Road Home (Group 3)
Rex Ogle's Road Home
May 13, 2025 | ENGL 434 | Group #3: Taylor Juillerat, Joseph Huerta, Ada Gutierrez, Skyler Gilmore, Em Johnson
Biography of the Author
Rex Ogle is an award-winning author and editor known for writing powerful, honest stories for children and young adults. Born and raised in Texas, Ogle experienced poverty, domestic violence, and instability during his youth, which deeply influenced his writing. By the age of six, Ogle knew he wanted to pursue writing. Before moving to New York to advance his career, Ogle worked at various places, including Walmart, Cracker Barrel, and Cheesecake Factory.
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| Ogle & his dog. |
His bestselling debut memoir, Free Lunch, recounts his experiences growing up poor while navigating middle school. The book won the 2020 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction and garnered 9 starred reviews and multiple accolades, including Best Book of 2019 by Amazon, Kirkus, and Chicago Public Library, and established Ogle as a bold new voice in young adult literature. He followed Free Lunch with Punching Bag, a raw and emotional look at his teen years, and the last book in his memoir trilogy, Road Home. This book has been well-received and has won prizes such as the Printz Honor Award, Stonewall Book Award Honor Book, Amazon Best Book of the Year, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and a few others. Ogle has also written another nonfiction memoir in verse titled Abuela: Don’t Forget Me, about his beloved grandmother.
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| Ogle's abuela. |
In addition to memoir, Ogle writes graphic novels under the pen name Rey Terciero, including Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy, Doña Quixote 1 &2 and Northranger, a queer retelling of Northanger Abbey that was nominated for GLAAD and Harvey Awards. Before becoming a full-time author, Ogle worked as an editor for major companies like Marvel, DC Comics, Little Brown Young Readers, and Scholastic. Today, he lives in Los Angeles with his dog, writing stories that help readers feel seen, heard, and less alone. Rex Ogle is a powerful voice in young adult literature, known for writing honest and emotional stories based on his own experiences with poverty, abuse, and identity. His work is important because it gives young readers, especially those facing difficult circumstances, a sense of visibility, hope. and connection.
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| Ogle during his senior year of high school. |
The Young Adult novel Road Home by Rex Ogle is an autobiographical nonfiction of the real events of Rex, the author’s, life. Unlike a typical YA or bildungsroman that focuses on characters that are not real, in situations that reflect real-life scenarios or emotions that people coming-of-age go through, this novel focuses on the real life experience from the perspective of a real coming-of-age person, Rex.
Rex is a freshly graduated seventeen year old from the south, namely Texas and Alabama, navigating the traditional troubles of growing up, alongside being gay in a highly religious family and environment. It also takes place in the late ‘90s, specifically 1998, which adds another layer of context to the novel with the AIDS epidemic being heavily covered.
Early on in the novel, Rex is kicked out of his home after his dad is accidentally told that he is gay. Rex moves to New Orleans, the home city of the only other out gay man he had met at that point, Russell. Russell is thirty-one, which Rex takes as a compliment first, that someone older and with more experience wants to take him under his wing, thinks of him as “mature.” This is, unfortunately, a situation many homeless queer people face when they are left with little resources and choice. Rex does not fully realize it at first, but slowly begins to understand how he is being put in danger and taken advantage of in this situation.
The novel puts forward the discussion of not just how common queer homelessness is and the lengths they must go to in order to not live on the streets, but of homelessness in general and how quick we are as a society to shame them and avoid looking at them at all costs. Addiction within queer communities, both homeless and housed, is also brought up.
When Rex is first kicked out, he heavily uses alcohol to cope with the harsh rejection of his family, which is unfortunately incredibly common within young queer spaces. Although, this does also have to do with Russell coaxing him into drinking more a lot of the time. Drug culture, particularly with cocaine, is also shown within gay clubs and queer spaces as well throughout the novel, as Rex continues exploring New Orleans.
Something else that I think is very important and interesting that they touch on is specifically the fetishization of young gay men in queer spaces, mostly by older gay men. There are multiple times throughout the novel that Rex is classified as “delicate” or “easy” just because of his age and young appearance. Sexual assault is also something within queer communities that is not taken as seriously, which is addressed in the novel. It is often the case that queer people cannot simultaneously be bad people or do bad things, because of this inherent quality in who they are. This makes cases like Rex’s taken much less seriously, making victims of such circumstances not want to come out with their stories.
I think it is interesting that, at the end of the novel, Rex talks about his pride making him homeless essentially, when he knew he had people who would have supported him. I found this a bit heartbreaking, as he points out, this is not a common result among homeless queer youth.
This novel is incredibly rich and touches on so many important topics queer youth face. It is because of this that it would most likely be better suited for older teens, who can cope with heavyweight baren that this novel carries. It talks about so many issues and struggles we have faced in our own lives living within the queer community and seeing similar circumstances happen to our friends and peers.
Sources
Oogle is very vocal about sharing his gratitude to the people who have made it possible to achieve his dream of becoming a writer. When it has come to his struggles with writing, the biggest roadblock was having his work be acknowledged by publishers. He talks about how difficult it was getting his stuff out there and when he was finally able to publish his debut novel, Free Lunch, it allowed him to connect with teachers and librarians. Despite his success, he shows humility even when it comes to his achievements. When Road Home received the Printz Honor Book and Stonewall Honor Book rewards, Oogle took online to say, "I want to take a moment to express my utter and total gratitude--not just for the awards, but for the librarians who are on the frontline between readers and those who would take away their education." Unfortunately, Ogle has faced backlash due to including queer representation in his stories. As a result, it has led to his books being added onto the list of banned books. Even so, the discouragement he feels is outweighed by the support he has received from other authors, teachers, and librarians.
He talks to his audience online by sharing his victories, from the small to the big ones. In a display of courage, he also shows to open up about his mental health struggles in a vulnerable state in order to bring awareness to mental health that he explores in his novel. Through interviews, Ogle shares how growing up was difficult for him, especially when it came to the complicated relationship with his father that sets up the events of Road Home.
The following statistics provide insight on the correlation between queer identified folks and homelessness. Stating, "71% of sexual minorities experienced homelessness for the first time as an adult". This is pertinent to both the story being told and the audience consuming the literature. The memoir touches on many topics that are very relevant in many young adults' lives today and provides insight for people who are not a part of the community.
Touching on the very real topics of the book, it is important to reference this information as well. Stating, "26% of gay men and 37.3% of bisexual men have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime, in comparison to 29% of heterosexual men". It is important to educate our audience on the vulnerability of LGBTQ+ adults, to provide awareness of the situations that are happening today and how we as a society can better ourselves.
The following article talks about the correlation between the rejection of a child's identity and religion. Stating, " Anyone who has worked with homeless LGBTQ youths knows another reason that parents all too frequently forsake their children: because of their religious beliefs."
This article touches upon the impact of rejection of one's identity, especially a child's, and how it can hurt their mental health.
Diction - Word choice; choosing the right word for the right situation can set the scene or evoke a particular mood (owl.purdue.edu)
Point of View - First person, second person, third person
Ogle, Rex [@thirdrex]. Photo of Rex during his senior year of high school. Instagram, Apr. 2020, https://instagram.com/p/B_AqXdCgNVo/?utm_source=qr
Ogle, Rex [@thirdrex]. Photo of Road Home awards. Instagram, 28 Jan. 2025
Ogle, Rex [@thirdrex]. Video of Rex about his trauma. Instagram, 28 Mar. 2024
Ogle, Rex. “Our Book Was Banned for Being Gay: An Illustrated Story.” Out Magazine, Out Magazine, 25 June 2024, www.out.com/out-exclusives/rex-ogle-bre-indigo-book-ban-graphic-novella#rebelltitem36.
Stories, Local. “Conversations with Rex Ogle.” Voyage LA Magazine | LA City Guide, 23 Dec. 2024, voyagela.com/interview/conversations-with-rex-ogle.
Stories, Local. “Rising Stars: Meet Rex Ogle.” Voyage LA Magazine | LA City Guide, 8 Apr. 2024, voyagela.com/interview/rising-stars-meet-rex-ogle-of-silverlake/.
