Reformatory

by

English language

Published Feb. 4, 2023 by Titan Books Limited.

ISBN:
978-1-80336-653-1
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(3 reviews)

Gracetown, Florida - June 1950

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to …

4 editions

reviewed Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Three Parts Historical Fiction, One Part Horror

The Reformatory might be marketed as a horror/thriller, but it's much more than a tale of terrors in the Jim Crow South. Told from multiple perspectives, usually sticking to Gloria and Robbie Stephens, Due provides a nuanced and honest story of family, friendship, injustice, prejudice, and human rights. While there are horror elements, the novel would sit more comfortably in historical fiction. Many of the terrors are monstrous (and delivered by men) but others are supernatural, lending a magical realism to the narrative that wouldn't be there otherwise. Despite the content and tone, Due provides hope and light.

While I enjoyed the prose and found the story compelling, it went on about 150 pages too long. The characters were about 80% actualized, creating a slight disconnect between me and the Stephens children. This ultimately came down to middling arcs, a fault that could have been remedied by extending the span …

reviewed The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Heartbreaking, terrifying, and horrificly relevant

This was the perfect vacation read; I practically couldn't put it down. It kept me up late at night first because I didn't want to stop reading, and second because I was too creeped out to sleep.

But like all of my favorite horror, this book will also tear the heart right out of your chest. The horrors in here are torn from real life and thus all the more disturbing. And this story is deeply personal: Due names her protagonist for her great-uncle, who died at the Dozier School for Boys. But although this is historical fiction, it's incredibly (and uncomfortably) relevant to this year of our lord 2024. As Due notes in her author's note, these horrors are systemic and ongoing. We live in a society of incarceration and injustice, and we all know that there are still Haddocks viciously enforcing their own perverse tyranny in all corners …

reviewed The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Inside, it's too tense to read

My main worry when I started this book was that it wouldn't do much but cover the well-trodden ground of US race politics. That worry was founded, but at the same time this is such a we'll-executed book it doesn't really matter. It was evident early on what was going to happen, save a few minor plot twists. So it was a bit predictable, but also meant that the book was very tense all the way through - I was terrified of reading the climax. At the time I was going through a difficult period in real life so I avoided reading more than a little bit at a time. The scares in this book aren't supernatural. They're real and they're pretty sadistic too. I know I'm not selling this book but it was good - the characters, even, especially the minor ones, were well-written and the world fully realised.

Subjects

  • American literature