Darkness Before Dawn
2001 novel by Sharon Draper
Darkness Before Dawn is a realistic young adult novel written by author Sharon M. Draper in 2001. The novel is the third and final installment in the Hazelwood High Trilogy. It depicts the story of an eighteen-year-old African American senior Keisha Montgomery, who is attracted to the twenty-three-year-old track coach Jonathan Hathaway.
Plot summary
Eighteen-year-old Keisha Montgomery is still recovering from the suicide of her ex-boyfriend, Andy, after she broke up with him. While having the support of her friends and family, she starts to go out. She joins the track team and there meets Jonathan Hathaway, the twenty-three-year-old coach, and principal's son. During a track meeting, a girl named Rita begins arguing with Jonathan. He denies what they were talking about and after shouting some choice curse words, she runs into the woods, never to return to school.
Over time, he begins to smooth talk her and they finally become a couple. Her parents disapprove of him being five years older and forbid her to see him.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5223692. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001.
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This entry incorporates text from “Darkness Before Dawn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.