Rose Christo (born Rose Christodoulopoulos) is a young adult fiction writer and has claimed co-authorship of My Immortal.
Authorship claim
- Note: This section uses information from Wikipedia. Refer to that article's history section for original authors.
Rose Christo, author of young adult novels, began writing a memoir about her alleged experiences as a Native American child in the New York foster care system. The memoir details the period of time during which she allegedly co-wrote My Immortal. Macmillan Publishers allegedly hired a lawyer to verify Christo's claim over the course of three days; she claimed to have provided proof through the email address with which she created the FanFiction.com account and a flash drive containing the first eleven unedited chapters of My Immortal.
In March 2017, Christo quietly stated on her Tumblr account that she co-wrote My Immortal; however, the post gained little notice. In early August 2017, Christo posted an update to a previously unknown FictionPress account seemingly related to Tara Gilesbie that similarly received little attention.
Later in August, an independently published Handbook for Mortals reached the top of the young adult New York Times Best Seller list. Writing similarities between the novel and My Immortal led to speculation that Handbook for Mortals author Lani Sarem was the author of My Immortal. Christo again updated the FictionPress account to say she was not. She also posted on FictionPress to state that her only social media account was on Tumblr, which operated under her real name. An editorial assistant at MacMillan Publishers also stated that Sarem was not the author of My Immortal and stated that the MacMillan was to publish the author's memoir.
These statements sparked a search for the claimed Tumblr account, which was found as Christo's in early September. By September 5, Christo stated on her Tumblr account that she co-wrote My Immortal and that she had provided proof to her publisher Macmillan Publishers, later reported by BuzzFeed, and on September 7, Buzzfeed published her first official statement as the alleged author of My Immortal. She said of her decision to publicly identify herself as a co-author: "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."
Later that month, a Kiwi Farms forum post by Christo's brother, verified as such by the forum operators, refuted several of Christo's claims in the upcoming memoir, including those of their ancestry and shared history.[11][12] The memoir was subsequently canceled by MacMillan after an investigation found factual errors in her narrative; Christo stated that these errors had been purposefully made in an attempt to protect her family's identity.[13] Christo's brother has additionally said that he does not know if Christo wrote My Immortal and that she enjoyed ridiculing badly written fan fiction.[11][12] Christo confirmed via Tumblr in October that her original last name was Christodoulopoulos, confirmed her brother's identity and disagreed with several claims by her brother, and reiterated her claim that she was one of the authors of My Immortal. She closed the Tumblr account a few days later. Sources noting the contention over the memoir have termed her authorship claim as one of the more likely claims she has made, though still in some doubt.