Set it on fire and watch it burn.”
Those of us with siblings probably have thought of our brothers and sisters as annoying and crazy, at one time or another… but what happens when they are actually crazy? Justine Larbalestier explores the nature of sociopathy in the young children of the world and the effects they have on their family with My Sister Rosa.
Che Taylor has a list of goals. He wants to spar, with boxing a big part of his life. He wants a girlfriend, but what seventeen year old boy doesn’t? He wants to go back home to Sydney, Australia; where his three best friends, trainer, and the rest of his family are. Oh, and who can forget that last bullet on his list, keep his clinically psychopathic little sister Rosa under control. With an unfeeling and a raging desire to hurt those around her, Rosa is smart, manipulative, and dangerous. Not to mention that little darling Rosa is a beautiful Shirly Temple look-a-like with dimples she turns on and off. Frustratingly, no one seems to believe Che when he speaks out against his little sister. “She’s just acting out!”, being a common phrase from the parents that seem to love each other more than they love their children. No, that responsibility happens to fall squarely on Che’s shoulders.
You’re going to have to look out for Rosa, you know,’ Sally told me.
‘Protect her from the world,’ David said. ‘You’re her big brother.’
Protect the world from her, he didn’t say.”
With a male main character, I assumed that I wouldn’t connect with Che on a personal level but I was pleasantly surprised. His affection for his crazy sister, his weird parents, all of his common teenager problems seemed to ring a bell within me. I even loved his passion for boxing, a detail that shocked me, since I’m not interested in sports in the least. There were many such details that upped the quality of this read, like the vast amount of character diversity and a plot that kept twisting. The ending was a good one and the plot revolving Che was well paced, though Rosa’s was a tad slow.
All in all, I really recommend this book. Hope you guys love it as much as I do!
Sincerely, LianaAdvertisements Share! :
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