out of the darkness by ashley hope perez

Wash Fuller – An African American senior (final year of senior high school) student, Wash is the son of the principal of New London Colored School.In the sections before the plot's climax the pages have increasing amounts of white space. The book includes various pages colored black and some black-and-white photographs. Her stepfather rapes her, and she and Wash are killed. Naomi tries to escape with Wash and his family, but she is discovered by her stepfather. Wash and his father narrowly avoid being lynched by the townspeople. After the explosion occurs, the townspeople blame Wash for the disaster. Naomi deals with overt racism in New London and her history with her stepfather. She becomes friends and falls in love with Wash Fuller, an African-American boy. Seventeen-year old Naomi Vargas, a high school senior who originates from San Antonio, moves in with her oil field worker stepfather. The novel begins with the school explosion and then recounts prior events, beginning in September 1936. She chose to write historical fiction as it was something different from her previous work.

An alumna of the University of Texas at Austin, she teaches literature at Ohio State University, and she previously taught at César Chávez High School in Houston. Pérez grew up in a community in proximity to New London. Juan Castillo of NBC News wrote that Out of Darkness 'stares unflinchingly at racism, classism, segregation and the people who live on the margins of society.' Background The novel chronicles a love affair between a teenage Mexican-American girl and a teenage African-American boy in 1930s New London, Texas, occurring right up to the 1937 New London School explosion. Out of Darkness is a historical young adult novel by Ashley Hope Pérez, published Septemby Carolrhoda Lab.

Out of the darkness by ashley hope perez