Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Out of Darkness

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez

14 reviews

bickleyhouse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I don't often venture into the "YA" category of books. It's not intentional, really, as I have nothing against them, and have seen quite a few that interest me. There are a number that are on my TBR, as a matter of fact. But there is a specific reason that this one caught my eye.

You see, I am part of a book subscription program at the library where I am a part-time aide. I help select books for three of the subscribers, each month. While I was searching for a book for one of them, last month, this one came up. As I read the description of the book, I was somewhat astounded to note that the backdrop of the story is the tragic 1937 explosion of the New London School in New London, Texas. It happened in March. My father was born in November of that year, and his older brother had been attending that school, but, for some reason, had been moved to another one for that year. My Grandmama was pregnant with my father when the explosion occurred. She was standing in her kitchen, and either felt the explosion or just heard it. My memory is fuzzy on that.

So I really felt compelled to find this book. Our library doesn't have it, so I contacted our Interlibrary Loan specialist, and she got it from a nearby town, for me.

While the explosion was a real event, the rest of the story, including all of the characters, is entirely fictitious. It is a tragic tale of love in a time of extreme bigotry, forbidden love between an African-American young man and a Mexican girl. Wash, as we know him, worked around the school, doing odd jobs for the superintendent, and other people around the town. He lived in what was known as "Egypt Town," where all of the African-Americans lived, and where they had their own school, and their own stores. Naomi, the Mexican girl, had recently moved to New London with her step-father and step-siblings, a twin brother and sister. Her step-father, Henry was white and had married Naomi's mother after her father passed away. The twins were Mexican-American, but appeared to be white.

This book was so very painful for me to read. It is a stark, no-holds-barred representation of the extreme bigotry that was present in that era, not only in deep East Texas, but other parts of the "south," as well. In some ways, Naomi was treated as bad as the African-Americans. The white people simply didn't know what to do with her. She attended the white school, where she was bullied and treated poorly.

As the story progresses, the characters are very well-developed, and it begins to be apparent that the eventual outcome can't possibly be good, even though hope held on. Being someone whose heritage comes from that area (both my parents were born in that "neck of the woods," and lived minutes away from that school, my father raised in Pirtle, and my mother raised just outside of Henderson), I was not raised to mimic the bigotry from that era, and neither were my parents. This is one reason why reading something like this hurts so much.

The book inspires me to somehow be active in trying to dispel any form of bigotry in our country. It may not be quite as extreme as it was in the thirties, but it's still very prevalent in our society. White nationalism is alive and well and needs to be stopped. As a Christian, I was horrified to see the local pastor, in some ways, encouraging the attitude of inequality that was prevalent, although he did step in at one point, when things got very much out of hand.

Again, the book pulls no punches. There is language within that is startling to see in 2022, but was part of the scene, back then, and even into the sixties and seventies. There is violence, quite a bit of it. There is at least one rape scene. Like I said, it is a stark, no-holds-barred depiction of the reality of the times. Thank you, Ms. Perez, for being bold enough to write this.

And I am not surprised to find that this book was banned by some school libraries.

Content Warnings