This book was, as I figured, going to be incredibly disturbing. It turned out to be even more disturbing than I thought.
The graphic detail that described the torture and murder of 12-year-old Shanda Sharer is sickening and makes you not want to believe it- but it's frighteningly true. If you doubt pure evil exists in human beings, read this- and even more terrifying is the fact that this evil lurked in the hearts of innocent-looking young teenagers.
It starts when Shanda Sharer starts at a new junior high school. Desperate to make new friends, she confronts a girl's ex-boyfriend. Another girl, 15-year-old Amanda Heavrin, jumps in to defend the boy,saying it's her cousin, and starts to beat up Shanda. Both girls get hauled in the principal's office and are given detention. (Why Shanda was given detention I don't know-she didn't instigate and couldn't fight back. Her mom also grounded her saying she shouldn't be getting into fights. Blaming the victim if you ask me.)
Amanda starts to be attracted to Shanda during their detention and makes friends with her. Amanda is dating 17-year-old Melinda Loveless at the time. Melinda becomes insanely jealous of Shanda as Amanda can't stop talking about her and their relationship becomes sexualized.
Shanda's mother, Jacque, becomes very concerned about Shanda as her grades are plummeting and she used to be an excellent student. She doesn't want to take part in sports and other extra-curriculars she had previously loved. Shanda had been very into fashion, hair, and makeup, and now is wearing loose, baggy clothes, not caring about her appearance and often refusing to leave her room. Jacque eventually finds out about Amanda's relationship with her daughter becoming sexual and hears that Amanda runs with a bad crowd. She confronts Amanda's father and asks that Shanda not have anything to do with her anymore.
Amanda goes back and forth between Melinda and Shanda, but won't leave Shanda alone. Shanda changes schools and is doing very well again, making new friends, etc. Amanda still pursues her.
To make a long story short, Melinda decides she wants revenge. She wants to kill Shanda and is serious about it. Laurie Tackett, a local troubled teen who has serious issues, wants to kill someone. They decide to kill Shanda. Hope Rippey and Toni Lawrence get involved at some point as well. These girls don't know Shanda.
They lure Shanda out of her father's house one night with the promise that Amanda wants to meet her. Melinda hides in the back seat and strategically jumps out at one point, threatening Shanda with a knife.
Shanda is tortured over the next several hours in wooded areas and eventually lit on fire and left to die. The girls go to McDonald's afterwards and laugh about how the sausage looks like Shanda. Melinda is laughing and saying she's so glad Shanda is dead.
Toni says something to her parents, and the girls end up arrested. Melinda and Hope are grinning in their mugshots.
Again, I'm skimming, but through the trial Melinda and Laurie show little remorse. Melinda puts on a lot of theatrics ,becoming hysterical, but it doesn't seem genuine. Laurie tries to convince psychiatrists she's insane to avoid prosecution, but they call her on her bluff.
Melinda and Laurie plead guilty to avoid the death penalty and each get 60 years.
Toni gets 20 years, Hope a lengthier sentence (can't remember off the top of my head) as she poured gasoline on Shanda and took a more active part in the murder.
Want to know something possibly equally horrible?
All girls are out of jail now. Amanda Heavrin was never prosecuted for anything.
I watched a Dr. Phil special where Jacque and her daughter, Paije (Shanda's sister) confront Hope Rippey, who was freed from jail. Hope's performance was really something else. She keeps stammering that she doesn't know why she did what she did and that it was peer pressure. Dr. Phil points out that she had several chances to save Shanda's life, and that she took an active part in it. She has no real answers. Jacque says that if she was truly sorry, she wouldn't have persistently tried to get out of jail and ultimately have 15 years shaved off her sentence. Bingo. They ask Hope if she honestly feels she should be out of jail now and she says yes. Some remorse.
Dr. Phil interviews Amanda Heaverin and beforehand, Jacque gives some further insight than what was in the book as to the nature of Amanda's relationship with Shanda. Remember, Shanda was 12, Amanda was 15(and already sexually experienced and identifying as a lesbian).Jacque maintains that Amanda molested Shanda and groomed her, and refused to leave her alone even when she knew Melinda was making death threats. She also didn't tell anyone about the death threats. She says Amanda is just as guilty and I'd have to agree.
When Amanda is interviewed, Jacque and Paije watch from another room..I wish they'd confronted her.
Amanda is smug, cocky, and non apologetic. She sounds like a predator, claiming Shandra "came on to her" . She was 15. Shanda was 12. Even if this were true, she should have refused given her age. And left her alone. She complains about how the incident caused her to be kicked off the basketball team and lose a basketball scholarship. Are you f!!!@% serious, Amanda? This little girl was murdered and you're worried about basketball? She callously brings up that Shanda's father drank himself to death after the murder (true) and that he should have done more than prevent her from going out with those girls at night. This woman is a predator and should be behind bars.

Back to the book..
My one problem was it was the homophobia and satanic panic that ran like a river through it. Amanda is described as looking like a boy, and Jacque tells her father that he should spend more time with her so she can act more like a girl (cringe). Lesbianism among the teens is approached as something sinister and dirty that is somehow connected with their deviant behaviour, and that's just plain harmful and wrong. The author mentions the girls live in a homophobic town, but he does little to combat that.
Laurie's occult involvement is touted as another possible reason for her coldblooded murdering actions. She has pentecostal parents who were abusive and she rebelled by getting into the occult. they talk about her "channeling" dead spirits, drinking blood, and playing with "magic stones" (runes). She listens to punk rock and dresses weird, and hangs out with other kids like her.This also was eye-rolling and reminiscent of the satanic panic 80s and fear mongering around kids that were different. Ok, if the drinking blood thing were true, that's a definite red flag, but the rest doesn't lend itself to murder. Lots of kids experiment with the occult. It's not evil or banal on its' own. Laurie was clearly a sociopath and the occult had nothing to do with it.
It's obvious the families are somewhat homophobic, or at least, are painted that way. Shanda's mother is horrified about her relationship with Amanda, and the way the book makes it sound, it's because it's a lesbian relationship and she's adamant that Shanda isn't a lesbian. Whether she was or not is immaterial, the issue was that Amanda was an older predator and that didn't make it into the book (Jacque also said that Shanda failed phys ed because she refused to get changed in the changeroom, a clear sign of abuse with everything else she exhibited). Melinda's mother is at first against her daughter coming out, despite the fact her two older sisters are also lesbians. She eventually accepts it.
So, other than the outdated and harmful attitudes towards the occult and homosexuality, it was a well written book, if a bit sensationalist.
It is very graphic and will turn your stomach, so word of warning to those that are sensitive.