Jaymee-laura's Reviews > Cruel Sacrifice

Cruel Sacrifice, by Aphrodite Jones, is a true crime story about the now infamous and tragic Shanda Sharer murder. It is written with input from the killers family, court testimony, Psychiatry notes, and interviews from people indirectly involved in the lives of the teenage girls who committed this horrible act. Jones is a well known author, who has researched and written about many different crimes.
The beginning of this story details the night of January 10th 1992, when four teenage girls tricked a 5th into getting in their car, and proceeded to spend the rest of the night engaging in beating, torturing, and eventually burning alive the girl they'd tricked. They were 15 and 16, their victim, Shanda, was 12.
The main perpetrator, and the only girl who actually knew Shanda, was Melinda Loveless. The second part of this story is dedicated to her childhood, with a main focus on her perverted father and the families troubles as a result of him. The Loveless family story takes up a third of this book.
The final part of the story tells of Melindas main accomplice, Laurie Tacket, and her childhood with a strict religious upbringing, accounts from friends regarding her instability, and information about time she spend receiving mental health care before the crime. There is also detail at the end regarding the court cases of the 4 girls, including part of the actual confession written by Toni Lawrence.

This is a book that is terribly hard to read. Shanda's murder was tragic and gruesome beyond words, and I had to frequently stop and take a breath during the parts telling of the details of her death. I had researched this case prior to reading the book, so I had an interest at getting a 'behind the scenes' look, so to speak.
For me, this book was spoilt by placing such a large emphasis on the Loveless family. After reading the details of Shanda's murder, a murder Melinda planned and carries out over the most trivial things, the last thing I wanted to see were her families excuses as to why their daughter was a beast. It felt as though Jones was looking for excuses for the girls' actions, rather then reasons. The loveless family information was provided by Melinda's mother, and their is question as to how fabricated the abuse was.
There seemed to be no input at all from Shanda's mother, Jackie Vaught, which I found to be in poor taste, and a bad decision on the authors part. Jones even goes as far as to accuse Jackie of capitalising and enjoying the media that came with her daughters murder. There was also not enough on the court cases as I would have liked to see.
I gave this book 4 stars because of its highly interesting topic, however I believe Jones attempt at writing this was poor, and only her access to testimonies and other things in the case saved this book. In terms of how she put it together, I was disappointed and its unlikely I will read another book by this author.
I was left with the feeling that Jones was more interested in getting this book out while the media attention was there, rather then telling the story of Shanda's murder and respecting her memory. Besides this, the story is a compelling read of how far people can go with the wrong influences, and how quickly teenage situations can spiral out of control.