Making Friends With Monsters
Award-winning author Sandra L Rostirolla celebrated the release of Making Friends With Monsters on April 4, 2023. Readers can order the book at any bookstore, and available upon request at local libraries.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide has become the second leading cause of death among children 10 to 14. Sandra L Rostirolla decided to change this terrifying statistic fueled by stigma and silence.
Based on the author's experiences with suicide in her family, Making Friends With Monsters offers a language for young adults to talk about the dark emotions they often face but bury before it's too late. Publishers Weekly Booklife called the book an "urgent, unflinching YA novel about the 'monsters' of depression and family dysfunction" (Editor's Pick).
Rostirolla's father died by suicide when she was thirteen. Since then, two of her brothers have also died by suicide. The family dealt with their loss in silence. When she met a friend who told her that the most challenging thing about her ex-partner's suicide was how to explain it to her three young daughters (ages 11, 14 & 20), the recurring theme of silence around suicide hit hard. "I knew I had to break this stranglehold of silence around mental illness," Rostirolla says. "That's when the idea of the book was born."
Making Friends With Monsters uses "monsters" as a metaphor for the dark forces inside us. Rostirolla brings to life what drives "monsters" and how we can talk about and confront them.
Set on a struggling farm in Australia, Making Friends With Monsters follows 12-year-old Sam on a quest to discover the monsters plaguing his older brother Ben and his parents. Through Sam's eyes, readers discover just how sneaky one's monster can be and how hard it is to get rid of––mainly because most people don't know they even have a monster!
Rostirolla navigates Sam's journey with compassion and grit, not shying away from stark realities and raw emotion while also exploring the deep well of resilience that will arise in coming to know our monsters and finding a way back to the light.
Born in Sydney, Australia, Sandra Rostirolla graduated from the University of Sydney with a BAppSc (Physiotherapy). She now lives in Los Angeles, where she works as a film industry development executive.