In this riveting YA thriller from Mark Oshiro (Anger Is a Gift), a gay Latinx teen embarks on a dangerous trip to locate his sister, battle his demons and find a community in which he truly belongs.
Manny is a former foster child. With every new home, Manny was forced to choose between family membership and his personal identities. "I wanted both," he recalls, "I wanted freedom. I wanted love. I wanted choice. I wanted certainty." The 17-year-old has spent the past year hitchhiking with long-haul truckers (a few of whom were predatory) and staying in cheap motels. Then he met the Varela family. Now he is traveling with them, piecing together clues about his life before the foster system and looking for his sister, who he hopes is still alive.
Eli is a teen living in a secluded area and preparing to share the miracle of his "reconciliation" with other teens. All he retains from his life before being abandoned are "vague images and feelings," and now he simply wants to love and be loved in return. The teens are forced to uncover their own dark pasts when they hear news of a body found in the California Hills.
Oshiro intensifies the suspense by alternating first-person points of view between Manny's former life, his present-day narrative and Eli's experience, the shifts shown visually through font changes. The author's intentionally unreliable timeline and frequent traumatic memories highlight Manny's feelings of powerlessness. Into the Light is a carefully wrought and heartrending novel that delves into themes such as claiming identity, healing and emotional freedom. --Kieran Slattery, freelance reviewer, teacher, co-creator of Gender Inclusive Classrooms