True Crime
Shattered Lives: The Story of Advocate Barbie by Liezl Thom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In the beginning..
No that is not this story.
This book is a play off where Barbie is excused for her role and prosecuted for her role.
She is made off the be young.
Inexperienced. (Not by a long shot)
Brought up with morals and a strict code where woman serves their man and he remains the head of the house. (Seriously? Mom and dad divorced but stayed in one house to keep their daughter from throwing a temper tantrum. When she does find out that exact thing happens and they …..
Oh please. She is a spoilt rotten piece of human filth who never actually was an Advocate if I understand the process at all. She never passed her bar exams. So her brilliant mind was but a one tract mind into filth and degradation of others.
I liked that the book tried to provide two sides to a story though. Do not get me wrong and the reader is given enough info to make up their own minds regarding her being a victim or not.
She was about as victimized as her mother. A women who claims to have been raped by Dirk on more than one occasion but she keeps sleeping over in domiciles where he has free access?
Did she lay charges against him?
Two days after selling her and her daughters story to Huisgenoot for apparently a large amount of money she shoves a journalist out of her way. Why? Did he not offer you enough money? I do not know the specifics of what happened here to this woman, I was struck by how this woman stuck with her daughter during the real time trial etc. Now I simply do not know. Was she more of a negative influence on the young Barbie than we will ever know. Did she act out of love or out of guilt?
One thing is sure. The so called Barbie was such a force to be reckoned with that her parents stayed together in one house so as to not ‘upset” her. Can you imagine two grown people fearing their child’s response that much? I cannot but it has aided me in the belief that Barbie was never, ever, a victim of anything.
Then lets get onto the other mother in this book that drove me distraction.
This will be Jeannine du Plessis’s mother.
This woman is about as stable as a roller coaster in Cuba. She was the first person ever to abuse her daughter and that was through one of the worst forms of neglect I have come across in a while. She picked everything above her children. Then gave her daughter to the couple for a weekend knowing that there is allegations already against the couple but figuring what exactly. Well if they rape her I can get some money out of this? I do not know what went on in this woman’s head but it cannot be a pretty place. Her daughters suicide is more her own fault than it would ever be that of the so called Adv Barbie and I am glad that the family found the news of the woman’s suicide shocking and that they sent their condolences. Oh please. Playing for the audience again. Sorry I do not believe you are capable of feeling anything apart from wanting your way in everything.
Then we have Laurie Pieters, co author of this book. Without her the book would have been a copy and paste exercise for sure but….
The ease with which certain things happened around her and with her as key player suggests to me a deeper relationship with the two advocates or at the very least a larger understanding. I would love to hear that full story one day but I learned to respect Laurie Pieters’ ability to cope under high pressure circumstances.
In all a very difficult book to read due to it’s contents but still worth the read to get past the precepts that sexual predators are men and that woman nurture. When woman do not nurture they grow very dangerous and manipulative.
View all my reviews
Shattered Lives: The Story of Advocate Barbie
Shattered Lives: The Story of Advocate Barbie by Liezl ThomMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
In the beginning..
No that is not this story.
This book is a play off where Barbie is excused for her role and prosecuted for her role.
She is made off the be young.
Inexperienced. (Not by a long shot)
Brought up with morals and a strict code where woman serves their man and he remains the head of the house. (Seriously? Mom and dad divorced but stayed in one house to keep their daughter from throwing a temper tantrum. When she does find out that exact thing happens and they …..
Oh please. She is a spoilt rotten piece of human filth who never actually was an Advocate if I understand the process at all. She never passed her bar exams. So her brilliant mind was but a one tract mind into filth and degradation of others.
I liked that the book tried to provide two sides to a story though. Do not get me wrong and the reader is given enough info to make up their own minds regarding her being a victim or not.
She was about as victimized as her mother. A women who claims to have been raped by Dirk on more than one occasion but she keeps sleeping over in domiciles where he has free access?
Did she lay charges against him?
Two days after selling her and her daughters story to Huisgenoot for apparently a large amount of money she shoves a journalist out of her way. Why? Did he not offer you enough money? I do not know the specifics of what happened here to this woman, I was struck by how this woman stuck with her daughter during the real time trial etc. Now I simply do not know. Was she more of a negative influence on the young Barbie than we will ever know. Did she act out of love or out of guilt?
One thing is sure. The so called Barbie was such a force to be reckoned with that her parents stayed together in one house so as to not ‘upset” her. Can you imagine two grown people fearing their child’s response that much? I cannot but it has aided me in the belief that Barbie was never, ever, a victim of anything.
Then lets get onto the other mother in this book that drove me distraction.
This will be Jeannine du Plessis’s mother.
This woman is about as stable as a roller coaster in Cuba. She was the first person ever to abuse her daughter and that was through one of the worst forms of neglect I have come across in a while. She picked everything above her children. Then gave her daughter to the couple for a weekend knowing that there is allegations already against the couple but figuring what exactly. Well if they rape her I can get some money out of this? I do not know what went on in this woman’s head but it cannot be a pretty place. Her daughters suicide is more her own fault than it would ever be that of the so called Adv Barbie and I am glad that the family found the news of the woman’s suicide shocking and that they sent their condolences. Oh please. Playing for the audience again. Sorry I do not believe you are capable of feeling anything apart from wanting your way in everything.
Then we have Laurie Pieters, co author of this book. Without her the book would have been a copy and paste exercise for sure but….
The ease with which certain things happened around her and with her as key player suggests to me a deeper relationship with the two advocates or at the very least a larger understanding. I would love to hear that full story one day but I learned to respect Laurie Pieters’ ability to cope under high pressure circumstances.
In all a very difficult book to read due to it’s contents but still worth the read to get past the precepts that sexual predators are men and that woman nurture. When woman do not nurture they grow very dangerous and manipulative.
View all my reviews