Reviews
                     True Crime Editor's Recommended Book
                     The words of a murderer: "This should not have happened. This is not me.
                     It's so stupid when you think about it. It shouldn't have caused a death. I
                     don't blame me. We just need a little growing up. We were young, and
                     we still are." Aphrodite Jones takes the reader into the world of several
                     teenage girls in small-town southern Indiana--their clothes, rock music,
                     and fascination with offbeat spirituality, and also their lesbian jealousies
                     and penchant for violence. This book provides a useful balance to an
                     earlier account by Michael Quinlan (Little Lost Angel). Jones's style is
                     less dramatic than Quinlan's, but she devotes more space to the family
                     backgrounds and psychological complexities of the two girls whose
                     hot-vs-cold temperaments meshed to bring about the murder of
                     12-year-old Shanda Sharer.

                     Synopsis
                     Veteran true crime journalist Aphrodite Jones reveals the shocking truth
                     behind the most savage crime in Indiana history--the torture, mutilation,
                     and murder of 12-year-old Shanda Sharer by four teenage girls. Here is a
                     tragic story of twisted love and insane jealousy, lesbianism, brutal child
                     abuse, and sadistic ritual killing in small-town America. Includes 16-page
                     photo insert.
 

                     Customer Comments
                     Average Customer Review:  Number of Reviews: 9

                     A reader from Miami, Florida , August 23, 1998
                     A profile and foreshadow of child-murderers in our USA
                     The innocence with which all childen live their lives deceived the residents
                     of Indiana when four teen-age girls murder their friend. Jonesboro, et al.,
                     can happen anywhere. If you want to understand how children can
                     murder other children, this is one book to help you understand by
                     example. The ending of this book says it all.

                     [email protected] Hazel from USA , July 27, 1998
                     This is a great book! It was quite sad though.
                     I was browsing through the bookstore and saw this book. I read the back
                     and bought it right away. As soon as i got it i couldn't put it down. I
                     thought it was a great book, very well put by Jones. Though in the
                     beginning when the whole ordeal with how they killed Shanda upset me.
                     Even though I didn't even know Shanda, i felt so bad for her. It's upsetting
                     to know what they did to her.

                     A reader from Atlanta, Georgia USA , June 19, 1998
                     I found this book to be heartwrenching and riveting.
                     This was one of the saddest stories I've ever heard. It goes so much
                     deeper than the surface of four teenagers killing a pre-teen. There are a
                     million questions .. why? Why was one molested? Why was a twelve year
                     old allowed to go out at night? Did her parents know she was having sex
                     with other girls at 12? Why, why, why? The book was very well written.
                     It gave me a sense of how the girls felt as the events of the murder
                     unfolded. Good reading.

                     [email protected] christi from New Albany, Indiana , June 18, 1998

                     A wonderful but horrible story
                     I live in the town in which Shanda lived in and I now go to the school she
                     went to. And even though it's been years since this horrible inncident
                     people, teens mostly, are still talking about her and her friends who
                     betrayed her. I read the book and I cried all through it because of the
                     things that teens come up with to do to people because of love. I couldn't
                     belive that something like that would happen in a small town such as New
                     Albany and thinking that hey, it could happen to me too. But I really
                     injoyed the book and is by farmost the best book I have ever read.

                     [email protected] from USA , April 10, 1998
                     I't got me hooked on true crime books!
                     This story really got to me because it shocked me how cruel young teens
                     can be. Also I liked how Aphrodite went through the backgrounds of the
                     characters and how it felt as if I was living this nightmare with them. I
                     really persuade you to read this because it will give you a different look on
                     teenage love and the minds of the innocent.

                     [email protected] from Tere Haute, IN , March 18, 1998
                     Good Book, My Comments...
                     This was a good book, the facts were correct, but I have personal
                     experience with these girls. I was in prison with them, and I think that Toni
                     Lawrence deeply regrets what happened. She took no part in the killing
                     of Shanda, her crime was simply being there, yet she recieved a 20 year
                     sentance. It saddens me that this murder happened, but also that these
                     girls now are growing up in the Indiana Womens Prison.

                     [email protected] from Indiana , March 9, 1998
                     Written only as Aphrodite can do!!!
                     This book is so moving. I live in Indiana, so reading a book about such a
                     horrible crime commited in my home state, really hit home. The writer digs
                     in there. She isn't afraid to get inside the killers head and she isn't afraid to
                     write what she believes. I just couldn't put it down, and I have read it so
                     many times, I have lost count. Read this book, it will move you too!

                     [email protected] from Chicago , January 28, 1998
                     Depraved and horrifying!
                     It took about ten hours for twelve-year-old Shanda Sharer to die. Four
                     teenage girls first beat and choked her in one location, then drove around
                     with Shanda moaning and screaming in the trunk. They finally burned her
                     alive.

                     Why? Well, one of the killers, Melinda Loveless, hated Shanda for
                     coming between Melinda and her lesbian lover. But the other three hardly
                     knew Shanda, and had no real dislike for her. All four teenage murderers
                     came from extremely dysfunctional backgrounds, especially Melinda,
                     whose father molested her and her two sisters (and any of their friends he
                     could get near).

                     A story of unbelievable cruelty and hopelessness, well written, and highly
                     recommended.
 


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