Out of Darkness
This is a story that takes place in a small East Texas town called New London in the late 1930's. Racial equality was non-existent and most people had a small-town mindset, even in the quick-growing oil towns of this region. The main character, Naomi, has recently moved to New London with her younger twin siblings, Beto and Cari, to live with their father, Henry. Naomi's father died when she was younger and her mother remarried Henry when Naomi was younger, which then set off a string of bad events in Naomi's life. Her mother suffered from repeated miscarriages and then dies after giving birth to the twins. Henry also began sexually abusing Naomi when her mother was alive as a way to keep from re-impregnating her mother (as the story unfolds you learn he is guilty of lots of horrible acts). He takes off not long after the twins' birth and her mother's death and Naomi and her siblings are sent to live with her grandparents. Henry apparently becomes a born-again Christian and is encouraged by his pastor to send for his children to raise. Naomi comes along as a package deal to help clean and raise the younger two. On top of all this Naomi is Mexican and struggles to find a place in a mostly black and white community. She meets Walsh, a young black boy her age, and they soon find solace in each other. The repercussions of their romance, though, are devastating.
This book is amazingly well written and after reading it I can see how it was a Printz Honor book in 2016. It is heartbreaking and hard to read knowing this is the history of our nation, but important to know how evil racism and abuse can be. The ramifications of each leave lifelong scars that the author is a master of revealing through her prose. The descriptiveness of the scenery immerses the reader in the setting of East Texas boomtowns and each detail adds to the story and the depth of each character.
Ashley Hope Perez' website (includes discussion guide, read-alikes, writing prompts, and other resources):
Book trailer:
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