Reformatory - bookwyrm.cincodenada.com

No cover — Reformatory (2023, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers)

English language

Published Feb. 4, 2023 by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers.

ISBN:: 9781982188368

(2 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 …

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 find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.

4 editions

plutonian reviewed The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Heartbreaking, terrifying, and horrificly relevant

4 stars

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 …

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 of this country, while their communities look the other way. Hell, half of them would vote for Haddock for president. It's not the horror of a single monster, or the ghosts they leave behind; it's the horror of the community that protects and feeds the monster.

This book is admittedly intense, it will have your heart pounding and then fill you with grief; but it is also filled with human warmth and hope. I will not forget Robbie, Gloria, Redbone, or Blue any time soon. And I will always, always show up for anything Due writes.

Kat reviewed The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Inside, it's too tense to read

4 stars

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.