Rhoda Penmark
Rhoda Penmark is an eight-year-old girl who is charming, polite, and intelligent beyond her years. Beneath her lovable facade, however, she is a sociopath (or psychopath) who is willing to harm and even kill anyone to get whatever she wants, whenever she wants it. She is also a precociously talented con artist, adept at manipulating adults. Other children, who can sense her true nature, avoid her. In the beginning of the novel, she brutally murders a classmate and a groundskeeper who suspects her. It is also revealed that she murdered an elderly neighbor and her pet dog a few years before.
March writes that Rhoda's evil is genetic: her ...read more