was a different person before she was born. A happier person.”
Che’s entire life Rosa. Managing Rosa. Containing Rosa. Trying to keep people (primarily kids) away from Rosa. She controls every aspect of his life.
He knows that Rosa isn't the adorable little girl everyone is fooled by. The world sees a math prodigy, a stunner in talent and beauty with a radiant and charming personality. She snares everyone in her vicinity into her web and manipulates to her heart's content. Only he can see her cold, manipulative, unempathetic, attention-seeking streak.
His parents don't want to talk about her behaviour and suggest that it might be more detrimental to her if she were labelled as having a mental disorder. Che, however, believes the family has a responsibility to protect others from Rosa.
Since Rosa was born, he feels the responsibility of teaching her right and wrong has fallen on him and struggles to determine how he should teach her the meaning of being good and how to be good without having to be coerced to do so.
“Mostly I think about how Rosa is never going to understand why I make her keep so many promises. How can I make her see that being good isn’t a game?”
Did I also forget to mention the girl doesn’t sleep? The girl does not sleep! Most nights she creeps into his bedroom sits at the edge of his bed and just stares at him. I’m getting creeped out just writing this.
She constantly watches him, studies him, she even stalks him but what’s more frightening is that she also understands him more than anyone else in his life. One single glance in his direction and she knows what he’s thinking.
“You want to pass for a normal person? Don’t tiptoe into people’s bedrooms at night! Ever!’
‘I can be creepy in front of you.’
‘No, you can’t! You need to go now.’
‘I’ll go watch the parentals.”
'“Set it on fire, watch it burn.”
Is that what she’s trying to do to me?'
“The thought of her growing up is terrifying.”
“Talking to you is like talking to . . .” I was going to say the devil. “A slippery eel.”
‘I can’t help thinking about what Rosa said to me when she was four:
“I can make you cry if I want to.”
I laughed. “I've got a pretty high pain threshold, kid. But go ahead, punch me.”
“Not ouch pain, silly”
“What kind of pain, then?”
rosa pointed at my heart.’
*shivers*
✨ Rosa:
This eerie ten-year-old serial killer in the making gave me the shivers the whole way through. I was equally fascinated and terrified by her and every scene with her (which could have been more!) had me on edge.
Callous, indifferent, fascinated by pain, she is a threat to all those around her, whether or not her parents see it. She’s a truly chilling figure, seemingly unpredictable in her violence yet methodical in her manipulations of those around her.
She can’t empathize with others and there are only one of two ways she sees people as, useful or not useful.
In short, this girl was eerie AF!
“Didn’t anyone ask you where your parents are?"
"They asked. Especially about my parents."
"What did you tell them?"
"I said I ate them."
"Jesus, Rosa.”
“I like that you like me best. I like being liked.”
✨ The parentals:
“I can feel my anger building. I want to scream at them that I'm their seventeen-year-old son, not Rosa’s co-parent. But I am, even if they’ll never admit it.”
Before we go any further, may I just point out how much I hated these two?
I HATED THEIR POMPOUS ASS.
*Composes herself*
Now that that’s out of the way, let us proceed…
David and Sally believe in not assuming traditional parenting roles. They insist the children call them by their first names to show that they are not defined by their roles as parents. Rosa and Che also understand that their parents do not love them as much as they love each other.
I'm no parent so far be it from me to comment on anything related to parenting and I could also understand that everyone has their own parenting method, after all, to each his own, right? But when you're so negligent and deluded to the point where you can't even acknowledge the fact that there are clear obvious issues (issues that must be addressed) with your child? Well, that's just taking the cake.
One child is heavy with too much burden, far beyond his limit and is about to combust, the other is a potential psychopath, a future destructor, if you will, and they’re worried about “making the world a better place”? Fantastic, that is absolutely good and dandy. Much respect for your love of the world and how "it should be run" but have you really the right to say you live to serve the world when you can't even acknowledge that fact that your own child is a danger to society?
‘“You can make more friends, they argued. We’re moving to New York to make the world a better place. Sometimes you have to put the greater good first.”
You care more about the world than me and Rosa, I yelled.’
✨ The Effects of Nature and Nurture:
Obviously, I can't comment on this but throughout the novel, there's the underlying question of are psychopaths products of nature or nurture? Che knows psychiatric illness runs in his family. However, he also believes that brain structure, experiences, and environment help determine the likelihood of someone becoming a psychopath. He discusses the differences in the way he and his sister Rosa were raised that have turned them into different people. He also discusses how a person’s experiences in life can affect his mental stability.
I wish this was more discussed with a scientific data and/or medical analysis as a way to back up the point the book was trying to make, as opposed to just Che's logic and reflection.
✨ What felt too much:
What I really loved about this books is, at its core, it is about the labels we apply to people and the way those labels encourage (unfair) stereotypes and prevent us from seeing people for who they really are.
What I did not like however was, at times, the book felt like a heavy lesson on political, economic and social justice illustrated through all of the characters viewpoints. Which most would say, ‘that's awesome’, right? Well, absolutely and it's always appreciated, but, first of all, the book is about 309 pages and is dubbed as a psychological thriller that talks about child psychopathy (not entirely true but we’ll go with it for argument's sake) secondly, I also mentioned above that it is dialogue-heavy, right?
Well, my point is, the novel was constantly showing us or explaining to us the social and political (unjustified) structures of the world by repetitively mentioning a certain topic every time a character spoke. And I mean, whenever a character, be it a major or a minor one, including the 10/11 year-olds spoke, everything went back to the injustices of the system. I mean, I'm all for a good 'let's right the wrongs of the world' discussion but how could EVERY SINGLE CONVERSATION turn into a political debate? I'm not exaggerating, I listed almost all of the topics that were raised: between friends, between bf and gf, between a parent and a child, between kids... everyone!
I love when a book doesn’t hold back in voicing an opinion, especially about unfairnesses and I could also appreciate that Larbalestier (rightly) feels there’s a need to push these ideas but every character just felt too perfectly upright and too politically aware.
There's a scene where Rosa is talking to her parents and the conversation leads to her talking about the crime rates in New York vs. Bangkok and cops shootings in New York City-. There is also another scene where a shopping session turns into a debate about the illegal state of sweatshop conditions in Asia. This is just a minor example.
The lists below are just some of the topics discussed, which was way too much for a book this size, especially considering the actual premise of the book wasn’t even truly addressed as it should have been.
The only time we get any information about Rosa is when Che’s with her or talking to her, the rest is... well,
Here are a few of the subjects mentioned, some of which are heavily discussed, some lightly:
⤗ Religion
⤗ Atheism (both of which are heavily discussed as Che is an atheist and Sid is religious)
⤗ Police Shootings
⤗ Philosophy
⤗ Racism
⤗ Sexuality
⤗ Non-binary
⤗ Harassment
⤗ Parenting
⤗ Consumerist culture
⤗ Capitalism
⤗Beauty in today's society, or more accurately, its toxic effect on society
⤗ Public schooling
I'm sorry but it was far too much to cram in a short book.
“Rosa is a ticking bomb. I don’t think it matters what you call it: psychopathy, sociopathy, antisocial personality disorder, evil, or the devil within. What matters is how to prevent the bomb from exploding.”
Pheeeww, where to begin...
The story's told from the first person POV of Che and as much as I dislike first-person narratives with a passion, surprisingly, I didn’t seem to mind it here because it's a coming of age story in which Che reaches many of the important benchmarks of being a teenager and mainly because the book is about a record of his thoughts, emotions, and feelings as to how deeply he's disturbed by his sister, his family, and other matters that surround his life.
Here's where I get a bit contradictory, when I first heard about this novel I assumed it would talk about psychopathy focused on children, i.e Rosa, from a medical standpoint, however, there are no professionals involved nor are there official diagnostics in any way shape or form. Aside from The Hare Psychopathy Checklist, a benchmark against which Che uses as a comparison in Rosa’s behavior, the whole book is about his doubts and fears as to what Rosa really is, her power over his entire life and how he has to go about “preventing the bomb from exploding”, which was a bit of an unexpected disappointment, hence the low rating.
Another issue is the writing, which I found to be too repetitive. The book is dialogue-heavy so there is a great deal of repetition in the character interactions, in particular, Rosa and Che’s conversations which I can understand to a certain degree because despite not being able to get through to her, Che has to constantly repeat himself to Rosa as to what she should and/or should not do over and over again. But when the repetitiveness reaches even the exposition is when I stop being forgiving. Che’s inner monologue about his feelings toward Sid-the girl he instantly falls for-, in which he constantly repeats the same things, be it about her looks, how much he wants to kiss her or how beautiful she is, so on and so forth, though endearing, at a certain point I'm going to need a new material to read.
Leaving aside those issues, I loved how the book was incredibly eerie-not as eerie as I would’ve liked but enough to feel a cold chill down the spine-.
Throughout the novel there’s a steadily rising tension—every time Che starts to feel at home in New York, like make friends or feel closer to Sid, Rosa does something to remind him that she’s the one pulling the strings. It had that subtle creep-factor that was omnipresent and always threatening to strike.
There is also a wide variety of nuanced and complex diverse characters in this book which is always a great thing.
✨ Che:
“having rosa for a sister makes me view people differently. I don’t trust charm... the only people I instantly trust are the ones who are uneasy around Rosa.”
“Rosa was a toddler when I first made her promise not to kill.”
Che, one word, wow.
How do you keep it together when you know a train crash is approaching but no one believes you?
“I sometimes wonder if rosa is an alien virus. Everyone she touches is infected with the same inhuman DNA: she turns us grey. I'm sure I was a different person before she was born. A happier person.”
Che’s entire life Rosa. Managing Rosa. Containing Rosa. Trying to keep people (primarily kids) away from Rosa. She controls every aspect of his life.
He knows that Rosa isn't the adorable little girl everyone is fooled by. The world sees a math prodigy, a stunner in talent and beauty with a radiant and charming personality. She snares everyone in her vicinity into her web and manipulates to her heart's content. Only he can see her cold, manipulative, unempathetic, attention-seeking streak.
His parents don't want to talk about her behaviour and suggest that it might be more detrimental to her if she were labelled as having a mental disorder. Che, however, believes the family has a responsibility to protect others from Rosa.
Since Rosa was born, he feels the responsibility of teaching her right and wrong has fallen on him and struggles to determine how he should teach her the meaning of being good and how to be good without having to be coerced to do so.
“Mostly I think about how Rosa is never going to understand why I make her keep so many promises. How can I make her see that being good isn’t a game?”
Did I also forget to mention the girl doesn’t sleep? The girl does not sleep! Most nights she creeps into his bedroom sits at the edge of his bed and just stares at him. I’m getting creeped out just writing this.
She constantly watches him, studies him, she even stalks him but what’s more frightening is that she also understands him more than anyone else in his life. One single glance in his direction and she knows what he’s thinking.
“You want to pass for a normal person? Don’t tiptoe into people’s bedrooms at night! Ever!’
‘I can be creepy in front of you.’
‘No, you can’t! You need to go now.’
‘I’ll go watch the parentals.”
'“Set it on fire, watch it burn.”
Is that what she’s trying to do to me?'
“The thought of her growing up is terrifying.”
“Talking to you is like talking to . . .” I was going to say the devil. “A slippery eel.”
‘I can’t help thinking about what Rosa said to me when she was four:
“I can make you cry if I want to.”
I laughed. “I've got a pretty high pain threshold, kid. But go ahead, punch me.”
“Not ouch pain, silly”
“What kind of pain, then?”
rosa pointed at my heart.’
*shivers*
✨ Rosa:
This eerie ten-year-old serial killer in the making gave me the shivers the whole way through. I was equally fascinated and terrified by her and every scene with her (which could have been more!) had me on edge.
Callous, indifferent, fascinated by pain, she is a threat to all those around her, whether or not her parents see it. She’s a truly chilling figure, seemingly unpredictable in her violence yet methodical in her manipulations of those around her.
She can’t empathize with others and there are only one of two ways she sees people as, useful or not useful.
In short, this girl was eerie AF!
“Didn’t anyone ask you where your parents are?"
"They asked. Especially about my parents."
"What did you tell them?"
"I said I ate them."
"Jesus, Rosa.”
“I like that you like me best. I like being liked.”
✨ The parentals:
“I can feel my anger building. I want to scream at them that I'm their seventeen-year-old son, not Rosa’s co-parent. But I am, even if they’ll never admit it.”
Before we go any further, may I just point out how much I hated these two?
I HATED THEIR POMPOUS ASS.
*Composes herself*
Now that that’s out of the way, let us proceed…
David and Sally believe in not assuming traditional parenting roles. They insist the children call them by their first names to show that they are not defined by their roles as parents. Rosa and Che also understand that their parents do not love them as much as they love each other.
I'm no parent so far be it from me to comment on anything related to parenting and I could also understand that everyone has their own parenting method, after all, to each his own, right? But when you're so negligent and deluded to the point where you can't even acknowledge the fact that there are clear obvious issues (issues that must be addressed) with your child? Well, that's just taking the cake.
One child is heavy with too much burden, far beyond his limit and is about to combust, the other is a potential psychopath, a future destructor, if you will, and they’re worried about “making the world a better place”? Fantastic, that is absolutely good and dandy. Much respect for your love of the world and how "it should be run" but have you really the right to say you live to serve the world when you can't even acknowledge that fact that your own child is a danger to society?
‘“You can make more friends, they argued. We’re moving to New York to make the world a better place. Sometimes you have to put the greater good first.”
You care more about the world than me and Rosa, I yelled.’
✨ The Effects of Nature and Nurture:
Obviously, I can't comment on this but throughout the novel, there's the underlying question of are psychopaths products of nature or nurture? Che knows psychiatric illness runs in his family. However, he also believes that brain structure, experiences, and environment help determine the likelihood of someone becoming a psychopath. He discusses the differences in the way he and his sister Rosa were raised that have turned them into different people. He also discusses how a person’s experiences in life can affect his mental stability.
I wish this was more discussed with a scientific data and/or medical analysis as a way to back up the point the book was trying to make, as opposed to just Che's logic and reflection.
✨ What felt too much:
What I really loved about this books is, at its core, it is about the labels we apply to people and the way those labels encourage (unfair) stereotypes and prevent us from seeing people for who they really are.
What I did not like however was, at times, the book felt like a heavy lesson on political, economic and social justice illustrated through all of the characters viewpoints. Which most would say, ‘that's awesome’, right? Well, absolutely and it's always appreciated, but, first of all, the book is about 309 pages and is dubbed as a psychological thriller that talks about child psychopathy (not entirely true but we’ll go with it for argument's sake) secondly, I also mentioned above that it is dialogue-heavy, right?
Well, my point is, the novel was constantly showing us or explaining to us the social and political (unjustified) structures of the world by repetitively mentioning a certain topic every time a character spoke. And I mean, whenever a character, be it a major or a minor one, including the 10/11 year-olds spoke, everything went back to the injustices of the system. I mean, I'm all for a good 'let's right the wrongs of the world' discussion but how could EVERY SINGLE CONVERSATION turn into a political debate? I'm not exaggerating, I listed almost all of the topics that were raised: between friends, between bf and gf, between a parent and a child, between kids... everyone!
I love when a book doesn’t hold back in voicing an opinion, especially about unfairnesses and I could also appreciate that Larbalestier (rightly) feels there’s a need to push these ideas but every character just felt too perfectly upright and too politically aware.
There's a scene where Rosa is talking to her parents and the conversation leads to her talking about the crime rates in New York vs. Bangkok and cops shootings in New York City-. There is also another scene where a shopping session turns into a debate about the illegal state of sweatshop conditions in Asia. This is just a minor example.
The lists below are just some of the topics discussed, which was way too much for a book this size, especially considering the actual premise of the book wasn’t even truly addressed as it should have been.
The only time we get any information about Rosa is when Che’s with her or talking to her, the rest is... well,
Here are a few of the subjects mentioned, some of which are heavily discussed, some lightly:
⤗ Religion
⤗ Atheism (both of which are heavily discussed as Che is an atheist and Sid is religious)
⤗ Police Shootings
⤗ Philosophy
⤗ Racism
⤗ Sexuality
⤗ Non-binary
⤗ Harassment
⤗ Parenting
⤗ Consumerist culture
⤗ Capitalism
⤗Beauty in today's society, or more accurately, its toxic effect on society
⤗ Public schooling
I'm sorry but it was far too much to cram in a short book.
August 13, 2018
4.5 stars!!! I really enjoyed this book and my issues with it that took away a half star were very very minimal. I would totally recommend! I may add a better review to this later, and I'm thinking of filming a video review if anyone is interested?
I received a free copy of this book from Soho Teen. I had no obligation to review this book and all opinions are my own.
I received a free copy of this book from Soho Teen. I had no obligation to review this book and all opinions are my own.
November 18, 2018
Q: ‘We’ve done an excellent job with our children, don’t you think?' (c) A number on them, more like it.
Q: Rosa was a toddler when I first made her promise not to kill. (c)
Q: I want to scream at them that I’m their seventeen-year-old son, not Rosa’s co-parent. But I am, even if they’ll never admit it. (c)
Bizarre, underresearched and overrated. Most of characters might want to try to get their heads out of their respective asses. It might miraculously cure them of their numerous conditions and improve their quality of life. Vastly. The enertaining value is there but the lack of proper research is abysmal. I don't know, either the author spoke specifically to moron psychologists or wherever else she got her info on psychopathy, that info was lacking a lot of connections with reality...
It irritated me to no end that with Rosa the author makes even the most innocuous things sound ominous and prophets doom and gloom at each of her steps. Which gets old by Chapter 3. Rosa is a psychopath, no questions. Still, a lot of stuff was displayed and explained in a very perverted way, which makes me question the veracity of the whole picture. It was as if the author was trying too hard to make Rosa as much psychopathic as possible by trying to stuff every internet article on the subject into Rosa's character. It registered and undermined this book severely. Rosa is overdone in her certifiability.
Even the craziest stuff her bro and parents display, we hear no incrimination on it, until the very end. And they do a lot of questionable stuff. The parents, the brother, they all are borderline, as well. And the author keeps silent about it. On and on, right until things go amok.
Either the author does not recognise that she wrote a family of psychos, or she prefers to downplay their quirks to make Rosa all the more prominent 'l'enfant terrible' at their expense. Either way it doesn't work. And basically, you get to read a book on misrepresented stuff. Here goes my chance to spoil a couple of totally expected twists.
Q:
Rosa is pushing all the buttons...
We’ve never been in business class. Rosa has to explore everything and figure out what she’s allowed to do and how to get away with what she isn’t. (c) Yes, kids explore this world. It's not a sign of psychopathy but rather of a curiosity in their developing psyche.
Q:
She can get lost like that, pushing buttons, counting sand, calculating angles, figuring out how things work, how to make them work for her...The flight is long: Rosa will get bored, she’ll look for ways to make trouble...
‘Tutors never believe I’m a genius...I am a prodigy, though...
‘I’m a chess prodigy,’ she says...
‘I wrote about how I learned that I’m not allowed to leave the house without you or them accompanying me. Even though I know how to read a map and not to get in a car with a stranger. I learned to not be rude to the police because they can lock you up or kill you if they want to and they won’t get in trouble. I concluded that our society doesn’t let ten-year-olds be independent and brave and explore even if that’s what parents say they want and that’s why most ten-year-olds act like babies. I wrote that in the Amazon there are three-year-olds who already know how to skin and gut an animal and sharpen their own knives, who don’t act like babies. I concluded that I learned that our society is broken.’ (c)
Savant-ish? OCD? Did they even try to give her the really advanced materials before she got to killing things to study/read/enjoy the world in a scientific way? Really, the child is obviously bored out of her mind and gets up to crazy shit. How about letting her learn to use that mind constructively?
Obviously, she's not challenged enough as it is.
Q:
That’s the game she plays. My job is to stop her...
I used to tell the parentals everything Rosa did. I’ve stopped. They’re convinced her acting out – yes, that’s what they call it – is normal for a kid her age. Besides, they always say, she’s much better than she was...
I don’t think it matters what you call it: psychopathy, sociopathy, antisocial personality disorder, evil, or the devil within. What matters is how to prevent the bomb from exploding...
Rosa is a ticking bomb and she’s my responsibility...
Keep Rosa under control... (c) The bro just might be sort of deluded and a bit of a control freak.
And the bunch of diagnoses, very different ones, is not helping there. It's actually borderline name-calling.
Q:
‘See?’ Rosa says. ‘I do care about other people. I helped her. What’s my reward?’
‘Helping someone else is your reward.’
Rosa rolls her eyes. An expression she saves for me. ‘I think the flight attendant should give me her earrings.’ (c)No boundaries. Not necessarily psychopathy.
Q:
‘Close the window, Rosa.’
She slides a small book out of her backpack, turning it so I can see the front.
An Australian passport. She opens it to the photo page: the horrible drunk from the plane.
I lunge as Rosa pushes it out the window.
‘I win,’ Rosa says. (c)So the sis stole a drunk passenger's passport and dealt her own brand of justice. Uh-huh.
Q:
Rosa mostly keeps her promises by finding loopholes. She’ll be a terrifying lawyer. (c)Well,
this society does need lawyers. And I'm sure this quip is taken from the research saying that lawyers (just like about 10 other occupations) attract a lot pshychopaths into their ranges. See, we take a child and go on to criticise it basing on her possible future profession. Like, uh?
Q:
My sister Rosa was born in our Sydney home when I was seven years old. I watched the whole thing,...
Rosa’s birth didn’t traumatise me.
It was beautiful and kind of boring...
The midwife smiled at me. ‘Do you want to see, Che? She’s crowning.’...
In the mirror I could see something dark and slimy between Sally’s legs. It didn’t look like a baby’s head, it looked like a monster...
Rosa shot out so fast she was a blur. The midwife caught her...
She was so little, so perfect, with the biggest eyes I’d ever seen, looking straight at me. I couldn’t stop staring.
The midwife put Rosa on Sally’s belly and Sally cradled the tiny baby in her hands.... (c) Do I need to list a number of things about THIS scene that do not work?
The unrealistic birth?
Grown men sometimes have issues with this process. A 7-year-old boy witnessing his mother giving birth? Not traumatised, of COURSE not. Which just might be why at 17 he could be obsessing about each of her steps.
Meet the dysfunctional family dynamics:
(c) I used every argument to persuade them. That everything since I was twelve has been chaos. Different homes, different cities, different countries. New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and now the USA. Which has meant different schools and sometimes haphazard homeschooling.
How am I going to get into medical school without stability? I didn’t bother to mention how hard it is to not work with my Sydney boxing trainer, Natalie. My parents aren’t thrilled by my boxing.
What about Rosa? I asked. She only had five years in the one home. You’re keeping her away from our extended family, from our aunts and uncles and cousins, grandparents. She needs to be looked after by family, not strangers. How can she make friends when we move so often?
She’s dangerous, I didn’t say.
I talked about how much I missed my friends. How much I missed being surrounded by people who sound like me. How sick I was of being a foreigner.
Friends and family make us who we are, I argued. Everyone needs a community. Rosa especially, I didn’t say.
You can make more friends, they argued. We’re moving to New York to make the world a better place. Sometimes you have to put the greater good first.
You care more about the world than me and Rosa, I yelled.
Which was when I lost. Sally and David have no respect for anyone who resorts to emotion. You have to be calm and rational to win an argument. You have to be an adult even if you aren’t one.I hate you, I didn’t say. (c) Nice family, huh? Actially, healthy people do resort to emotions, at least occasionally, at least with family. And if kids are discouraged from early ages from that, we get a bunch of kids who have issues with emotions. Not necessarily psychopathy. There are lots of things that could go wrong at this juncture. Another thing that drew my attention here is how the boyo carefully edits things he says. That's not too different from his supposedly awful sis.
Q:
Rosa ticks off everything on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist except for promiscuity, driving too fast and other adult sins. Give her time.
The checklists – there are different versions – each have dozens of questions designed to fit into different factors. The four that make sense to me are:
Callousness: Rosa doesn’t care about anyone but herself.
Disinhibition: Rosa is an impulsive thrillseeker. Her risk assessment is terrible because she doesn’t believe anything can happen to her. If she wants something she takes it.
Fearlessness: Nothing scares her. She’s never worried.
Charisma: She has way too much. She can charm most people and get them to do what she wants. (c) Well, this in itself is a very callous evaluation.
Callousness? Young kids can be like that. One has to teach them how to care about people. Preferably by example, not by plotting agaist her (bro) and forbidding emotions (parents).
Thrillseeker? Her risk assessment is terrible? She is not scared of stuff? No shit. She's a young kid.
None of these can vouch a person is psychopath.
Charming? Kids are evolutionally made to be liked.
Any of these could be applicable to any number of people or kids, none of which could be psychopaths. These are not primary or definitive identificators. There aren't even identificators. You can be bad at risk assessment, seeking thrills and charming/rude as hell and have no disorders.
Q:
Rosa learned everything slower than her cousins. Everything that isn’t hardwired...
It was smiling and laughing and hugging and kissing and crying and pointing that came slowly. All the things humans do with each other, and in response to one another, Rosa was slow to acquire. She put her arms up for us to carry her months after her cousins did the same thing. Though once she realised she could use us as taxis she was into it. (c) Actually, many kids are just less socially attuned than others. So, a child might be not into 'putting up her arms', just like that. And conspiring in a crib to use people as taxis?? Spare me.
Q:
For her first two years she barely cried. She was more intrigued than dismayed by cuts or bruises or illnesses. Most babies cry when someone else is crying, especially another baby. Not Rosa.
(c) Some perfectly normal and healthy kids don't scream or otherwise imitate surroundings. Usually, the intellectually advanced ones.
Q:
The not-crying worried the parentals more than anything else. So Rosa started crying. She watched how the cousins did it and copied. Not convincingly at first. She’d make strangled sounds and blink her eyes rapidly to get tears to roll. But Sally and David bought it and after a while she was producing real tears.
She lied with those tears as surely as she did with her words. (c) Once again, the crib consiracy theory is crazy. You have a child. This child is not attuned with repeating stuff, initially. After, I don't know, 6 months out of womb, this child learns how to repeat actions/cry/etc? And? It's not indicative of sociopathy. It's individuality. Yes, people are different. so are kids.
Q:
She wasn’t smiling when we smiled at her. She wasn’t responding to her name. She was almost two and was yet to say a single word. ...
They took her to a doctor.
Lo and behold, Rosa started smiling. She started talking...
She understood what they were saying about her not smiling. She looked up from the toys she was playing with and stretched her mouth wide, showing her teeth. It didn’t look like a real smile... (c) Some children actually start talking only in full phrases and only after they feel ready and are sure that they pronounce stuff correctly. Future perfectionists? Shy kids? It's a kid who learns about the world in a bit different an order than some peers. No big deal.
Q:
Having Rosa for a sister makes me view people differently. I don’t trust charm – not that Leilani is exhibiting any, but I can tell she can when she wants. The only people I instantly trust are the ones who are uneasy around Rosa. (c) Poor guy - so scared of his little sis
Q:
I saw Rosa pinch her own forearm hard and reached across to stop her. She screamed and cried. ‘Che hurt Rosa,’ she blurted.
My hand was on her arm, next to the large red mark...
‘Why did you pinch your baby sister?’
‘I didn’t.’
They didn’t believe me. But the parentals changed their minds a week later when Rosa told a woman on the street that she didn’t want to sleep in the kennel anymore. We didn’t even own a dog.
She only did it when we were out in public. When there were witnesses who wouldn’t believe that the little blonde curly-haired angel could be lying. She did it to embarrass us. She did it because it made her laugh...
She lied to everyone, hid who she was from everyone.
Everyone but me.
Me, she used for triangulation. Me, she watched to see if I frowned at her laughter or joined in. Me, she confided in. (c)
Q:
We find the parentals arguing politics with an old white man handing out anarchist pamphlets on the other side of the park. They haven’t even noticed they lost Rosa. (c)
Q:
Switching my phone to record, I open the door...
‘What did you learn about behaving like a normal person?’
‘I need to lie better. I should have pretended to be sorry straight away. Next time I’ll burst into tears as soon as I see the police.’...
‘Everyone lies,’ Rosa says. ‘Everyone pretends that lying is bad but everyone does it. Telling the truth is ruder than lying. If I told people what I thought, I’d be in trouble all the time. My mistake last night was telling the truth: that I was proud to beat old men at chess. I should have lied.’
(c)Actually, the bro is illicitly gathering proof on his sis behaving in a weird way... How's that matching his ethics?
For one, I strongly dislike pseudo-sience. I also am worried that the author actially got her info from somewhere. And if the official science is actually THAT abysmal on diagnosing the psychopathy problem, then this society is in for a world of pain. I feel that introducing wrong ideas may bring forth the following negative tendencies:
1. If people start diagnosing psychopathy basing on a child starting to talk later or any other likeminded stuff, a lot of kids could get labelled wrongly. A lot of misdiagnostics could ensue.
2. If we begin to consider psychopathy with kids who are introverted enough to not hold hands right away or smile back or whatever, this may blur a lot of the diagnostical edges. Basically, we would start seeing real psychopathy as something of a pretty much harmless quirk. Which it might turn out to be or not, depending on a lot of factors.
Q:
Acting is for those who want to be exploited by misogynist assholes. (c) Sucky-suck.
Q:
‘I’m Dido,’ she says. ‘For those of you who don’t know me, I’m tough, but fair.’
I deduct points because every trainer says some variation of that. I’m waiting for the first one to say, I’m pissweak and totally unfair. (c)
Best parents ever:
Q:
‘You call them by their first names.’...
‘Yes. We always have because, and I’m quoting them again, we are not gendered roles, we are not a mum and a dad, we are people. They also believe that children are people and should be allowed to develop at their own pace and not forced to enact the role of child.’
‘So you get to do whatever you want? Give me some of that!’...
‘I wish. Instead of saying because we told you so they say because we are legally bound to look after you and teach you and should you do this thing we do not wish you to do there could be legally sanctioned repercussions. Even if there aren’t until you are eighteen you have no legal standing to disobey us.’
‘Wow.’
‘Yeah. Arguing with them is like arguing with the wind. A caring, loving wind that wishes it could help you out. But wind. All wind.’
‘Do you ever want to punch them?’ (c)
Q:
They look like tiny members of a psychopathic cheerleading cult. (c)
Q: Rosa was a toddler when I first made her promise not to kill. (c)
Q: I want to scream at them that I’m their seventeen-year-old son, not Rosa’s co-parent. But I am, even if they’ll never admit it. (c)
Bizarre, underresearched and overrated. Most of characters might want to try to get their heads out of their respective asses. It might miraculously cure them of their numerous conditions and improve their quality of life. Vastly. The enertaining value is there but the lack of proper research is abysmal. I don't know, either the author spoke specifically to moron psychologists or wherever else she got her info on psychopathy, that info was lacking a lot of connections with reality...
It irritated me to no end that with Rosa the author makes even the most innocuous things sound ominous and prophets doom and gloom at each of her steps. Which gets old by Chapter 3. Rosa is a psychopath, no questions. Still, a lot of stuff was displayed and explained in a very perverted way, which makes me question the veracity of the whole picture. It was as if the author was trying too hard to make Rosa as much psychopathic as possible by trying to stuff every internet article on the subject into Rosa's character. It registered and undermined this book severely. Rosa is overdone in her certifiability.
Even the craziest stuff her bro and parents display, we hear no incrimination on it, until the very end. And they do a lot of questionable stuff. The parents, the brother, they all are borderline, as well. And the author keeps silent about it. On and on, right until things go amok.
Either the author does not recognise that she wrote a family of psychos, or she prefers to downplay their quirks to make Rosa all the more prominent 'l'enfant terrible' at their expense. Either way it doesn't work. And basically, you get to read a book on misrepresented stuff. Here goes my chance to spoil a couple of totally expected twists.
Q:
Rosa is pushing all the buttons...
We’ve never been in business class. Rosa has to explore everything and figure out what she’s allowed to do and how to get away with what she isn’t. (c) Yes, kids explore this world. It's not a sign of psychopathy but rather of a curiosity in their developing psyche.
Q:
She can get lost like that, pushing buttons, counting sand, calculating angles, figuring out how things work, how to make them work for her...The flight is long: Rosa will get bored, she’ll look for ways to make trouble...
‘Tutors never believe I’m a genius...I am a prodigy, though...
‘I’m a chess prodigy,’ she says...
‘I wrote about how I learned that I’m not allowed to leave the house without you or them accompanying me. Even though I know how to read a map and not to get in a car with a stranger. I learned to not be rude to the police because they can lock you up or kill you if they want to and they won’t get in trouble. I concluded that our society doesn’t let ten-year-olds be independent and brave and explore even if that’s what parents say they want and that’s why most ten-year-olds act like babies. I wrote that in the Amazon there are three-year-olds who already know how to skin and gut an animal and sharpen their own knives, who don’t act like babies. I concluded that I learned that our society is broken.’ (c)
Savant-ish? OCD? Did they even try to give her the really advanced materials before she got to killing things to study/read/enjoy the world in a scientific way? Really, the child is obviously bored out of her mind and gets up to crazy shit. How about letting her learn to use that mind constructively?
Obviously, she's not challenged enough as it is.
Q:
That’s the game she plays. My job is to stop her...
I used to tell the parentals everything Rosa did. I’ve stopped. They’re convinced her acting out – yes, that’s what they call it – is normal for a kid her age. Besides, they always say, she’s much better than she was...
I don’t think it matters what you call it: psychopathy, sociopathy, antisocial personality disorder, evil, or the devil within. What matters is how to prevent the bomb from exploding...
Rosa is a ticking bomb and she’s my responsibility...
Keep Rosa under control... (c) The bro just might be sort of deluded and a bit of a control freak.
And the bunch of diagnoses, very different ones, is not helping there. It's actually borderline name-calling.
Q:
‘See?’ Rosa says. ‘I do care about other people. I helped her. What’s my reward?’
‘Helping someone else is your reward.’
Rosa rolls her eyes. An expression she saves for me. ‘I think the flight attendant should give me her earrings.’ (c)No boundaries. Not necessarily psychopathy.
Q:
‘Close the window, Rosa.’
She slides a small book out of her backpack, turning it so I can see the front.
An Australian passport. She opens it to the photo page: the horrible drunk from the plane.
I lunge as Rosa pushes it out the window.
‘I win,’ Rosa says. (c)So the sis stole a drunk passenger's passport and dealt her own brand of justice. Uh-huh.
Q:
Rosa mostly keeps her promises by finding loopholes. She’ll be a terrifying lawyer. (c)Well,
this society does need lawyers. And I'm sure this quip is taken from the research saying that lawyers (just like about 10 other occupations) attract a lot pshychopaths into their ranges. See, we take a child and go on to criticise it basing on her possible future profession. Like, uh?
Q:
My sister Rosa was born in our Sydney home when I was seven years old. I watched the whole thing,...
Rosa’s birth didn’t traumatise me.
It was beautiful and kind of boring...
The midwife smiled at me. ‘Do you want to see, Che? She’s crowning.’...
In the mirror I could see something dark and slimy between Sally’s legs. It didn’t look like a baby’s head, it looked like a monster...
Rosa shot out so fast she was a blur. The midwife caught her...
She was so little, so perfect, with the biggest eyes I’d ever seen, looking straight at me. I couldn’t stop staring.
The midwife put Rosa on Sally’s belly and Sally cradled the tiny baby in her hands.... (c) Do I need to list a number of things about THIS scene that do not work?
The unrealistic birth?
Grown men sometimes have issues with this process. A 7-year-old boy witnessing his mother giving birth? Not traumatised, of COURSE not. Which just might be why at 17 he could be obsessing about each of her steps.
Meet the dysfunctional family dynamics:
(c) I used every argument to persuade them. That everything since I was twelve has been chaos. Different homes, different cities, different countries. New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and now the USA. Which has meant different schools and sometimes haphazard homeschooling.
How am I going to get into medical school without stability? I didn’t bother to mention how hard it is to not work with my Sydney boxing trainer, Natalie. My parents aren’t thrilled by my boxing.
What about Rosa? I asked. She only had five years in the one home. You’re keeping her away from our extended family, from our aunts and uncles and cousins, grandparents. She needs to be looked after by family, not strangers. How can she make friends when we move so often?
She’s dangerous, I didn’t say.
I talked about how much I missed my friends. How much I missed being surrounded by people who sound like me. How sick I was of being a foreigner.
Friends and family make us who we are, I argued. Everyone needs a community. Rosa especially, I didn’t say.
You can make more friends, they argued. We’re moving to New York to make the world a better place. Sometimes you have to put the greater good first.
You care more about the world than me and Rosa, I yelled.
Which was when I lost. Sally and David have no respect for anyone who resorts to emotion. You have to be calm and rational to win an argument. You have to be an adult even if you aren’t one.I hate you, I didn’t say. (c) Nice family, huh? Actially, healthy people do resort to emotions, at least occasionally, at least with family. And if kids are discouraged from early ages from that, we get a bunch of kids who have issues with emotions. Not necessarily psychopathy. There are lots of things that could go wrong at this juncture. Another thing that drew my attention here is how the boyo carefully edits things he says. That's not too different from his supposedly awful sis.
Q:
Rosa ticks off everything on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist except for promiscuity, driving too fast and other adult sins. Give her time.
The checklists – there are different versions – each have dozens of questions designed to fit into different factors. The four that make sense to me are:
Callousness: Rosa doesn’t care about anyone but herself.
Disinhibition: Rosa is an impulsive thrillseeker. Her risk assessment is terrible because she doesn’t believe anything can happen to her. If she wants something she takes it.
Fearlessness: Nothing scares her. She’s never worried.
Charisma: She has way too much. She can charm most people and get them to do what she wants. (c) Well, this in itself is a very callous evaluation.
Callousness? Young kids can be like that. One has to teach them how to care about people. Preferably by example, not by plotting agaist her (bro) and forbidding emotions (parents).
Thrillseeker? Her risk assessment is terrible? She is not scared of stuff? No shit. She's a young kid.
None of these can vouch a person is psychopath.
Charming? Kids are evolutionally made to be liked.
Any of these could be applicable to any number of people or kids, none of which could be psychopaths. These are not primary or definitive identificators. There aren't even identificators. You can be bad at risk assessment, seeking thrills and charming/rude as hell and have no disorders.
Q:
Rosa learned everything slower than her cousins. Everything that isn’t hardwired...
It was smiling and laughing and hugging and kissing and crying and pointing that came slowly. All the things humans do with each other, and in response to one another, Rosa was slow to acquire. She put her arms up for us to carry her months after her cousins did the same thing. Though once she realised she could use us as taxis she was into it. (c) Actually, many kids are just less socially attuned than others. So, a child might be not into 'putting up her arms', just like that. And conspiring in a crib to use people as taxis?? Spare me.
Q:
For her first two years she barely cried. She was more intrigued than dismayed by cuts or bruises or illnesses. Most babies cry when someone else is crying, especially another baby. Not Rosa.
(c) Some perfectly normal and healthy kids don't scream or otherwise imitate surroundings. Usually, the intellectually advanced ones.
Q:
The not-crying worried the parentals more than anything else. So Rosa started crying. She watched how the cousins did it and copied. Not convincingly at first. She’d make strangled sounds and blink her eyes rapidly to get tears to roll. But Sally and David bought it and after a while she was producing real tears.
She lied with those tears as surely as she did with her words. (c) Once again, the crib consiracy theory is crazy. You have a child. This child is not attuned with repeating stuff, initially. After, I don't know, 6 months out of womb, this child learns how to repeat actions/cry/etc? And? It's not indicative of sociopathy. It's individuality. Yes, people are different. so are kids.
Q:
She wasn’t smiling when we smiled at her. She wasn’t responding to her name. She was almost two and was yet to say a single word. ...
They took her to a doctor.
Lo and behold, Rosa started smiling. She started talking...
She understood what they were saying about her not smiling. She looked up from the toys she was playing with and stretched her mouth wide, showing her teeth. It didn’t look like a real smile... (c) Some children actually start talking only in full phrases and only after they feel ready and are sure that they pronounce stuff correctly. Future perfectionists? Shy kids? It's a kid who learns about the world in a bit different an order than some peers. No big deal.
Q:
Having Rosa for a sister makes me view people differently. I don’t trust charm – not that Leilani is exhibiting any, but I can tell she can when she wants. The only people I instantly trust are the ones who are uneasy around Rosa. (c) Poor guy - so scared of his little sis
Q:
I saw Rosa pinch her own forearm hard and reached across to stop her. She screamed and cried. ‘Che hurt Rosa,’ she blurted.
My hand was on her arm, next to the large red mark...
‘Why did you pinch your baby sister?’
‘I didn’t.’
They didn’t believe me. But the parentals changed their minds a week later when Rosa told a woman on the street that she didn’t want to sleep in the kennel anymore. We didn’t even own a dog.
She only did it when we were out in public. When there were witnesses who wouldn’t believe that the little blonde curly-haired angel could be lying. She did it to embarrass us. She did it because it made her laugh...
She lied to everyone, hid who she was from everyone.
Everyone but me.
Me, she used for triangulation. Me, she watched to see if I frowned at her laughter or joined in. Me, she confided in. (c)
Q:
We find the parentals arguing politics with an old white man handing out anarchist pamphlets on the other side of the park. They haven’t even noticed they lost Rosa. (c)
Q:
Switching my phone to record, I open the door...
‘What did you learn about behaving like a normal person?’
‘I need to lie better. I should have pretended to be sorry straight away. Next time I’ll burst into tears as soon as I see the police.’...
‘Everyone lies,’ Rosa says. ‘Everyone pretends that lying is bad but everyone does it. Telling the truth is ruder than lying. If I told people what I thought, I’d be in trouble all the time. My mistake last night was telling the truth: that I was proud to beat old men at chess. I should have lied.’
(c)Actually, the bro is illicitly gathering proof on his sis behaving in a weird way... How's that matching his ethics?
For one, I strongly dislike pseudo-sience. I also am worried that the author actially got her info from somewhere. And if the official science is actually THAT abysmal on diagnosing the psychopathy problem, then this society is in for a world of pain. I feel that introducing wrong ideas may bring forth the following negative tendencies:
1. If people start diagnosing psychopathy basing on a child starting to talk later or any other likeminded stuff, a lot of kids could get labelled wrongly. A lot of misdiagnostics could ensue.
2. If we begin to consider psychopathy with kids who are introverted enough to not hold hands right away or smile back or whatever, this may blur a lot of the diagnostical edges. Basically, we would start seeing real psychopathy as something of a pretty much harmless quirk. Which it might turn out to be or not, depending on a lot of factors.
Q:
Acting is for those who want to be exploited by misogynist assholes. (c) Sucky-suck.
Q:
‘I’m Dido,’ she says. ‘For those of you who don’t know me, I’m tough, but fair.’
I deduct points because every trainer says some variation of that. I’m waiting for the first one to say, I’m pissweak and totally unfair. (c)
Best parents ever:
Q:
‘You call them by their first names.’...
‘Yes. We always have because, and I’m quoting them again, we are not gendered roles, we are not a mum and a dad, we are people. They also believe that children are people and should be allowed to develop at their own pace and not forced to enact the role of child.’
‘So you get to do whatever you want? Give me some of that!’...
‘I wish. Instead of saying because we told you so they say because we are legally bound to look after you and teach you and should you do this thing we do not wish you to do there could be legally sanctioned repercussions. Even if there aren’t until you are eighteen you have no legal standing to disobey us.’
‘Wow.’
‘Yeah. Arguing with them is like arguing with the wind. A caring, loving wind that wishes it could help you out. But wind. All wind.’
‘Do you ever want to punch them?’ (c)
Q:
They look like tiny members of a psychopathic cheerleading cult. (c)
December 14, 2016
Underwhelming tbh. I was expecting a twisted thriller about a creepy little sister and instead I got a book about a guy that is obsessed with boxing that happens to have a strange little sister. There was also A LOT of discussion about religion, which is so not my thing. Probably wouldn't have picked this up if I had known about that. Either way though this was just pretty meh for me. Meh meh meh.
October 24, 2017
What an awful little girl. 
But that terrible little creature made for a fascinating read. This was an interesting short book that was a little less creepy than I was hoping for but was still a very entertaining read. It is predictable and some of it is not as accurate as many will hope in terms of the psychology aspects but its a fiction book so I do not niche pick.
Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed reading it!
But that terrible little creature made for a fascinating read. This was an interesting short book that was a little less creepy than I was hoping for but was still a very entertaining read. It is predictable and some of it is not as accurate as many will hope in terms of the psychology aspects but its a fiction book so I do not niche pick.
Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed reading it!
June 11, 2023
Wow!!
There are so many things I love about this book. If I ever find the time I will write a full review on my blog.
I loved the story!
Absolutely amazing read.
There are so many things I love about this book. If I ever find the time I will write a full review on my blog.
I loved the story!
Absolutely amazing read.
September 17, 2016
"The flight is long: Rosa will get bored, she'll look for ways to make trouble without Sally and David, our parents, finding out. That's the game she plays. My job is to stop her."
Question: do you like contemporary romances and books about mundane everyday life?
If you do, then congrats. Stop reading this review right now and buy My Sister Rosa. It has spades of diversity, a male protagonist dealing with everyday problems, and a creepy sister for that extra kick.
But if you're like me and went in expecting something similar to Sharp Objects, then you'll be sorely disappointed.
Absolutely nothing happens in the first half. Rosa makes cryptic comments while Che walks around lamenting his family's move to New York and spars and falls in love with a girl who isn't interested. He texts his friends back home, makes new ones and worries.
There's no buildup, no grand reveal that Rosa isn't what she seems. Instead we're told right off the bat Rosa is a psychopath, she's deeply disturbed, then turns the spotlight on our ordinary protagonist living his ordinary life. The second half is better by far if by the simple virtue that the first half bore me to tears. Plot twists come out of the left field, practically giving me whiplash. Rosa's behavior grows more and more unsettling. I thought the ending was Che is the real psychopath after all and Rosa's psychopathic tendencies were the result of an unreliable narrator, but the real thing is so much better.
Ultimately, it's a case of not-my-cup-of-tea. The writing is on the literary side with short sentences and strange metaphors. And if you're the kind of person who likes their endings neatly wrapped with a bow on top, the last chapter will irritate you to no end.
Read Gillian Flynn for the thrill. Read My Sister Rosa for a mirror of everyday life—with a sprinkle of the macabre.
ARC provided by Edelweiss
December 18, 2016
I loved this very dark and disturbing book. The book centers around 17 year old Che and his life that revolves around his creepy little sister Rosa- who he strongly believes is a psychopath. It's a little on the slower side but well worth the read. The twist at the end- never saw it coming!!!!!
March 9, 2020
Audio 5 stars
Story 4.5 So Fucked up Stars
This needs to be a series or at least have there should be a follow-up book. Rosa is one creepy kid that I would not want to cross paths with. 😰
Story 4.5 So Fucked up Stars
This needs to be a series or at least have there should be a follow-up book. Rosa is one creepy kid that I would not want to cross paths with. 😰
November 15, 2016
3.5 but I'll round it up!
Imagine having an adorable and brilliant 10yo sister… but what if she was a psychopath?
The premise of this book really intrigue me and I had to read it! You're following a 17yo boy who tries to keep his sister under control while trying to live his own life.
I enjoyed the book - it slowed down a bit in the middle then picked up again.
With that said, I think I would have enjoyed it more as an adult book than YA. It’s definitely creepy and worth the read!
Imagine having an adorable and brilliant 10yo sister… but what if she was a psychopath?
The premise of this book really intrigue me and I had to read it! You're following a 17yo boy who tries to keep his sister under control while trying to live his own life.
I enjoyed the book - it slowed down a bit in the middle then picked up again.
With that said, I think I would have enjoyed it more as an adult book than YA. It’s definitely creepy and worth the read!
December 28, 2016
What is good: suspense and dread and fascinating conversations with a 10-year old (alleged) psychopath who doesn't really understand how human emotions work and wants to learn how to pass for a normal person.
What is not: perfect in every way teen romance that is incredibly boring; equally boring descriptions of boxing; even more boring pages and pages of boring texting. I respect that Larbalestier is such a socially conscientious and earnest writer (just check out her blog), but very often her views on race, sexuality, politics, etc, came through as lectures in this novel.
What is not: perfect in every way teen romance that is incredibly boring; equally boring descriptions of boxing; even more boring pages and pages of boring texting. I respect that Larbalestier is such a socially conscientious and earnest writer (just check out her blog), but very often her views on race, sexuality, politics, etc, came through as lectures in this novel.
April 26, 2017
Seventeen year old Che Taylor is tired of moving around from country to country. As he sits in the plane next to his ten year old sister, Rosa, he wishes he could go back to Australia. His parents are planning to settle in New York City where friends have found an apartment for them. For awhile now, Che has felt uneasy about his little sister. She is adorable—so many people have commented about how much she resembles Shirley Temple with her blonde hair, huge blue eyes, and dimpled smile. But Che knows better. He knows what Rosa is really like. She is not like normal children. She is different. In fact, he knows with certainty that Rosa is a psychopath.
This dark, chilling, suspenseful novel will keep you on the edge of your seat as the story slowly unfolds to reveal the real personality behind Rosa’s beautiful facade, while Che feels helpless to change it. This is a real page turner with an unsettling ending that will leave you breathless. Author Justine Larbalestier stated that she has attempted to write a young adult version of the adult novel entitled The Bad Seed. This reader thinks that Larbalestier definitely achieved her goal!
Thank you to Net Galley, Soho Press, and author Justine Larbalestier for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC of this young adult psychological thriller!
This dark, chilling, suspenseful novel will keep you on the edge of your seat as the story slowly unfolds to reveal the real personality behind Rosa’s beautiful facade, while Che feels helpless to change it. This is a real page turner with an unsettling ending that will leave you breathless. Author Justine Larbalestier stated that she has attempted to write a young adult version of the adult novel entitled The Bad Seed. This reader thinks that Larbalestier definitely achieved her goal!
Thank you to Net Galley, Soho Press, and author Justine Larbalestier for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC of this young adult psychological thriller!
November 23, 2018
For all of the easily-pleased people giving this book 5 stars (really? Do you not read often?) I recommend We Need to Talk About Kevin, which is what Larbalestier could only dream of emulating.
Maybe ten-year-old psychopaths aren't horrifying enough for this jaded reader, or maybe this book just sucks, but, either way, I was super disappointed. The build up to this book was strong considering Laurie Halse Anderson, an acclaimed YA author (though she hasn't written anything decent in years), states that she could not put it down on the cover. Lesser skilled YA writers such as Scott Westerfield (who wrote two decent books in a series and then tanked, refusing to let go of his tediously lengthy ideas) and E. Lockhart (who wrote the impressively disappointing We Were Liars, which I had the displeasure of just finishing) also chimed in with their reviews on how "terrifying" it was, but I just didn't buy it. Instead of focusing on the intricacies of Rosa's mind, the book basically relays how everyone in Che's (and what an obnoxious name) life is an asshole, Rosa not even being the biggest one in the category!
Plot: Che and his family move from Bangkok (and Australia) to New York for his parents to help a rich family build a business. The other family pays for everything and has kids around the same age. After just convincing her former best friend to murder her own guinea pig named Kitty, Rosa befriends one of the twins and plots the demise of the other as well as the older sister (who is randomly a famous lesbian fashion blogger since the age of 12...). Naturally, Che's parents don't believe him about Rosa and, as he tries to live like a normal teenage boy by being involved in a sport and getting a girlfriend, Rosa tries to mess with him so he'll always love her best. Yep, that's about it. Think there will be a lot of murders and tense conversations/revelations? Not really.
Biggest disappointments:
1. Rosa just isn't that creepy. Larbalestier makes her like a robotic Shirley Temple in order to smack readers in the face with how "different" she is, even preferring not to dress from the era, but it's an exact replica of the kid in The Bad Seed with the blonde pigtails and innocent dresses. The only aspect that disturbed me was that she was ten and still trying to act like a cute little girl. Rhoda was only eight! As a teacher, I know that most ten-year-old girls hardly play with toys now and are searching for boyfriends. Yes, she's supposedly developmentally delayed, but she would definitely try to be like the other kids her age (especially since Seimone was 11!). Her statements are supposed to be shocking for us, but in this generation, she's a pre-teen exposed to various forms of media to "educate" her on the horrors of the world, so her thinking about killing someone just isn't very shocking.
2. Sojourner's loose Christian views and her character altogether. She doesn't want to be with Che because he isn't Christian, then she decided to make it work and has sex with him because it's "love" after a few weeks. Then, she dumps him because he doesn't warn her about Rosa and she couldn't have kids with someone like that, but would she have kids with an atheist? "Sid" reflects a lot of the religious hypocrisy that makes me detest organized religion, especially how she mistakes Che's horniness for a religious experience in church. Ummmm...
3. Che's parents and the adults dismissing everything. I can't tell you how much I wanted Sally to die. I was even more frustrated with Che though who "almost" tells his parents what's happening then keeps brooding. It's his fault as much as anyone else's what Rosa is.
4. David. Conveniently, he's a psychopath too who teaches Rosa everything she knows and runs away! I liked that Rosa worried he might kill her, but it just wrapped up too well. Frankly, it's more eerie when you don't know where the issues come from, but Larbalestier was apparently dead set on emulating The Bad Seed so much that she forced David's under-developed, unsurprising, dull character upon us. Having no sinister qualities until the end when we hear he murdered three random people wasn't enough. Couldn't he and Rosa have teamed up and killed all of the annoying family members?
5. The forced "diversity." Two sets of lesbians, a gender-fluid individual, and high school sweethearts with an array of ethnicities and some quickly dismissed race talk meant to be a "backdrop" of Rosa's tale were ineffectively thrust in to make an "edgey" NY scene or to fit the author's views on society.
6. The sloppy punctuation made my head hurt. Ever heard of a comma with an introductory clause or a book editor? Guess not! Maybe Australians are just uneducated since Larbalestier warns readers from the beginning of the Aussie elements.
7. Maya. How could we be that invested in her when she never spoke?!
8. Che's "deep love" for Rosa is just him remembering her as a baby. If he doesn't actually love her, why does her protect her? Clearly, the author wasn't interested in exploring.
9. Che anyway. We find out that he's like his family, but he remains normal the whole time. How can someone be so complex and boring at the same time?
10. Larbalestier's ill-informed idea to copy The Bad Seed for YA. You did a horrible job and William March would hate it. Instead of stealing someone else's idea, stick with your own (although I fear they're probably worse!).
Just don't read it. The only decent part is when they ask Rosa where her parents are and she states that she ate them!
Maybe ten-year-old psychopaths aren't horrifying enough for this jaded reader, or maybe this book just sucks, but, either way, I was super disappointed. The build up to this book was strong considering Laurie Halse Anderson, an acclaimed YA author (though she hasn't written anything decent in years), states that she could not put it down on the cover. Lesser skilled YA writers such as Scott Westerfield (who wrote two decent books in a series and then tanked, refusing to let go of his tediously lengthy ideas) and E. Lockhart (who wrote the impressively disappointing We Were Liars, which I had the displeasure of just finishing) also chimed in with their reviews on how "terrifying" it was, but I just didn't buy it. Instead of focusing on the intricacies of Rosa's mind, the book basically relays how everyone in Che's (and what an obnoxious name) life is an asshole, Rosa not even being the biggest one in the category!
Plot: Che and his family move from Bangkok (and Australia) to New York for his parents to help a rich family build a business. The other family pays for everything and has kids around the same age. After just convincing her former best friend to murder her own guinea pig named Kitty, Rosa befriends one of the twins and plots the demise of the other as well as the older sister (who is randomly a famous lesbian fashion blogger since the age of 12...). Naturally, Che's parents don't believe him about Rosa and, as he tries to live like a normal teenage boy by being involved in a sport and getting a girlfriend, Rosa tries to mess with him so he'll always love her best. Yep, that's about it. Think there will be a lot of murders and tense conversations/revelations? Not really.
Biggest disappointments:
1. Rosa just isn't that creepy. Larbalestier makes her like a robotic Shirley Temple in order to smack readers in the face with how "different" she is, even preferring not to dress from the era, but it's an exact replica of the kid in The Bad Seed with the blonde pigtails and innocent dresses. The only aspect that disturbed me was that she was ten and still trying to act like a cute little girl. Rhoda was only eight! As a teacher, I know that most ten-year-old girls hardly play with toys now and are searching for boyfriends. Yes, she's supposedly developmentally delayed, but she would definitely try to be like the other kids her age (especially since Seimone was 11!). Her statements are supposed to be shocking for us, but in this generation, she's a pre-teen exposed to various forms of media to "educate" her on the horrors of the world, so her thinking about killing someone just isn't very shocking.
2. Sojourner's loose Christian views and her character altogether. She doesn't want to be with Che because he isn't Christian, then she decided to make it work and has sex with him because it's "love" after a few weeks. Then, she dumps him because he doesn't warn her about Rosa and she couldn't have kids with someone like that, but would she have kids with an atheist? "Sid" reflects a lot of the religious hypocrisy that makes me detest organized religion, especially how she mistakes Che's horniness for a religious experience in church. Ummmm...
3. Che's parents and the adults dismissing everything. I can't tell you how much I wanted Sally to die. I was even more frustrated with Che though who "almost" tells his parents what's happening then keeps brooding. It's his fault as much as anyone else's what Rosa is.
4. David. Conveniently, he's a psychopath too who teaches Rosa everything she knows and runs away! I liked that Rosa worried he might kill her, but it just wrapped up too well. Frankly, it's more eerie when you don't know where the issues come from, but Larbalestier was apparently dead set on emulating The Bad Seed so much that she forced David's under-developed, unsurprising, dull character upon us. Having no sinister qualities until the end when we hear he murdered three random people wasn't enough. Couldn't he and Rosa have teamed up and killed all of the annoying family members?
5. The forced "diversity." Two sets of lesbians, a gender-fluid individual, and high school sweethearts with an array of ethnicities and some quickly dismissed race talk meant to be a "backdrop" of Rosa's tale were ineffectively thrust in to make an "edgey" NY scene or to fit the author's views on society.
6. The sloppy punctuation made my head hurt. Ever heard of a comma with an introductory clause or a book editor? Guess not! Maybe Australians are just uneducated since Larbalestier warns readers from the beginning of the Aussie elements.
7. Maya. How could we be that invested in her when she never spoke?!
8. Che's "deep love" for Rosa is just him remembering her as a baby. If he doesn't actually love her, why does her protect her? Clearly, the author wasn't interested in exploring.
9. Che anyway. We find out that he's like his family, but he remains normal the whole time. How can someone be so complex and boring at the same time?
10. Larbalestier's ill-informed idea to copy The Bad Seed for YA. You did a horrible job and William March would hate it. Instead of stealing someone else's idea, stick with your own (although I fear they're probably worse!).
Just don't read it. The only decent part is when they ask Rosa where her parents are and she states that she ate them!
February 9, 2016
How do I even BEGIN to talk about this book? It was brilliant. Terrifying. Diverse. Gripping (read it in one sitting). There was so much going on and it was so TWISTED.
Gah.
If this is what 2016 promises in terms of YA, I am ridiculously excited.
Full review to come!
_____________________________________
After reading this book, you’ll think everyone’s a psychopath.
Seriously.
But of course, that’ll come AFTER you get over the shock of this book, because let me tell you, it is a wild ride.
I had the pleasure of attending the book launch in Sydney, and Justine’s talk about psychopaths was so interesting. A lot of psychopaths don’t actually hurt people – they use positions of power (as CEOs or whatever) to manipulate people.
Rosa is…a little different to that.
Here are my five reasons to read it:
1.Psychopaths. Obviously.
2.Che is such a LOVELY narrator and you don’t often see male narrators so that’s a bonus.
3.Diversity! Lots of diversity! I really didn’t expect it so that was lovely.
4.Lots and lots of great characters. Justine was talking at the launch about how editors usually say to cut down the number of characters (which is why they often end up with less friends than they’d normally have) but they were all incredibly three-dimensional.
5. That ending though.
All through the book, you’re wondering what Rosa could possibly do next. It just escalates and escalates, and you CAN’T look away, despite how terrified you are.
And Justine Larbalestier has written her so brilliantly that occasionally you’re even convinced she can’t be all bad...surely not.
And poor Che has to deal with all this while his parents deny Rosa’s psychopathic tendencies.
There are also all these PLOT TWISTS, especially towards the end, and everything’s going crazy but you still can’t stop reading. It’s…what’s that word reviewers always use? GRIPPING.
But as if the psychopath premise isn’t enough, you’ve also got a contemporary-ish storyline with fantastic side characters.
Che, after all, is the main character in this story, so of course it’s not ALL going to be about Rosa. There are some really interesting dynamics with Sojourner, who is really religious. Leilani, as well as her friends Elon and Victoria, also added variety to a storyline that was already jam-packed.
Plus you’ve got Che’s parents Sally and David (another quirk of the book: he doesn’t call them Mum and Dad) to add a familial aspect to the novel.
There’s boxing as well! That was quite cool.
Overall a fantastic book with lots going on and excellent plot twists.
Aussie YA in 2016 is off to a cracking start. This is the first book of 2016 that I’ve rated 5 stars, too!
Gah.
If this is what 2016 promises in terms of YA, I am ridiculously excited.
Full review to come!
_____________________________________
After reading this book, you’ll think everyone’s a psychopath.
Seriously.
But of course, that’ll come AFTER you get over the shock of this book, because let me tell you, it is a wild ride.
I had the pleasure of attending the book launch in Sydney, and Justine’s talk about psychopaths was so interesting. A lot of psychopaths don’t actually hurt people – they use positions of power (as CEOs or whatever) to manipulate people.
Rosa is…a little different to that.
Here are my five reasons to read it:
1.Psychopaths. Obviously.
2.Che is such a LOVELY narrator and you don’t often see male narrators so that’s a bonus.
3.Diversity! Lots of diversity! I really didn’t expect it so that was lovely.
4.Lots and lots of great characters. Justine was talking at the launch about how editors usually say to cut down the number of characters (which is why they often end up with less friends than they’d normally have) but they were all incredibly three-dimensional.
5. That ending though.
All through the book, you’re wondering what Rosa could possibly do next. It just escalates and escalates, and you CAN’T look away, despite how terrified you are.
And Justine Larbalestier has written her so brilliantly that occasionally you’re even convinced she can’t be all bad...surely not.
And poor Che has to deal with all this while his parents deny Rosa’s psychopathic tendencies.
There are also all these PLOT TWISTS, especially towards the end, and everything’s going crazy but you still can’t stop reading. It’s…what’s that word reviewers always use? GRIPPING.
But as if the psychopath premise isn’t enough, you’ve also got a contemporary-ish storyline with fantastic side characters.
Che, after all, is the main character in this story, so of course it’s not ALL going to be about Rosa. There are some really interesting dynamics with Sojourner, who is really religious. Leilani, as well as her friends Elon and Victoria, also added variety to a storyline that was already jam-packed.
Plus you’ve got Che’s parents Sally and David (another quirk of the book: he doesn’t call them Mum and Dad) to add a familial aspect to the novel.
There’s boxing as well! That was quite cool.
Overall a fantastic book with lots going on and excellent plot twists.
Aussie YA in 2016 is off to a cracking start. This is the first book of 2016 that I’ve rated 5 stars, too!
December 2, 2016
When the blurb is more interesting than the book :(
I expected more of this book. It was such a promising plot, I mean the person that you want to protect the most is the person that scares you the most, of course I'm going to fall for that.
Plot
Che had a lovely family, an interesting family, a weird family… but it was his ten years old sister that was too pretty, too smart, too good to be true. Che made a psychopath list and Rosa checked it all, so he made her promise not to kill and not to make anyone else kill, Rosa always keeps her promises. That's it, he just needs to keep an eye on her and she can't hurt anyone, can she?
Characters
My favorite character was Rosa, she was creepy and manipulative but she was not as smart as I thought she would be, she was supposed to be a genius but I never felt so. I loved Che also, he is the protective brother, I loved how he cares about her and what his character represents specially at the end of the book. There are also their parents with their weird parenting ways.
What I feel conflicted about is their friends on one hand I think they helped developing the plot and effect the leading characters, but on the other hand, I think they were there just to make the story dramatic without the need to explain why.
Opinion
When I read the blurb I thought Rosa was going to find loopholes and she would sneak her way out of her promise, that didn't happen, with that being said I loved the ending though, It was not unexpected ending but it was good and that's very much it.
I think this could've been better, it should've been better. If I explored more of Rosa POV of the world and how she interacted with her friends I'd be in love with this book but all we get is the results of her actions and I didn't like that. I wanted to see how a psychopath does his work also Rosa was portrayed as a genius which I did not see at all, except when they say she loves math, chess and she can hack.
I hate to say this but I feel as this book was a waste of my time
I expected more of this book. It was such a promising plot, I mean the person that you want to protect the most is the person that scares you the most, of course I'm going to fall for that.
Plot
Che had a lovely family, an interesting family, a weird family… but it was his ten years old sister that was too pretty, too smart, too good to be true. Che made a psychopath list and Rosa checked it all, so he made her promise not to kill and not to make anyone else kill, Rosa always keeps her promises. That's it, he just needs to keep an eye on her and she can't hurt anyone, can she?
Characters
My favorite character was Rosa, she was creepy and manipulative but she was not as smart as I thought she would be, she was supposed to be a genius but I never felt so. I loved Che also, he is the protective brother, I loved how he cares about her and what his character represents specially at the end of the book. There are also their parents with their weird parenting ways.
What I feel conflicted about is their friends on one hand I think they helped developing the plot and effect the leading characters, but on the other hand, I think they were there just to make the story dramatic without the need to explain why.
Opinion
When I read the blurb I thought Rosa was going to find loopholes and she would sneak her way out of her promise, that didn't happen, with that being said I loved the ending though, It was not unexpected ending but it was good and that's very much it.
I think this could've been better, it should've been better. If I explored more of Rosa POV of the world and how she interacted with her friends I'd be in love with this book but all we get is the results of her actions and I didn't like that. I wanted to see how a psychopath does his work also Rosa was portrayed as a genius which I did not see at all, except when they say she loves math, chess and she can hack.
I hate to say this but I feel as this book was a waste of my time
April 11, 2017
Great read since the very beginning, Truley a chilling read. Loved the twist at the end of the book totally didn't expect that.
April 6, 2016
This review appears on Happy Indulgence. Check it out for more reviews!
Have you ever met a psychopath? Although they represent less than 2% of the world’s population, how would you know if you’ve encountered, talked to or grew up with one?
That’s what makes My Sister Rosa absolutely terrifying. Che talks about his experience looking after his 10 year old sister from birth, who is also a psychopath. She can’t feel empathy, and takes pleasure in causing pain on others. Her emotionless words and cold heartless way she interacts with the world is disturbing, especially when she confides in Che. Throughout the book, her behaviour slowly escalates and you never really know whether she’s telling the truth or not, due to her being a compulsive liar. The sinister feeling in the book really threw me off guard at times – the plot kept me guessing, and I didn’t know whether to question Rosa, Che, his parents, or their friends at any one time.
There isn’t much of a plot in this book, with most of it involving around Che adjusting to a new city, boxing, finding love, and keeping Rosa under control. Che was a fantastically well rounded male character, and I found him to be really relatable. Although he does have anger issues, his interests existed beyond boxing and sex. He’s a protective and caring brother, an active member of his family, and he cares about his friends. I haven’t read such an authentic male characterisation (at least to my knowledge) before and I really admired his voice.
It’s amazing just how much he worries and obsesses about Rosa’s behaviour, but I was relieved to see that his thoughts slowly shifted from his sister to the romance. I liked Che and Sojourner’s relationship, being a healthy cross cultural relationship based on communication. It was great to see him maintaining a life and friendships outside of the romance, which I think is healthy. There wasn’t much romantic drama, but it had it’s share of issues which made it feel really authentic.
The diversity in this book is done really well, which is something that I think Australian YA really excels at. Sojourner has two religious mums, a lesbian blogger friend, and someone who doesn’t identify with any gender. All of these people have distinct personalities and exist beyond their labels. There was also an uncomfortable conversation about the cross cultural relationship, where Che was accused of liking Sojourner simply because she was black. While this pissed me off at the time, I think the author did well in highlighting the ignorance that comes with racial discrimination – we are all humans, but we are not all the same. We’ve been brought up in different ways, different religions, we have different racial attributes and different features. We should embrace this difference and realise that behind all this – we are all people.
As a book primarily about psychopaths, it was also interesting to see the issue explored deeper here. We often here about psychopathic murderers who feel no remorse, but not those who are struggling with being normal in their daily lives. It was interesting learning how Rosa observed the ‘correct’ way to behave, and it was scary seeing how she could manipulate and charm people to get her way, even at such a young age. It was also fascinating exploring the nature vs nurture debate when it came to having the gene.
My Sister Rosa was absolutely riveting. The ominous tone in the book, the constant fear that Rosa is going to act out and finally hurt someone, and the twists in the plot kept me on the edge of my seat. While I predicted the twist early on, I never stopped guessing throughout. Once you read it, you’ll never stop questioning whether the people around you are in fact, psychopaths. Pick it up and find out.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
Have you ever met a psychopath? Although they represent less than 2% of the world’s population, how would you know if you’ve encountered, talked to or grew up with one?
That’s what makes My Sister Rosa absolutely terrifying. Che talks about his experience looking after his 10 year old sister from birth, who is also a psychopath. She can’t feel empathy, and takes pleasure in causing pain on others. Her emotionless words and cold heartless way she interacts with the world is disturbing, especially when she confides in Che. Throughout the book, her behaviour slowly escalates and you never really know whether she’s telling the truth or not, due to her being a compulsive liar. The sinister feeling in the book really threw me off guard at times – the plot kept me guessing, and I didn’t know whether to question Rosa, Che, his parents, or their friends at any one time.
There isn’t much of a plot in this book, with most of it involving around Che adjusting to a new city, boxing, finding love, and keeping Rosa under control. Che was a fantastically well rounded male character, and I found him to be really relatable. Although he does have anger issues, his interests existed beyond boxing and sex. He’s a protective and caring brother, an active member of his family, and he cares about his friends. I haven’t read such an authentic male characterisation (at least to my knowledge) before and I really admired his voice.
It’s amazing just how much he worries and obsesses about Rosa’s behaviour, but I was relieved to see that his thoughts slowly shifted from his sister to the romance. I liked Che and Sojourner’s relationship, being a healthy cross cultural relationship based on communication. It was great to see him maintaining a life and friendships outside of the romance, which I think is healthy. There wasn’t much romantic drama, but it had it’s share of issues which made it feel really authentic.
The diversity in this book is done really well, which is something that I think Australian YA really excels at. Sojourner has two religious mums, a lesbian blogger friend, and someone who doesn’t identify with any gender. All of these people have distinct personalities and exist beyond their labels. There was also an uncomfortable conversation about the cross cultural relationship, where Che was accused of liking Sojourner simply because she was black. While this pissed me off at the time, I think the author did well in highlighting the ignorance that comes with racial discrimination – we are all humans, but we are not all the same. We’ve been brought up in different ways, different religions, we have different racial attributes and different features. We should embrace this difference and realise that behind all this – we are all people.
As a book primarily about psychopaths, it was also interesting to see the issue explored deeper here. We often here about psychopathic murderers who feel no remorse, but not those who are struggling with being normal in their daily lives. It was interesting learning how Rosa observed the ‘correct’ way to behave, and it was scary seeing how she could manipulate and charm people to get her way, even at such a young age. It was also fascinating exploring the nature vs nurture debate when it came to having the gene.
My Sister Rosa was absolutely riveting. The ominous tone in the book, the constant fear that Rosa is going to act out and finally hurt someone, and the twists in the plot kept me on the edge of my seat. While I predicted the twist early on, I never stopped guessing throughout. Once you read it, you’ll never stop questioning whether the people around you are in fact, psychopaths. Pick it up and find out.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
December 4, 2016
Wow just wow!! One of the best psychological thrillers I've ever read! Highly recommend it!
January 29, 2016
Actual rating: 4.5
Duuuuuuuude. You all know I love morally grey characters, but Rosa is like above and beyond that. She's not morally gray, she's a legitimate psychopath. I love the way her character was dealt with though. She wasn't a typical, horror character. She was real, which makes her even freaking creepier. Because people like her really do exist.
Che was a super interesting character. I loved seeing things from his POV and finding things out alongside with him as shit went down.
The storyline itself was awesome as fuck. That ending bro, that ending.
The only qualm I have about this book is that I feel like it didn't need to be as long as it is.
Duuuuuuuude. You all know I love morally grey characters, but Rosa is like above and beyond that. She's not morally gray, she's a legitimate psychopath. I love the way her character was dealt with though. She wasn't a typical, horror character. She was real, which makes her even freaking creepier. Because people like her really do exist.
Che was a super interesting character. I loved seeing things from his POV and finding things out alongside with him as shit went down.
The storyline itself was awesome as fuck. That ending bro, that ending.
The only qualm I have about this book is that I feel like it didn't need to be as long as it is.
August 11, 2016
4.5 stars.
This book was...wowsers. It was compelling and creepy and messed up and I COULDN'T STOP READING IT. I mean, a story about a 17 year old guy who's concerned that his 10 year old sister is a psychopath was never going to be the easiest of reads, but holy hell.
What I loved
- The diversity. Not only does this book spend a lot of time dealing with characters who aren't neurotypical, but the love interest is a dark-skinned African-American girl with two mothers, one of whom is a preacher and the other of whom has MS. Leilani's family is Korean-American. Leilani's also a lesbian, and her girlfriend's best friend is gender neutral. In short, A+ work.
- The creepiness. OH MY GOD SO CREEPY. Especially when Che would wake up in the night to find Rosa standing over him?? NOPE NOPITY NOPE.
- That it keeps you guessing throughout. I thought I'd guessed the big final plot twist quite early on (I mean, ), but then BOOM that happened half way through and you were left thinking "HOLY HELL HOW CAN IT POSSIBLY TOP THAT?!"
- The friendships that develop during the course of the story.
- Che is actually a likeable teenage boy character who has interests and zits and worries about money.
- The setting. Ordinarily, I'm frustrated by Australian authors who set their books in the US because THERE ARE ENOUGH OF THOSE ALREADY. But New York was the perfect setting for this story.
- The religious side of things, surprisingly. I was super eyeroll-y when Sojourner was all "I can't date you if you don't have Jesus in your life" because I thought she was going to turn out to be a Bible Belt style God botherer. But once her mothers came on the scene, I was like "Okay, I can deal with this".
What I wasn't so keen on
- Che being all "I WANT TO BE A DOCTOR" but hating maths and science. Like, dude. If you hate science? You're in for a hard slog... It would have made more sense to me to have him want to be a psychologist instead.
- This is totally because I read the Kindle edition, but the formatting for the text messages was really frustrating. They were generally in a smaller font, but the last message in a conversation would always flow straight into the next chunk of text so it was hard to know where the text message ended and Che's narrative picked up again. But, like, that's a really minor thing to do with the layout of the Kindle edition.
- It made me really hungry because Che was constantly eating.
- Che seemed...really slow on the uptake sometimes. Like, he KNOWS that Rosa knows the password on his phone. And yet he keeps using his phone to record their conversations and to take notes about her behaviour.
- There were quite a few loose ends? Like, .
- OH MY GOD, GO TO SCHOOL. Seriously, kid, you're never going to get into med school if you spend like six straight months not doing any school work because of when the school years start and finish in the various places you live.
- The romance was a little instalove-y.
But honestly? This kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading, and there were various points where I actually had to STOP reading because it was so disturbing. So creepy. SO CREEPY. But so great.
This book was...wowsers. It was compelling and creepy and messed up and I COULDN'T STOP READING IT. I mean, a story about a 17 year old guy who's concerned that his 10 year old sister is a psychopath was never going to be the easiest of reads, but holy hell.
What I loved
- The diversity. Not only does this book spend a lot of time dealing with characters who aren't neurotypical, but the love interest is a dark-skinned African-American girl with two mothers, one of whom is a preacher and the other of whom has MS. Leilani's family is Korean-American. Leilani's also a lesbian, and her girlfriend's best friend is gender neutral. In short, A+ work.
- The creepiness. OH MY GOD SO CREEPY. Especially when Che would wake up in the night to find Rosa standing over him?? NOPE NOPITY NOPE.
- That it keeps you guessing throughout. I thought I'd guessed the big final plot twist quite early on (I mean, ), but then BOOM that happened half way through and you were left thinking "HOLY HELL HOW CAN IT POSSIBLY TOP THAT?!"
- The friendships that develop during the course of the story.
- Che is actually a likeable teenage boy character who has interests and zits and worries about money.
- The setting. Ordinarily, I'm frustrated by Australian authors who set their books in the US because THERE ARE ENOUGH OF THOSE ALREADY. But New York was the perfect setting for this story.
- The religious side of things, surprisingly. I was super eyeroll-y when Sojourner was all "I can't date you if you don't have Jesus in your life" because I thought she was going to turn out to be a Bible Belt style God botherer. But once her mothers came on the scene, I was like "Okay, I can deal with this".
What I wasn't so keen on
- Che being all "I WANT TO BE A DOCTOR" but hating maths and science. Like, dude. If you hate science? You're in for a hard slog... It would have made more sense to me to have him want to be a psychologist instead.
- This is totally because I read the Kindle edition, but the formatting for the text messages was really frustrating. They were generally in a smaller font, but the last message in a conversation would always flow straight into the next chunk of text so it was hard to know where the text message ended and Che's narrative picked up again. But, like, that's a really minor thing to do with the layout of the Kindle edition.
- It made me really hungry because Che was constantly eating.
- Che seemed...really slow on the uptake sometimes. Like, he KNOWS that Rosa knows the password on his phone. And yet he keeps using his phone to record their conversations and to take notes about her behaviour.
- There were quite a few loose ends? Like, .
- OH MY GOD, GO TO SCHOOL. Seriously, kid, you're never going to get into med school if you spend like six straight months not doing any school work because of when the school years start and finish in the various places you live.
- The romance was a little instalove-y.
But honestly? This kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading, and there were various points where I actually had to STOP reading because it was so disturbing. So creepy. SO CREEPY. But so great.
December 11, 2016
Well DAMN!! This book is CRAZY!!! My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier is about a teenage boy's suspicion that his 10 year old sister Rosa is a psychopath. The book starts off slow and I wasn't really into it but once the plot really kicks in it sucks you in and won't let you go. I was chilled to my bones reading this book and I am now more certain than ever that I don't not ever want to have children. This book is terrifying in such a low key way that you don't even realize it until later. I highly recommend this book its so good.
February 14, 2016
I received a copy of My Sister Rosa from Allen and Unwin New Zealand to review. I’ve never read a book by Justine Larbalestier before but as soon as I read the synopsis for this I wanted to read it.
I don’t even know where to start this review. I’ve never read a book like this before and I was hooked from the first chapter. This book and Rosa are so disturbing. Rosa wasn’t made out to be a scary psychopath like the ones out of movies and TV shows, Justine made her human and that’s what made it so much worse because there are people just like her out there in the world.
My Sister Rosa also bought up the whole nature vs. nurture debate. Because Che and Rosa have the same parents but come across completely different. The only thing Rosa is concerned about is how useful the people in her life are to her – she doesn’t understand love or what being good means. And Che has friends and people in his like he genuinely cares about.
I think Che and Rosa’s parents have a lot to do with the way Rosa turned out. They didn’t seem to do a lot of parenting and seemed to only care about and love each other. I did end up feeling sorry for their mother for about a minute but then I realised she had decided to close her eyes to what was right in front of her, to choose to believe everything was fine. So I don’t feel sorry for her at all.
There was a very good twist to My Sister Rosa that I should have seen coming, there were so many hints throughout the book but it took me completely by surprise. Not a lot of books have been able to do that which is one reason I gave it five stars.
I really felt awful about Leilani, Maya and Seimone. I don’t think only one person was to blame for what happened but three, Rosa, David and Sally. At least Che had tried to control Rosa. There’s not a lot to say about this book without giving things away.
My Sister Rosa was creepy, insane, gripping and had me completely hooked until the last haunting page.
I don’t even know where to start this review. I’ve never read a book like this before and I was hooked from the first chapter. This book and Rosa are so disturbing. Rosa wasn’t made out to be a scary psychopath like the ones out of movies and TV shows, Justine made her human and that’s what made it so much worse because there are people just like her out there in the world.
My Sister Rosa also bought up the whole nature vs. nurture debate. Because Che and Rosa have the same parents but come across completely different. The only thing Rosa is concerned about is how useful the people in her life are to her – she doesn’t understand love or what being good means. And Che has friends and people in his like he genuinely cares about.
I think Che and Rosa’s parents have a lot to do with the way Rosa turned out. They didn’t seem to do a lot of parenting and seemed to only care about and love each other. I did end up feeling sorry for their mother for about a minute but then I realised she had decided to close her eyes to what was right in front of her, to choose to believe everything was fine. So I don’t feel sorry for her at all.
There was a very good twist to My Sister Rosa that I should have seen coming, there were so many hints throughout the book but it took me completely by surprise. Not a lot of books have been able to do that which is one reason I gave it five stars.
I really felt awful about Leilani, Maya and Seimone. I don’t think only one person was to blame for what happened but three, Rosa, David and Sally. At least Che had tried to control Rosa. There’s not a lot to say about this book without giving things away.
My Sister Rosa was creepy, insane, gripping and had me completely hooked until the last haunting page.
March 17, 2016
OH MYYYYYYY GOOOoOOooSH.
How do I even begin to explain this story?
Damn, the first half of the book was mild but the second half.. HOLY HELL.
Everything went to hell and my heart is shattered to a million pieces all because of a little girl.
Rosa likes to kill and force her friends to kill small animals and I have seen quite a few murder documentaries and all of the murderers killed small animals when they were Rosa's age.
So let's just say Rosa freaks me the hell out. Che is the main character and his life is centered around his little sister because he made a promise to always protect her.. and protect others from her.
I feel incredibly bad for Che because if I was him, I would've locked my door and slept with one eye open every night. Did I mention that Rosa watches him sleep? Nevermind, I would sleep with two eyes open.
I can't really say anymore without spoiling everything but oh damn the end.. MY MIND IS BLOWN.
The diversity in this book was so so so soooooo incredible. There was white people, black people, half Asian people, Non binary people, Lesbian parents, Lesbian characters, gay characters... The list could go on. Whenever I read a popular YA book, the whole set of characters are white straight people and it's unrealistic. Yay for diversity!
This book will get you thinking. Is Rosa lying? probably. What if she's telling the truth for once? hmm. As I said before, it was all mild and then the whole story took a turn that we were all expecting but it was still shocking. I CRIED.
Anyways, This book wasn't exactly scary but it sure was creepy and sad. oh so sad.
In conclusion:
How do I even begin to explain this story?
Damn, the first half of the book was mild but the second half.. HOLY HELL.
Everything went to hell and my heart is shattered to a million pieces all because of a little girl.
Rosa likes to kill and force her friends to kill small animals and I have seen quite a few murder documentaries and all of the murderers killed small animals when they were Rosa's age.
So let's just say Rosa freaks me the hell out. Che is the main character and his life is centered around his little sister because he made a promise to always protect her.. and protect others from her.
I feel incredibly bad for Che because if I was him, I would've locked my door and slept with one eye open every night. Did I mention that Rosa watches him sleep? Nevermind, I would sleep with two eyes open.
I can't really say anymore without spoiling everything but oh damn the end.. MY MIND IS BLOWN.
The diversity in this book was so so so soooooo incredible. There was white people, black people, half Asian people, Non binary people, Lesbian parents, Lesbian characters, gay characters... The list could go on. Whenever I read a popular YA book, the whole set of characters are white straight people and it's unrealistic. Yay for diversity!
This book will get you thinking. Is Rosa lying? probably. What if she's telling the truth for once? hmm. As I said before, it was all mild and then the whole story took a turn that we were all expecting but it was still shocking. I CRIED.
Anyways, This book wasn't exactly scary but it sure was creepy and sad. oh so sad.
In conclusion:
March 25, 2017
An absolutely chilling account of a teenager struggling to live with his ten year old psychopathic sister, and to protect the world from her.
The characters are fabulous, from the main character Che, to his array of friends, to the icy little sister Rosa, whom almost no one suspects of being a monster disguised as Shirley Temple. I felt nothing but compassion for Che and the stress he has to live under. It's a great story of a good person trying desperately to survive in a situation where he has no family support.
A very satisying contemporary YA thriller, made all the more frightening by its realism.
The characters are fabulous, from the main character Che, to his array of friends, to the icy little sister Rosa, whom almost no one suspects of being a monster disguised as Shirley Temple. I felt nothing but compassion for Che and the stress he has to live under. It's a great story of a good person trying desperately to survive in a situation where he has no family support.
A very satisying contemporary YA thriller, made all the more frightening by its realism.
March 2, 2020
I enjoyed My Sister Rosa. The story is about a family who moves from Australia to New York for work. Che feels like he is the only one who know for sure that his little sister is a psychopath. He feels like he always had to be on his toes making sure his sister isnt doing something she isnt suppose to. On top of this story being about siblings it is very much about Che and trying to understand what it is he wants out of this life.
Read
May 9, 2017A YA novel about a boy who is the only person in his family to recognize his ten-year-old sister, Rosa, for what she is: a psychopath. It sounds like the premise of an episode of Law & Order (and probably is), but this book really avoids the sensationalism of prime time TV. It looks at the nuances of psychopathic behavior, how that manifests in children, how it should be addressed by family members and therapists, and the nuances of living with such an unusual family dynamic. That being said, it’s creepy as hell…if you enjoyed the slow-burn dread of Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas, you’ll really dig this book.
–Katie McLain
from The Best Books We Read In February 2017: http://bookriot.com/2017/02/28/riot-r...
–Katie McLain
from The Best Books We Read In February 2017: http://bookriot.com/2017/02/28/riot-r...
November 14, 2015
Chilling and absolutely terrifying. It made me crazy to put it down to get on with real life, because it's one of the best books I've read in ages. Gripping and intense.
I have only adjectives and adverbs for this novel. Well, and a ton of love.
I have only adjectives and adverbs for this novel. Well, and a ton of love.
November 28, 2018
Full review originally posted on my blog:
Word Wonders
October 18, 2016
★ 2016 AtY Reading Challenge ★: A book published in 2016.
HOW THE FUCK AM I GOING TO REVIEW THIS BOOK?!
I'm so sick and not one but five flies are torturing me while I'm writing this review. Yeah, it's October and there are still flies around. Absurd, right?
My main problem is that this novel should have been two separate books: one with the contemporary-coming-of-age type of story and one with the psychotic-crazy-ass-sister story.
Together these two plot lines didn't work well for me and one of the two ended up feeling underdeveloped. Unfortunately, it was the one I was more interested in.
My Sister Rosa followed seventeen years old Che, that just recently moved to New York with his ten years old sister and their parents.
His sister has always been a little bit problematic but Che is fully convinced she's a psychopath.
And I don't mean it like "My little sister is a bit weird, she's probably a psychopath LOL", I mean "SHE'S INCREDIBLY, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING INSANE. SEND HELP".
For the entire book Rosa was pretty much a pain in the ass and I've never wanted to punch a ten years old more than I wanted to punch her. I admit that some ten years old are annoying, but holy fuck she was possessed by some evil spirit.
I'm very conflicted about this book.
Plot-wise, it was slow as fuck. Like, reeeeeeallyyyyy slow. While the my-sister-is-insane plot line was super slow, the part that was focused on Che's life was well paced and enjoyable.
I realized only after the book was over that I really enjoyed Che as a main character - I liked his passion for boxing (even if I don't know shit about sports) and that his character was forever conflicted about hating Rosa for how she was acting and loving a sister that he adored since the first time he saw her.
He felt like a really realistic and true main character.
This book was really diverse in terms of characters but some of them ended up feeling flat.
We had a love interest that was also dark-skinned, we had lesbian couples, there was a gender neutral character and a character with disability... you name it, it was in this book.
Something that confused the heck out of me was the final part/ending.
We went from "my sister is a psychopath" to "everyone is a psychopath, surprise" and I didn't understand why or how the author though it was a good idea to end the book like that. Too many things in too little time.
I was expecting My Sister Rosa to have a totally different focus, instead Rosa felt like a secondary nuisance.
I wished there were two different books: one focused on Che's life (because he was an awesome MC!) and one focused on the psychotic sister.
As a whole, it didn't quite work for me and it felt unbalanced.
HOW THE FUCK AM I GOING TO REVIEW THIS BOOK?!
I'm so sick and not one but five flies are torturing me while I'm writing this review. Yeah, it's October and there are still flies around. Absurd, right?
My main problem is that this novel should have been two separate books: one with the contemporary-coming-of-age type of story and one with the psychotic-crazy-ass-sister story.
Together these two plot lines didn't work well for me and one of the two ended up feeling underdeveloped. Unfortunately, it was the one I was more interested in.
My Sister Rosa followed seventeen years old Che, that just recently moved to New York with his ten years old sister and their parents.
His sister has always been a little bit problematic but Che is fully convinced she's a psychopath.
And I don't mean it like "My little sister is a bit weird, she's probably a psychopath LOL", I mean "SHE'S INCREDIBLY, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING INSANE. SEND HELP".
For the entire book Rosa was pretty much a pain in the ass and I've never wanted to punch a ten years old more than I wanted to punch her. I admit that some ten years old are annoying, but holy fuck she was possessed by some evil spirit.
I'm very conflicted about this book.
Plot-wise, it was slow as fuck. Like, reeeeeeallyyyyy slow. While the my-sister-is-insane plot line was super slow, the part that was focused on Che's life was well paced and enjoyable.
I realized only after the book was over that I really enjoyed Che as a main character - I liked his passion for boxing (even if I don't know shit about sports) and that his character was forever conflicted about hating Rosa for how she was acting and loving a sister that he adored since the first time he saw her.
He felt like a really realistic and true main character.
This book was really diverse in terms of characters but some of them ended up feeling flat.
We had a love interest that was also dark-skinned, we had lesbian couples, there was a gender neutral character and a character with disability... you name it, it was in this book.
Something that confused the heck out of me was the final part/ending.
We went from "my sister is a psychopath" to "everyone is a psychopath, surprise" and I didn't understand why or how the author though it was a good idea to end the book like that. Too many things in too little time.
I was expecting My Sister Rosa to have a totally different focus, instead Rosa felt like a secondary nuisance.
I wished there were two different books: one focused on Che's life (because he was an awesome MC!) and one focused on the psychotic sister.
As a whole, it didn't quite work for me and it felt unbalanced.
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