Title: Punished for Purpose
Author: Lauri Burnes
Publisher: WingSpan Press
ISBN: 9781595943460
Pages: 481, Paperback & Hardcover
Genre: Memoirs/Young Adult/Non-Fiction
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific book Review
Book Review
Reading about a child being repetitively beaten by an abusive alcoholic father is very disturbing to say the least, but what’s worse by far is being that child. Lauri Burns tells firsthand in Punished for Purpose amazingly detailed recollections of the abuse, the repetitive beatings, the physical and mental trauma she endured as an infant and all throughout her adolescence, and how she overcame her demons.Lauri Burns has a confessional style of honesty in telling her story revealing details most people wouldn’t want known. She maintains a progression of events, a timeline if you will, that rationally describes how she descended into a dark world of drug abuse, prostitution and criminal behavior. If it was not for the honest, first person, detailed sequence of events with uncanny recollection of feelings, one might believe this could never happen. It certainly did happen.
As the book begins with Lauri in her stateroom on a cruise ship, tying the pages of her memoir together for the publication of this book, the reader has the knowledge she obviously doesn’t die in her book. Overdosed drug addicts or murdered prostitutes don’t live to recant their deathly moments and write autobiographical memoirs. So when reading how close to death she found herself, one may think the suspense of whether she lives or dies is a moot point – we know she makes it. As a compliment to Lauri’s storytelling skills, the suspense she musters is indeed riveting to the reader. Knowing she lives through her events does not distract from the seriousness of the circumstances she endured. Witnessing the obstacles Lauri needed to overcome; the addiction she needed to cure, and the monster inside she needed to quell, reveals the inner strength of character of a truly extraordinary person.
Lauri Burns learned at a very early age the art of survival, and survive she did. Punished for Purpose is about the life of a person, the recovery and survival of Lauri Burns. It’s about her journey to sobriety, with the help of people placed in her life just at the right time. She tells of the teachers and angels that pick her soul up off the street and put her on the path to become a role model, foster mom, and an inspiration to us all. Brought to the depths of hell on earth, her prayer to God for help was her last act of desperation to survive. A prayer she had used before, but now, this time, really meant it.
Lauri Burns portrays the complexity of her experiences and presents readers with more than just a salacious page-turner, but a story of resilience, redemption and forgiveness. She poignantly traces how a struggling teenager learned not only to believe in herself, but love herself. I don’t think anybody that engages themselves as a prostitute grew up thinking, “Someday I want to become a prostitute.” Instead, for whatever reasons, they get sucked into the trade. Lauri’s contribution to organizations like The Teen Project help these people get out of the business and find a better way of life. Young adults, whether troubled or not, need to read Punished for Purpose so their eyes will be opened to a dark world existing right outside their door. A world comprised of people in plain sight yet living in a different dimension.
Note to Reader: 75 % of the proceeds from Lauri Burns’ book “Punished for Purpose” will go to help emancipated foster youths nationwide.
