"Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Perez

Perez, Ashley Hope. (2015). Out of Darkness. Minneapolis, Mn: Carolrhoda Lab.  ISBN: 978-1-  4677-4203-3

     Beware, this book has side effects. It is perspective changing.  Following the life of Naomi and her younger twin siblings, Beto and Cari, this story is heartrending. It is set in New London, Texas in the 30s and revolves around the booming oil field industry. Naomi’s mother is gone and her stepfather Henry is taking care of the family. It is clear from the beginning that there is a lot of tension between Naomi and Henry, but we don’t learn until much later in the novel why she hates him so much. Henry is shaping her into the woman that her mother used to be so that he can marry her. Naomi feels very differently about him. Her hatred is well earned by Henry when she is just a little girl and he sexually abuses her. Naomi meets, and falls in dangerous love with, Wash, a young black man with very high hopes for his future. Neither of them are really “welcome” in New London and so their love is a taboo one that the town does not approve of. The two are doomed from the start and the end of this story made me tearfully angry.  It was very Shakespearean the way the two died, tragically in their own magical, safe place.
     This story hurt me to read as there are many topics in it that are very delicate. Sexual assault, racism, hatred, murder and rape are, at the least, discomforting to literarily experience but this book showed me a perspective of my own state that I hadn’t fully understood before. Although it is a fictional tale, New London is a real place and the explosion that killed hundreds of children really did occur.  I mentioned that this book hurt me to read, but at the same time, I could not put it down. A page turner to the very end, this book keeps the reader fully immersed in its action and manages to give, if only a little, hope for the future in the end.

The Real Story of New London

Ashley Hope Perez’ Website

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