Home After Dark
Publisher
Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication Year
2018
ISBN
9780871403155
Pages
399 pages
Genre
historical
Format
graphic novel
Item Type
Fiction
Annotation
A savage portrayal of male adolescence gone awry, like no other work of recent fiction or film. Wildly kaleidoscopic and furiously cinematic, Home After Dark is a literary tour-de-force that renders the brutality of adolescence in the so-called nostalgic 1950s, evoking classics such as The Lord of the Flies. Thirteen-year-old Russell Pruitt, abandoned by his mother, follows his father to California in search of a dream. Forced to fend for himself, Russell struggles to survive in Marshfield, a dilapidated town haunted by a sadistic animal killer and a ring of malicious boys who bully Russell for being "queer." Rescued from his booze-swilling father by Wen and Jian Mah, a Chinese immigrant couple who long for a child, Russell betrays them by running away with their restaurant's proceeds.
Grade Level
9-12
Diversity Topics
Family Relationships; LGBTQ (Gender and Sexuality); Disability and Health; Single parent; Foster care; Language barrier; Gay/Lesbian; Addiction; single father; foster teenager; foster parents; different languages; gay; gay teenager; alcoholism
Main Character
male teenager
Race/Ethnicities
Asian (Chinese) / White
Family Formation
father; foster mother and father
LGBTQ+
gay male
Awards
Alex Awards, 2019, Winner, Teen
Booklist Book Review Stars, 2018
Keywords
California; moving; bullying; peer pressure; abandonment; 1950s; animals; veteran; xenophobia
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Small, David, "Home After Dark" (2018). Diverse Families. 1710.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1710