Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Out of Darkness

If you think you can stomach it, read it.

It's a horrible read, as many others have already pointed out, but I believe that the only way to bring stories like these, that tell of such gruesome, infuriating injustices, to light, to bring them Out of Darkness, is to read them.
To carry with oneself all of the stories that have stayed in the dark for so long, in order to finally give them a voice.

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craftyanty's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This book is dark and emotional, not a light read. The school explosion was a small, gruesome part of the story which brings on the climax. Instead, it focuses on many different social issues as they would've displayed in the 1930s Texas and includes LOTS of triggers. At times, events seemed like they didn't quite fit in the same story, but it was compelling enough to keep me listening. The author's note helped make the parts that seemed unrealistic more understandable.

I feel like I'm all over the place with this book...
It's not quite 4-star read for me but 3 stars don't feel like enough either. Part of me feels like the author chose the perfect title for this book, while another part of me feels like that title offers too much hope. Readers will understand.

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lauren_rebecca's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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cass_lit's review against another edition

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2.25

am sorry, I know this is a beloved, well accoladed story but I could not get behind this. I absolutely understand the importance of looking at history and dark things because it is real and we have to address it so we can keep it from continuing. And I’m not Mexican or Black so I’m not the one to listen to on this topic. As much as I didn’t enjoy this book — I do not think it should be banned from schools. I’m only able to read and review this and think critically about it because I had open access to as many books as I wanted.

The rest of this will contain spoilers because I don’t think it’s right for anyone to go into this not knowing, especially since it’s marketed at teens.

This felt like trauma porn. Again, I know these things all really happened and it’s very privileged of me as a white woman in 2022 to say I didn’t enjoy reading about what a Mexican girl in 1937 went through. But this was one thing after another — she (a child) was sexually abused by her step father, she (a child) was raped by her step father, she (a child) was told by everyone in her town (including the pastor AND HER GRANDMOTHER) to marry her step father and be the step mother to her two half-siblings. We were given the step father’s POV of him having extremely inappropriate thoughts about his step daughter (a child). We were given the POV of “the Gang,” who had not only VERY racist thoughts about Naomi, but also discussed wanting to rape her. There was stereotypical bullying, and then there was the much worse bullying because it was racist. There were even side stories of the lynching of Black men told I think as a warning because our main couple is interracial and the reader is supposed to remember that they couldn’t be together even if they ran away from all of the other bad stuff, but is never again addressed. There’s an explosion at the (white) kid’s school and instead of coming together in the face of a tragedy, there’s racism against a Black child. And a much less important issue, but the girl twin was a B R A T to Naomi, so

honestly I felt less bad about her dying than I would have it had been Naomi it Beto. That’s terrible to say, but we’d never once gotten her POV and I was numb by all the other terrible things by that point anyway.

There were also a lot of derogatory terms used for Black people in this, which makes me uncomfortable when they’re not written by a Black author.

It is one thing to read about history so it doesn’t repeat itself. It’s one thing to read about abuse and rape so that people (victims and survivors, not the bad guys) can find themselves in those stories or the writers can tell their stories for people to hear. Maybe for the intended, younger readers this will be helpful in understanding racism and classism and consent. I wasn’t that reader. The author’s note said she tried to balance all of these horrors with violence and connection, but I *personally* didn’t think they were at all equal. I appreciate and applaud the author’s strive to tell marginalized stories, but this one just wasn’t for me.

Content Warnings

greeneyedrobin's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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