Customer Reviews

LITTLE LOST ANGEL

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Both "Little Lost Angel" and "Cruel Sacrifice" cover the Shanda Sharer murder, and I recommend that you read both. "Cruel Sacrifice" presents a lot of background on the four young killers, while the focus of "Little Lost Angel" is Shanda Sharer. Thus, both books approach this horrific tragedy from different viewpoints.

This is a story of a complete tragedy. Not just twelve-year-old Shanda's gruesome murder, but the wasted lives of her assailants moved me deeply. Like any great book, both "Little Lost Angel" and "Cruel Sacrifice" were educational in the best sense.

We thought the book was an incredible insight into what can go wrong with the youth of today, coming from broken homes and minimal parental involvement. The descriptions were graphic and horrific, we had many sleepless nights feeling the pain and desperation of poor little Shanda. The author's writing style allowed us, as readers, to become part of the Shanda murder and trial, allowing us to feel as though we were there. We definetly would rate this book with a two thumbs up (Maybe four).

As someone who actually KNEW Shanda, went to school with her, ate lunch with her occasionally and was forunate enough to call her my friend; I must say that Mister Quinlan hit the old nail on the head when he wrote this book. Ms. Aphrodite Jones set out to portray Shanda as a little dyke when she wasn't! She was only 12 1/2 for crying out loud, people. :( I know Melinda Loveless and I feel that she got exactly what she deserved. The same is to be said for Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence. This is not something that is easily forgotten, especially by me; more so by them though. No longer can Shanda's bell like laughter fill my ears, no longer can I tell my innermost personal secrets to her. She was my friend and I'll never forget her. Thank you and God bless, Jack Eugene Moore III

I just finished reading this truly shocking book a few moments ago and I cannot stop thinking about it. I'm 13 this year 2000. When Shanda was murdered, i was a mere 5 years old. The thought that she could be a 20-year-old young and fine lady at this point in time saddens me. I cannot believe it. The story itself was written in such a way I couldn't put it down. I finished the whole book in 25 hours, stopping to sleep and go to school. I absolutely loved the book. BUT THEN... last night when i was 3/4 through the book, I couldn't get to sleep, the murder was so gruesome I kept thinking about it. I couldn't stand those shadows in my bedroom wall, knowing I might not be so safe after all... nevertheless, read it if you feel you are mature enough to gulp such horrible facts easily.

This is the most tragic and gruesome story about teens I have ever read in my life. I couldn't believe these girls were capable of murder, young as they were. It is a real tear-jerker, and whoever reads it should be prepared to cry A LOT. As sad as it is, however, it should be read by the entire world just to know how Shanda's life was ended so abruptly, when she had an intelligent future in her hands.

This book really hit me hard when i read it. From the moment i read the first page, I didnt put it down, except to sleep. What is very frightening about it, is that this could happen anywhere, and at any time. I found myself obsessed over this trial after reading this and Aphrodite Jones's Cruel Sacrifice. This book compels you and drags you into each of these poor girl's lives and minds, highlighting every specific detail of the course of events. My heart goes out to the Sharer family.

Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" had three witches, this story has four. But while the witches in "Macbeth" were interesting characters, the witches Loveless, Tackett, Rippey, and Lawrence committed a horrific act that not even a playwright of Shakepeare's genius could have devised. These fictional witches stirred a cauldron of food and water, while the four witches of this story ignited a cauldron of grief and despair for Shanda's family and friends which will never simmer down. How ironic it is that one of their stops on that fatal night was the witches castle. If they are ever released from prison, they should take up residence there. This book emphasises the yawning gaps between some parents and their children, and graphically depicts the tragedies that ensue if these gaps are not bridged.

How does one even begin to approach this horrid, gruesome true story about the atrocities committed against Shanda Sharer? Moreover, how does an author write objectively, so all sides can be seen and the reader can draw his or her own conclusions about Shanda and the four girls who killed her?

Michael Quinlan manages to do this, not only objectively, but thoroughly.

The book has been out of print for quite some time now, but even read second-hand, with the pages nearly falling apart, you can't tear your eyes away from the pages. I started it last night and finished it this afternoon, hardly able to sleep.

Shanda Sharer was the new twelve year-old at school in a small town in Indiana. Always an outgoing girl, she quickly made friends, even with a girl she got into a fight with within her first week. This girl was Amanda Heavrin. Amanda, though already in a relationship with classmate Melinda Loveless, took a liking to Shanda and, over time, persuaded her into an intimate relationship.

While Quinlan's prose may seem to imply Shanda was tricked into the lesbian affair, it's a valid viewpoint considering Shanda's alleged "boy craziness" and how she got a new boyfriend quickly after transfering out of Amanda and Melinda's school. This was not a homophobic viewpoint; merely a presentation of how Shanda behaved before and after meeting Amanda.

Shanda was not portrayed as the perfect little girl. She lied to her parents, made mistakes, and tried to hide her relationship with Amanda not only from her parents but Melinda Loveless as well. Once she switched schools, she became more like her old self, hanging out with boys and rebelling less.

Despite the horror of what she helped to in the torturing and murdering of Shanda, Melinda is given a fair background as well. Her tormented home life--which was never confirmed, but still weighs as a heavy possibility--would help explain her drastic mood swings between loving Amanda and saying she never wanted to see her again; claiming Shanda is cute but she wants her dead.

Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Toni Lawrence are all described in their home lives, their pasts, and their behavior during the murder. All sides are given--they are despicable, yet you find yourself almost wanting to sympathize with them.

Almost... because the details of how Shanda was tortured and murdered are gruesome. No website online even touches upon the details like Quinlan does. The imagery is nightmarish--how Shanda is stabbed, the proof of sodomy, her eyes rolled back into her head, the trunk door slammed on her, how her corpse was found charred from the waist up with her arms outstretched. And that's only a portion of what this 12 year-old girl suffered at the hands of her murderers.

Quinlan has done a wonderful job portraying this heartbreaking story. It proves how just simple communication between parents and children could prevent something like this happening, whether the children are in Shanda's shoes, Amanda Heavrin's, or even Melinda's.

This book really ought to be republished. No one with even a vague interest of true crime should lack this volume in their libraries. It's emotional, factual, and presented in a way that honors Shanda Sharer's memory.

I read this book four years ago and still remember every vivid detail. Though a book about the torture and death of a young, beautiful girl will never rank as "wonderful or excellent" in my mind, I found this book to be very hard to put down. My heart is broken for this young girl and her family.

I cried during much of this book, I was horrified beyond belief and it made me sick to my stomach to think of what this poor girl went through, my sister was murdered in 2002 and shoved into a trunk, so I know the pain and anger her family feels and will always feel, my heart goes out to her friends and family.