New London, Texas, 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as anyone. They know the signs that mark them. They know the people who enforce them. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful, it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. And the consequences can be explosive.

Ashley Hope Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion, the worst school disaster in American history, as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy people.

Listening Length

12 hours and 31 minutes
Author

Ashley Hope Pérez
Narrator

Benita Robledo, see all
Audible release date

April 26, 2016
Language

English
Publisher

Listening Library
ASIN

B01D51M4UY
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	12 hours and 31 minutes
Author	Ashley Hope Pérez
Narrator	Benita Robledo, Lincoln Hoppe
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	April 26, 2016
Publisher	Listening Library
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B01D51M4UY
Best Sellers Rank	#22,817 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #26 in History & Culture for Teens #28 in Teen & Young Adult 20th Century United States Historical Fiction #30 in Teen Fiction on Racism & Discrimination

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

647 global ratings

5 star		71%
4 star		18%
3 star		5%
2 star		2%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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"L"

Wrenching, heartbreaking, layers of tragedy. Utterly un-putdownable piece of historical fiction.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 9, 2022

Verified Purchase

Heard about this book on NPR, author was being interviewed because this amazing story that helps illustrate our country's shameful attitudes and behavior around race, is being banned in multiple areas. Yes, folks. In America. Still trying to ban books that tell unflinching truths. This is history, even though most of the story itself is fiction. You cannot deny the shameful parts of our history because you think it makes "us" look bad. Sorry. People were really treated like this. It happened.
The book is not specifically about that, but rather the struggle of a teenage Mexican girl trying to help raise her younger, half white, half Mexican twin half-siblings in 1930's Texas. The racism she endures is bad enough, but when she and her siblings befriend (and she falls in love with) a smart, enterprising young Black man, and they form their own little family, then the beast of hatred is truly unleashed to devastating ends. The author interweaves her fictional characters' stories with an actual tragedy that happened when a small town school exploded. She unravels the tale by telling it in chapters that are told from the point of view of each of the characters themselves.
I will not waste time with a long synopsis. I will tell you that I was sucked right into this snapshot of time and place, could not stop reading. This was one of those books that made me just collapse in an ugly-crying heap, but was worth reading every word.

So, you know what you have to do, right? When "THEY" try to ban a book, and pull it from school library shelves? You have to read it, of course. Even if and when it's technically YA material. Then give it to your kids to read. When you're done with this one, move on to another banned book that deserves mention-
Crank by Ellen Hopkins. One of the most stunning things I've read in a long time, told in poetic form. Like following someone step by step as they descend into hell, but utterly helpless to stop them...more effective a warning against a particular drug than any "scared straight" talk or video or PSA could ever be. So of course, gotta keep that one out of schools! Can't let that fall into the hands of kids it could help!! SMH, but I digress. Read this book, then read that one, and you will have made a small difference against the crime of censorship.

24 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kelley

omg

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 17, 2022

Verified Purchase

Wow. Just…wow. A beautiful book with an absolutely captivating storyteller as the writer. This one brought up a ton of different emotions.

Helpful

Crystal Toller

Oilfields of East Texas

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

I bought this book because I read somewhere that it was being banned from a school library because of pornography. It also deals with a realationship between an African American young man and a Mexican young lady, so that's also probably what parents were objecting to also. I was never restricted from reading anything growing up and have adopted the same attitude for my kids. This book deals with a man who has his 2 kids and his stepdaughter come to him in the East Texas oilfields to live with him. His stepdaughter, Naomi, meets a young African American young man and they fall in love. In the meantime, the stepfather wants to marry his stepdaughter. When there is a school explosion in 1937, the African American young man and his family are blamed. When Naomi, Wash, Beto and Wash's family tries to get away, tragedy occurs. A truly, heartrending story that is beautifully written and a really good book.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Wyoming

Awake

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

This story has a few scenes that might offend some people; however, each of these scenes gave context to the timeline. Using the school explosion as the basis for this fictional Tale is masterful. The incredible willingness of the author to shine light upon the horrid racism,sexism,and bigotry in this nations history is very courageous. As a parent, I want for my children to have as much knowledge as possible. Our history here in the US is ugly, hateful, and violent. And this book is a snapshot in time of a nation trying to come to terms with our diversity.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

A Good Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 6, 2022

Verified Purchase

This is a story about family, hope, love, racism, & sexual violence set in 1930s Texas. The characters are wonderful, the action and writing will keep you up late. This is not happily ever after, but tragedies are a part of life. For older teens and adults. This is a great book for discussions at home & in school, particularly for cultural changes, the evolution of gender rights, racial integration, potential homelessness for teens, and consent.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

arthur ray mendez

A story to contemplate the cruelties and ignorance of life.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 12, 2022

Verified Purchase

I recommend this book banned for everyone. Raw. Insightful, punishment for reaching fear, death and the mountain top. It's not enough to see. You have to make the world a better place.

Helpful

Joanna F. Crawford

Experiencing the Stories of Others

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

Reality can be disturbing. Heavy. Traumatic. But one of the purposes of art is to show us reality - the beautiful and the ugly. The best art brings together our intellect and our feelings, so that we don’t just view reality dispassionately, we feel it. Powerful fiction gives us the opportunity to not just learn about experiences not our own, but in some way, to feel we are experiencing them, too.

Out of Darkness gives us that, which is perhaps why it upsets some people. We don’t want to know harsh truths about the racism in our history, and we certainly don’t want to have to feel we are experiencing it! The author doesn’t just give us a window to peek into another world, she allows us to be inside different characters, feeling their joy, their hopes, their fears. I am all churned up. This is what good literature does to a person.

I’ll be sharing this book with my young adult children. They are 8th generation white Texans, and their grandfather grew up in East Texas at the time of this story. It is good for them to be churned up, too, to imagine stories outside the ones they have grown up hearing. To understand that reality is not limited to their own experience.

188 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bob K

A Difficult Situation

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 24, 2022

Verified Purchase

A white man living in eastern Texas during the 1930s married a Hispanic woman and her daughter. The have half Hispanic but mostly white twins, but the mother dies in child birth. The Hispanic daughter has a lot of trouble with the local population as a “dirty Mexican.” She develops a friendship/romance with a Black person.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

midwestlady

For younger not so experienced readers

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on July 24, 2022

Verified Purchase

I bought the book after checking the banned books list which has many real good novels with controversial topics to think/ talk about (it’s on it due to the forbidden black and white/ Hispanic relationship in 1930s Texas and some mild sex/ incest topic) but I found it annoying to read. The chapters are very short, mostly only 2-3 pages so the plot gets interrupted all the time since every chapter is from a different character‘s perspective. It therefore moves on extremely slow although it has a good start (a terrible catastrophe in a school in an oil drilling area of East Texas which actually did happen). It feels like the author thought the (young) readers have a hard time concentrating on more than a few pages at once which I find grossly underestimating their abilities.

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