Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I already wrote a review of this book back in 2014. It's the one that 101 people found helpful. Wow, thanks everyone but honestly there are much better and much more thorough reviews on here than mine. Anyhow I thought I'd come back in 2021 now that I've aged nearly a decade and give some updates on this book as I recently reread it. I would compare this book to "fanfiction" honestly. I didn't know what fanfic was in 2014 but that's basically what we're reading here. I also borrowed an idea from another one star reviewer who said he started to highlight every place where Shannon is talking crap about someone else (aka everyone in the entire book besides her family members and one of the attorneys who *was* a very good attorney but take a moment and ask yourself, what do you think makes an excellent criminal defense attorney? That's all I'll say about that. ) Anyway, like the other reviewer, wow I was basically highlighting the entire book. I even took notes and I took a LOT of them. Here's the thing. At the time of my original review I don't think I mentioned this but I do remember thinking, "If my eldest son were 16 and murdered a classmate, I might feel some of the same feelings". He was 9 at the time. My son is currently 16 and a half and no, there is no way I would defend my son like this. I think Shannon believes if her son is guilty then that means she failed as a mother and she can't handle that thought. Sorry no, she believes OTHERS think it means she's a terrible mother and she can't handle THAT thought. I used to think maybe she just was blind because of the love a mother has for a child. I no longer believe this. Would I still love my son if he were a murderer? Of course. As a parent we love our children unconditionally. Would that mean I would think I was a terrible mom? Nope. However I am only human so I'm sure I would question if I went wrong somewhere or if there were something I could have done differently but for the most part I know I'm a good mom trying my best and I also still know that at 16 you know the difference between right and wrong. If others thought I was a horrible mom? Yeah that would suck but I certainly wouldn't write a book blaming the rest of the world. I would believe that my son was extremely disturbed and made a very evil decision that deserved life in prison. And even if I DID think he was innocent (in this situation I would not) there is no way I would ever write a book monetizing on the death of a young woman unless 100% of the proceeds went to Cassie's family. The rest of my thoughts remain the same. Shannon, if you happen to ever read this, you better do the right thing and add up all the money you've made off your sad little book here and write that family a check and if you don't or haven't given any of the money to the family, you're an even sicker person than I thought. Now that you know what it feels like to be judged I hope maybe you've learned a lesson and stopped judging every single person that exists that isn't "perfect" like you seem to think you are. I only judge people who do things that I believe are completely disgusting and you happen to fit into that category. I don't necessarily think you were a bad mother to this kid besides maybe instilling in him the belief that he can get away with whatever he wants because he's perfect or something of the sort. Torey is probably very mentally ill and I have no clue how you raised him but it was probably with love and that's the only nice thing I have to say about you. Side note: look up Bailey Sarian Scream Murder on YouTube. She does a great job telling this story and even mentioned a few things I didn't know about and I'm pretty familiar with this case.