11/15/2021
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
Location- Avon Middle School
Let me know if it is in your school- https://www.gofollett.com/aasp/ui/pick/pick
Excerpt- "He shifted in his pajamas, and the part of him that made him a man stuck out, reddish purple and frightening. She had never seen one before except on a baby. This was different. He lifted her hand to his mouth and licked it. Then he lowered her hand down and closed it around the hardness. His hand moved hers.... She watched her hand move back and forth like it didn't belong to her."
"His hands opened her thighs, and then he was touching her with his mouth, kissing warmth, wetness. she might have been ashamed, but she wasn't. She was alive, tremblingly alive."
SUMMARY
Naomi, the main character, is s*xually abused by her stepfather, Henry, as a child and continues after her mother’s death.
The church pastor encourages her stepfather to marry Naomi before she has even finished school.
A gas explosion happens at the local school and her little sister is killed—graphic descriptions of her body parts all over. The dead sister’s twin brother lies with her body until they can bury her.
Many of the teen and adult characters ma******te.
multiple, comprehensive-enough instructions on giving “hand jobs” (adult males training teen girls);
female ma********on (protagonist) justified for pain relief and mental escape by a girl living through the trauma of being s*xually abused by a stepfather;
male ma********on by both the stepdad (villain) and love interest (hero);
The main character has graphic s*xual activity with her boyfriend, Wash. She is Hispanic, he is black and this relationship is “unwelcome” for 1930’s.
At the end of the book, Henry discovers the relationship. He forces Naomi’s little brother to tie the boyfriend, Wash, to a tree. Henry violently rapes his underage daughter in front of his son (her brother) and Wash who is tied to the tree. Henry beats the daughter while ra**ng her then coerces the son to shoot Wash. Son hesitates. Henry shoots his daughter in the leg then beats Wash until he falls on top of Naomi. He shoots Wash and the bullet goes through both of them.
Son shoots father in the head—book describes pieces of his head hitting the tree behind him.
