My Sister Rosa is a Young Adult thriller novel by Justine Larbalestier.
Che wants several things out of a move from Australia to the United States: improve at sparring, return home, get a girlfriend, and keep his little sister under control. The latter proves to be a problem since Rosa is a borderline sociopath and has hurt everyone in her life with manipulative behavior. As Che learns that his parents are not what they seem as they start a business with the McBrunights for sponsors, Rosa's actions become worse and worse.
Tropes for this book include:
- Bittersweet Ending: It's very close to Downer Ending. Rosa outs their father as a "psychopath" after convincing her best friend Seimone McBrunight to murder her twin sister Maya. He flees and disappears. The McBrunights pay for Che's family to fly back to Australia and never return. Sojourner also breaks up with Che as a result of the murder, since she's worried that the psychopathy may pass down to their children. But Leilani McBrunight understands Che is a victim of this situation and urges him to get out of it, promising to visit him when he does. Che promises himself to do so and escape his sister's influence. He also clears his name with the investigators when camera footage from a nearby store shows that Seimone pushed Maya.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. Rosa is outraged when a drunk man harasses a lady on a flight and reports him to the attendant. She sees it at a game, however, and steals his passport when he's not looking.
- Evil Laugh: Whenever Rosa laughs, Che knows that something is wrong. Such as when she laughed about giving Seimone a peanut-laced smoothie knowing she was allergic and not injecting her with the antidote.
- Implausible Deniability: Che's mother knew exactly the type of man that she was marrying, but he still won her over. By the end, she's destroyed and convinced that Che is exactly the same as Rosa.
- Unreliable Expositor: Che has learned very well not to trust anything Rosa says. We don't even know if she's telling the truth about their father threatening to kill her.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Coming from Rosa of all people. She says that Che and she aren't that different since they're from the same genetics, and Che snarks that if that were true then he would be smarter. Rosa said he's smart in a different way; her being born taught him not to go down the path she or David did.
