This beautiful, intense so so sad book was overwhelming. I knew everyone was going to die, it starts in the midst of a school explosion, but even though I knew something was coming, my love for the characters left me broken. This book is full of hard, sad truths, working the edge of teen sexuality between abuse and the beauty of free choice. This is a VERY mature book for teens, but deals with racism and sexual abuse head on. ( )

Amazing and well written. But I shouldn't have let the title give me hope. Whoever said this ending was happier than it should've been lied. I think I'm going to go back to my feel good books for awhile now.

While these books are important, I was not prepared to experience all this (if only literary, based on real life) trauma. ( )

Writing atyle very choppy ( )

Book Club

Naomi and her two siblings, Beto and Cari, have moved in with their father (her stepfather), Henry, who works in the oil industry in Texas, 1937. Framed by a school explosion that really happened, [Out of Darkness] explores race tensions through the story of Naomi and Wash, a young black man who falls in love with her. But, in a community so divided and a world defined by race, their found family of Black and Mexican American - including the two children who are light-skinned, like their white father - is an impossibility.

The book starts with the aftermath of the explosion, and then goes back in time to the previous year, the beginning of the school year. As a result, a sense of dread hangs over the whole thing, waiting for the physical explosion, the social ramifications of interracial friendship and love, and the twisted desire Henry has for Naomi. You know it's not going to end well, and yet the story is compelling, the main characters Naomi, Wash, Beto and Cari, drawn well, and the siblings relationships are really lovely with moments of joy. The narration switches points of view among these four, as well as side characters such as Henry and "the gang," Naomi's schoolmates. ( )