Cruel Sacrifice

Rating:
Summary: from a family member who lived it
Review: Dont trust all you read I lived it .i am Hopes older brother and are family was as shocked as any one.Most of the info in this book is good and true but a lot of it is gess work and fill in the blank .A good book that lets you know the other side of the story is "lost little angels"

Rating:
Summary: Chilling
Review: I borrowed this book from a friend and didn't put it down until the last page was read, and all the time I was reading it, I constantly flipped back to the picture's wondering, how could any human do this? This author made it easier to understand though since he went into great detail about the Loveless family and the Tackett family. With a father like Larry Loveless and a freak religion nut like Mrs. Tackett, I can see where these girls may think they did something good. But, living only a few hours from New Albany let's a person know that the criminals and murderer's of the world, which you thought were hundreds of miles away, are right next door. Or sitting next to you in a classroom. Childhood romance is a game. It sure as hell shouldn't end in a murder of a 12 year-old, especially with the extremidies of this murder. I also don't see how Amanda can have any bit of a clear mind on the subject. In my opinion, she's as guilty as Toni. She heard the threats Melinda gave and ignored them. All of these girls are getting it so easy. Sure they're in prison, but can that even compare to the torture, molestation, and mutilation that Shanda lived through until the bitter end. I'll tell anyone strait up that it doesn't. They should have the same thing done to them in the same way. They should have to imagine the horror of being tortured and watched being tortured by people that were once considered classmates and friends. The story this book tells me to be careful of the friends you choose and the lovers you have. They just may kill you. Melinda, Laurie, Hope, Toni, and Amanda should all rot in hell for what they've done. Jones did a wonderful job on this book and it gave me a whole new perspective on how to view the world's murderers(the 4 girls), the psychotics(Larry Loveless), and to cherish the lives we live. It just may end before we have a real chance to live it.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Horrific
Review: I just finished this book. I am so stunned by what I read, it's hard to know where to start. I have been a serious true crime reader for nearly 20 years. While I have read my share of unbelievable acts humans can inflict upon each other, nothing...nothing hit me like this. I haven't been able to get Shanda Sharer out of my mind, and the grisly way that poor little girl lost her life. Aphrodite Jones did a good job telling this tragedy. It chronicles the true story of four teenaged girls as they set out one night to "scare" 12 year old Shanda Sharer into staying away from another's ex-lover. This frightening book is not about a night that went wrong. It's not about a scheme that got carried too far. It's not about an accident, or mistake these girls made. It is, however, a story about out-of-control jealousy and a calculated, pre-meditated, heinous crime. This is the 2nd book of Jones' I've read, and while she doesn't get "meaty" like Ann Rule, I thought her writings were well-balanced, albiet sometimes confusing. I disagree with another reviewer's comments that she portrayed the four girls in a sympathetic light. While she stated facts regarding their own dysfunctional lives, it never gave me the sense of feeling any pity for those four girls, nor did I believe those were the feelings of this author. Jones' book was nearly impossible for me to put down. In all my years of reading true crime, I thought I had read it all. I hadn't until now. I simply can't fathom how evil people can be. The most shocking aspect (aside from the horrific death) was that these four mid-western girls were capable of something so vicious, it left me speechless and sickened. Loveless and Tackett deserve death, or at the very least, life in prison with no parole. To this day, a decade later, I seriously doubt either one of those monsters feels remorse. They truly are the stuff nightmares are made of...

Rating:
Summary: SAD
Review: I think she is a wonderful author-having read almost all of her work and disliking only one of her books.
She went into so much detail of Melinda life because hers was the most disturbing of the girls. If you understand psychology, then you will understand that a persons childhood and family is generally directly related to their personality and may define her future. She showed us that Melinda was deeply disturbed and although nobody can really explain why or how, by understanding where she came from we can get a better view.
These were TEENAGE girls at the time of this brutual tourture/murder. It is hard to understand why an adult would commit such a crime, but almost impossible to imagine how and why a child would do it. These girls got everything they deserved. I am glad they were punished by deathe, but instead forced to live had the rest of their childhoods and adult years taken away from them.
All in all, it was a very good book.

Rating:
Summary: Aphordite Jones does it again...
Review: I think she is a wonderful author-having read almost all of her work and disliking only one of her books.
She went into so much detail of Melinda life because hers was the most disturbing of the girls. If you understand psychology, then you will understand that a persons childhood and family is generally directly related to their personality and may define her future. She showed us that Melinda was deeply disturbed and although nobody can really explain why or how, by understanding where she came from we can get a better view.
These were TEENAGE girls at the time of this brutual tourture/murder. It is hard to understand why an adult would commit such a crime, but almost impossible to imagine how and why a child would do it. These girls got everything they deserved. I am glad they were punished by deathe, but instead forced to live had the rest of their childhoods and adult years taken away from them.
All in all, it was a very good book.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: I was only two and a half when Shanda Sharer was brutally murdered by four teenage girls, so obviously I knew nothing about the case as it was going on. At the library a few weeks ago, I saw a copy of CRUEL SACRIFICE, and since I've been really into true crime books lately, I decided to give this one a shot.

CRUEL SACRIFICE not only gives a very good account of the murder of Shanda Sharer, but a good portion of the book describes the four murderers (no, I won't refer to them as the four girls, or the four teenagers, because what they did was beyond disgusting) home lives. Melinda Loveless and Laurie Tackett's stories are much more detailed than Toni Lawrence and Hope Rippey's, mostly because they were the two "in charge." The stories from the Loveless family are incredibly disturbing as well, but they don't offer any excuse for Melinda's actions.

CRUEL SACRIFICE is a very good book, but it definately starts to drag on at parts. The photographs are really haunting, because looking at them you can't help but think "How could someone that looks so normal, like someone I would see at my school...how could they do such a thing?" I'd recommend it to anyone that's familiar with the case, or that likes true crime books. It's one of the most tragic books I've read in a while, because nobody deserves to be killed at such a young age (Sharer was only twelve years old at the time).

Overall grade - B

Rating:
Summary: SAD
Review: Just another attempt to over analize murderers.
I must respond to a reviewer on here ...What I can not stand is the bashing of victims families like you did.
"Rot in Hell" is such a horrible thing to say to Miss Loveless huh?
They are words of a mother who lost a child.
I see you feel nothing for her loss but feel so bad poor Melinda because she had to hear a few bad words....poor baby.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Story - very bad author
Review: Once more Jones manages to write a bad book about a very intruiging real-life murder case. I bought this book because I was interested in the Shanda Sharer murder. Having never read anything by Jones, I had high hopes (especially after I heard her being interviewed on NPR for her newest book "Red Zone").
What a disappointment. The best way I can compare my reading experience of this book is with watching a particularly bad Lifetime movie.
Jones simply lists anything she has managed to dig up about this case. It's really more of a collage of leads, rumors and courtroom snippets than a formally organized book. Who is this author's editor???? There is absolutely no clear line here.
The four teens who were involved in the murder of a 12-year old girl come across as mere stereotypes. Jones manages to absolutely NOT bring any of them to life. I am just as puzzled about these kids and their reasons for killing a little girl as I was when I read the back of the book.
I still don't understand what really went on the night Shanda was murdered, let alone why this murder occurred. I have no idea how the police built their case (that section was particularly convoluted). I don't know anything about the four girls' state of mind after the crime and their participation in their defense strategy. I have more questions after reading this book than I had before I picked it up.
Oh, there is one more thing that really bothered me. Jones includes pictures of key players in the book. Why did she not include pictures of these kids that would show the reader what they actually looked like day to day? Jones goes to greast lengths of describing the teens physically. Yet, the pictures she chose to include are mug shots only... With the excpetion of one girl (for whom Jones includes several different pictures), the three other teens are forever doomed to merely be remembered as deer caught in the headlight in their mug shots. And of Shanda, the victim, the reader is treated to one blurry picture of the pretty young girl (but plenty of inconsequential autopsy pictures). Lastly, Jones keeps telling us about this lesbian triangle between the victim, one of the guilty teens and this other girl Amanda (not directly involved in the crime). WHY IS THERE NO PICTURE OF AMANDA???
I just don't understand Jones' choices and I truly dislike her convoluted writing style.

Rating:
Summary: Obsessed
Review: When i first started to read Cruel Sacrifice i couldn't put it down. The things the Loveless family had to endure, it would make anyone cry. The torture the little girls were put through by their own father were horrible, and Aphrodite Jones has written the book so well that you could almost feel the breath of the drunk man on your neck. She really takes you into the book itself with her and shows you all the details of the incident. I would recomend this book to anyone of the age of thirteen and older, and I would read it again. This book is very powerful with the way you think. After i read half of the book i started to really appreciate my family a little more and really think, this happens everyday. It is a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Drunken White Trash Begets Evil White Trash
Review: When I initially read about this murder, I thought, "Oh...Southern Indiana...that explains it." So much weirdness goes on along the Ohio River, I doubt 1/100 of it gets discovered, much less reported. But having read this story, I am amazed that anyone could be capable of such absolute depravity, lack of empathy, and sheer absence of conscience, regardless of the drunken trashiness in their family backgrounds. I pray that my little daughter never runs into anyone like these horrible ghouls, and also that they never get released, 'cause it's clear they have no concept that they did anything wrong.