But in the hands of Pérez, a teacher, a Texas native, and a seriously talented author, it's beautiful and compelling and utterly essential. It's not just a book about one of the worst disasters in history it's a book about all the minute disasters of daily life that make you feel unsafe in your own home. Pérez winds up tension in ever-tightening circles, slowly revealing the characters' histories and relationships, deftly using the voices of multiple narrators-even the collective thoughts of a gang of racist white students-to make every action, every choice, as personal as possible. Naomi makes a quick friend in Wash Fuller, the son of the principal of the New London Colored School, and their interracial romance-as well as Naomi's inability to pass as white at the segregated New London school-creates waves in the small, sharply divided town-waves that quickly become a tsunami. As the characters race to the site of the accident, Pérez abruptly rewinds us to several months before, and introduces us to Naomi Vargas and her twin half-siblings, sent to live with the twins' white father after their mother's death. The tragedy destroyed the white students' school in the growing oil boom town of New London, killing over 295 students and teachers.

OUT OF DARKNESS begins with the New London school explosion in 1937-the worst school disaster in American history, and the third deadliest disaster in Texas. OUT OF DARKNESS gives full-fledged voice to characters who have traditionally been forced to the margins of society and makes their stories the central focus of a real historical tragedy. I had two quotes running in my head, on and off, constantly, while reading Ashley Hope Pérez's OUT OF DARKNESS: 'History is written by the winners,' and 'hope is the thing with feathers.' This painful, poetic novel hits you hard with unflinchingly realized descriptions of the stark racial and class divisions still crippling our society-and then it gives you such wonderful moments of hope and connection that it makes all the tears worthwhile.

Ashley hope perez out of darkness