Diego Sanchez's Reviews > Cruel Sacrifice

3.5 Stars
This book gained my attention due to the cover factor, since it was a 90s vibe, as well as pictures of some girls, who at that moment, I didn’t know who they were. Here are my thoughts on the book:

Plot/Development: Unfortunately, I cannot rate the plot, because is based on a true crime story, which means the plot is not invented but modified, even though it needs to be real, that doesn’t mean they can make it interesting. The story is about four girls: Melinda, Laurie, Hope, and Tony; they committed a crime against Shanda Sharer of twelve years old. Here is where it comes, How come?

The development is well created, the author tries to tell you the story as if it were another book out there. It is divided in three parts; the first one is about how the girls committed the crime, which I thought it was really good and made me felt a lot of things and senses. The second part was about the background of the girls; sadly, this part destroyed all my interest on the book, because more than the half of the part is based on Melinda (who Melinda’s parents were, how did they met, the born of her sisters, the relationships between them, Melinda´s family) and later on we see a little bit of the rest, but I think it is not very supportive and sometimes I thought I was lost, but I wasn’t.

Characters: I cannot rate the characters because they were not fictional, they were actually real people, so in this case, I will omit my opinion.
Ending: I didn’t know the case, this was the first time for me reading it, so I think it was a proper time for the girls to spend in jail. I think the ending is good, but I’d like to have read more actual information about it.

Writing: The writing is really good. Aphrodite Jones knows how to write true crime in a manner that seems you are reading a book. The only thing I will say is that everything was perfectly clear and detailed, that I’m not sure if it was real, but I trust on the author and I really liked her work.

Genre: True Crime. I think this book has everything, also with photos included, which I think it totally support the research and the story the author is telling.