Buzz began circulating around Rose Christo’s forthcoming memoir from St. Martin’s Press. There seemed to be a lot of genuine excitement about the book as My Immortal is a well loved internet phenomenon, and the book was promoted as detailing Christo’s strange and tumultuous upbringing during the writing of My Immortal. In multiple outlets, it was claimed that Christo wrote the fanfic hoping to capture the attention of enough people online to eventually aid in the search for her missing brother. The problem with this story? Her missing brother surfaced online to announce that he was never missing, Christo has fabricated her entire dramatic backstory, and she was likely never involved with My Immortal at all. St. Martin’s Press has now dropped the book due to Christo failing a round of routine fact checking.

Her brother happens to be a member of this very forum (@DawnDusk ), and his side of the story paints a different picture, not that she lost communication with him while being shuffled through the system, but that she just doesn’t contact him and never was in foster care. He began poking holes in her claims in this thread; https://kiwifarms.net/threads/author-of-my-immortal-possibly-found.33996/

On her Tumblr, she also frequently blogs about the struggle of being Native American/Indian. Problem with that is she’s actually white.

Okay breaking out of my tumblr hiatus because I saw this and I’m feeling really iffy.

This is very dubious to me. The only source that this person is the missing brother is some forum? We’re going to lampoon this woman for just seeming dodgy yet not going to do the same thing with this guy on this forum who also just came out of nowhere saying he’s this mystery figure too? Why don’t we require the same kind of fact-checking of him that we’re subjecting her to? 

Also the EW article explains the round of fact-checking she failed and it’s that she covered up names to preserve people’s anonymity. This forum claims it’s in response to this guy saying she’s lying, but that’s speculation. The forum doesn’t provide any evidence that this guy is her brother nor does it provide evidence that it’s anything past her wishing to preserve people’s privacy. It’s an assumption to say that means that she fabricated everything. I understand why people would make that assumption because people’s brains naturally try to find connections and stuff, but it seems hasty to say that she’s lying about everything.

Also, you’re saying the problem with her blogging about being Native American is that she’s actually white. Where is that information coming from? Is that another speculation I’m supposed to believe because this forum tells me so? Do you have her birth certificate? Even if you have a photo, I know a lot of first nations people who have light skin or red hair or blue eyes because they have a white parent or grandparent somewhere down the line, and also first nations women are especially vulnerable to sexual assault.

Maybe this woman is the real writer of a fanfic, and maybe she isn’t. I don’t know, but I’m not going to believe it one way or another just because a reddit forum tells me to. I don’t mean any offense to the people who posted this or to the people I reblogged it from. I just don’t think the claims here stand up to scrutiny.

The most suspicious thing imo about this mess is that the guy who purports to be her brother also doxxed her in that same thread. I read through the threads (which I don’t recommend because it’s a cesspit) and basically the only “proof” he offers in the thread is info that he would’ve been able to pull up on an internet search. Anything he says to make it sound like he knows her is stuff he would’ve pulled up while searching for her info. 

There’s also the huge fact that the forum he’s on is known for trying to attack women and minorities and she’s the perfect kind of target that they would like to discredit. This forum is pretty much like all the worst parts of 4chan and reddit stuck together, without any outside confirmation I have zero trust that this guy is who he says he is. 

So to sum up, we have zero proof that this guy is who he says he is, he’s part of a website that likes to pull this kind of shit, and people are willing to take him on his word while tearing Rose Christo apart for anonymizing some information. 

Hmm. 

Yeah and women who are familiar with internet harassment campaigns and the constant threat of doxxing would be especially hyper-conscious about keeping their family’s information private, especially if their family members are also part of vulnerable and often targeted groups, especially if their family members have already been in abusive or even just difficult situations.

I think it’s really telling that, in the game of he-said/she-said, this anonymous guy gets credit and this woman, who publishes about the struggles first nations children face and publicly blogs about being a queer woman, gets the hate-train.

The guy claiming to be her brother says he thinks it’s entirely possible that she did write My Immortal and that it’s reminiscent of things he knows she did write, but that the story about their being separated by foster care isn’t true; there are a lot of weird layers to this, and things he says that don’t add up but that could be accounted for by his being a child when they happened and misunderstanding what was going on.  Several people have pointed out that the idea she wrote My Immortal not just to write a weird troll fic for fun (and/or to take her mind off her real-life problems) but as a way to help find her brother doesn’t make any sense; how would she be expecting that to work?

In her first official author’s statement, in the form of a Q&A, Christo says she never would have come forward about authoring My Immortal “if not for the fact that it coincided with the things that happened to [her] as a teen.”

1. What is Under the Same Stars?

Under the Same Stars is a memoir about my experiences in foster care and family court, which saw me separated from my little brother when I was 12 and he was 5. It’s about the steps I took to try to find him again, and what I wound up finding instead.

2. Why did you write Under the Same Stars?

I wanted to shed light on the challenges and issues that children in foster care, especially Native American children, face.

3. Did you write My Immortal?

Unfortunately.

4. Why come forward about My Immortal now?

I would never have come forward about My Immortal if not for the fact that it coincided with the things that happened to me as a teen. At one point, I considered disguising the fic as something else. I still wonder if I should have done that, because there’s a faction of people who really like not knowing who wrote it. But I think in most cases, honesty is the best policy.

5. Tell us more!

In Alaska, it’s illegal to whisper in someone’s ear if they’re moose hunting.