Fourth Quater Outside Reading Book Review

If I am Missing or Dead by Janine Latus. Simon & Schuster, 2007. Genre: Non-Fiction

Janine Latus writes about her life and the many meaningful, some disturbing things that had happened. She focuses on her childhood and her unusual marriage. She notices that her and her sister have not had the best love lives and comes to realize this when her sister goes missing. Latus writes about her memories of her love life and childhood when her family was together. She tries to put the pieces together on what went wrong.

"Unfolds like a gripping novel...gorgeous prose...[Janine's] bravery...shines in her struggle to rediscover her own self worth." – People magazine

If I am Missing or Dead by Janine Latus is a truly inspirational story. She tells about her abusive marriage and how she felt during the marriage, and how she fought through. She keeps in close touch with her sister, Amy; they both have struggled in their love lives. Latus also reflects on her childhood, her mentally abusive father and their mother and father’s divorce. She reflects on how this affected her and her siblings. She uses a lot of emotion in her writing and you can tell that every word has came from the heart. Latus tells about her supporting mother and never really understanding her father. This book gives true inspiration to those that have been abused, that life gets better and goes on. This was her first book, but it does deserve praise.


“But I don’t stand up and say it because it feels to risky, like it will make Kurt feel vulnerable, like what we have is fragile, and I don’t want that for him. I want him to feel safe and loved, secure. Especially after all he has given up for me.”

This is one of the first and only non fiction books that I have read. I don’t particularly enjoy them but this book was completely astonishing. The way that she described her life and the event that happened made it a real page turner. I found myself wrapped up in the book. I think reading some of the things that happened mad me give pity her because things seemed so hard and nothing seemed to be getting better. I think that you have to be very brave to share your thoughts and feelings with the whole world in a published book. For that I give her extreme applause.