My Sister Rosa
Ratings11
Average rating4.4
Chilling. Dark. Eerie. I swear the hairs on the back of my neck were up right from the beginning.
A riveting read. I expected more of a twist though due to reading the reviews on goodreads. Serves me right - I should only read reviews after I've finished the book :)
Actual rating: 3.5 stars, rounded up
I wasn't entirely sure what this was about but still picked it up anyway because two of my favorite bookish people absolutely loved it (yes, they basically suckered me into this). It ended up being a pretty addictive read — I mean, it's definitely BIZARRE but I ... liked it?
- Che is adorable. He's a wonderfully normal teenager with acne problems (I mean, when do we ever see that in YA?), and I loved him all the more for it. He really struggles with his identity, in connection to his sister (who's an undiagnosed psychopath), and I loved how he had all these complex emotions and thoughts about what being human actually means.
- The “psychopath” thriller aspect was handled really well! I literally flew through the pages because I wanted to know what Rosa was going to do next. Plus, they actually discussed the diagnosis in detail, which delighted me to no end. Since I love characters who are smart and wickedly evil to boot, I liked how it explored Rosa's lack of motivations and the different ways in which she sees and interprets the world!
- Che has such interesting dynamics with Sojourner, his Christian girlfriend. Sojourner was fantastic; her religious beliefs were totally on point, and I loved how she never forced Che into anything! Also, she's African-American and she has two moms, which was just plain awesome. Totally not cool with the way she broke up with Che in the end though.
- AND THE PLOT TWIST AT THE END?? The whole conclusion was fantastic and awesome and completely blew me away. I totally didn't see it coming. BUT it was great, freakishly disturbing and absolutely brilliant. I loved it.
I expected this to be extremely creepy and unsettling and it was...for the last 50 pages. The rest of the book merely hinted at how weird Rosa was, but it was generally way too slow paced and I saw one of the “big twists” coming a long way before it happened. I did enjoy the characters though and how real they all seemed. It was a really diverse cast.