Member Reviews

In Florida, 1950, Robert and Gloria’s father is chased out of town on false charges, but his real “crime” was asking for better pay and conditions for African American workers. Their mother has already died of cancer, so they are left in the care of an elderly friend. Then while protecting his sister, Robert kicks the privileged son of the McCormacks, who are wealthy and powerful landowners. With the bang of a gavel, Robert is sent to The Gracetown School for Boys, a strict reform school. This is a place of death, torture, and pain, especially if you are not white. And it is also full of ghosts, or “haints.” Robert’s not the only one who can see the haints, but he can see them better than most, a gift he will soon regret. Meanwhile on the outside, Gloria is desperately working for his release.

This is a heart-wrenching novel with a paranormal twist. The saddest and most horrible fact is that this school is based on a school of another name that actually operated in Florida. The evil that exists in the school is powerfully portrayed through both man and spirit. The fate of many of the young boys who were tortured and killed will leave the reader in tears. The paranormal twist brings the deaths to the forefront in a strong and unforgettable way. Gloria’s role as Robert’s constant who will never give up shines through in a light of hope, as does another special character Robert sees in the school. The evil is personified in so many people, and not just murderers, but racists, corrupt judges, and those who shrugged and looked the other way. It is a well-written but deeply horrifying novel that the reader will not, and should not, forget.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via The Historical Novel Society. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

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HOLY COW. This is my first time reading Tananarive Due's work and it will certainly not be my last. Explicitly laid bare, this novel takes place in the Jim Crow south (Florida). While primarily at home in the horror genre, so much historical fiction is within this story as well. Its a heavy read so I did find myself putting the book down at moments (but very quickly returning!) and diving back in. Happy pub day! Read this book!

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Five stars for The Reformatory! The first thing I was drawn to was the authors dedication to her great-uncle who died at a school for boys. I knew that this wasn’t just a scary story to the author. That these boys’ stories and the topic overall would be handled with the upmost care without shying away from the painful details. From the very beginning I felt like I fell into this book and was watching it from the inside. Every character from the janitor outside the courthouse to the secondary boys at the reformatory felt totally realized. This is also one of the few split narrative books I’ve read where I was equally captivated and enthralled by both sides, not rushing one away to get back to the other. Anything by Tananarive Due is now an automatic read for me!

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June 1950 Gracetown, Florida. The climate, both seasonal and emotional is hot and muggy. The country as portrayed in THE REFORMATORY and in real life, is divided so radically, you can see the lines and smell the fear and hate. A 12 yr old black boy is sentenced for defending his sister to 6 months in a reformatory where the rules are designed to insure the young men come in but never come out. Although a work of fiction, there was indeed such a school, the Dozier School for Boys and a relative of Tananarive Due survived a stay at the school, barely.

Robbie sees "haints", spirits left behind when death claimed a life. Robbie has never had reason to fear these spirits but the boys sentenced to the reformatory who died there will show the dangers experienced by so many. As Robbie fights to survive every day, his family is struggling for release but to most, he's just a black boy who got what he deserved. This is a painful story. The pictures it paints of this era in American history has been exposed so many times that too many people have become immune to the emotions and indignation that should automatically be part of the response to the story, fiction or not. Due has done an excellent job of reviving Robbie's story. Readers should do their part and never forget that this awful part of history is not that far in the past. Read and share, keep it alive.

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Thank you Netgalley for the E-arc of this title!

Woo….where do I start…

Set in the Jim Crow era, the reformatory holds back no punches. It is fast paced, and that’s an impressive feat considering it is almost 600 pages. This is my first book by this author and it will not be my last.

This will go down as a classic in horror literature,

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The Reformatory is a modern epic about a young boy, Robert, who is taken away to a boys reform school and his sister, Gloria, who refuses to stop fighting to get him freed. Split between Robbie and Gloria’s perspectives this incredible work of historical fiction examines the many injustices of the 1950s South, and how the echoes of this cruelty reverberates in the systemic injustices today. I have a very selective, but short list of books that genuinely bring me to tears, and this one is firmly in that category. This was an incredibly difficult book to read, but it was an incredibly important one. I usually have a harder time reading longer books, and this one is almost 600 pages, but the absolute expert level pacing from the author made this borderline unputdownable. This is easily my favorite book of 2023, because it’s exactly what I called it in the first sentence. It’s an epic work of literature. It’s definitely the book that’s going to resonate and last in my mind the most out of anything I’ve read this year. Brutal, haunting, relevant, and heartbreaking, The Reformatory isn’t just a horror novel, it’s one of the most impactful novels I’ve ever read.

My review will be posted on my Instagram @boozehoundbookclub this month

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“The Reformatory” is Tananarive Due’s masterpiece. A gut wrenching kick in the teeth of a ghost story. Inspired by the horrors of the Dozier School for boys Due tells the story of Robert Stephen’s junior and his sister Gloria. Robert is sentence to 6 months at the reformatory for kicking a white boy setting into motion a ghost story that will stay with you for a long time after. A horrifying tale of the monstrosity and evil of racism and white supremacy told with beauty, ferocity and heart. A must read! Thanks to Netgalley for this arc.

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THE REFORMATORY by Tananarive Due is an exceptional narrative of trauma and an intimate sociological unflinching gaze at a horrific chapter in American history, its prequels, and the tremendous toll on individuals, families and extended families, neighborhoods, communities; and on integrity, character, compassion, goodness. I think very few will be able to read this heartwrenching narrative without empathy, horror, and tears.

Several years ago I first read of infamous Florida Boys' School in a Jefferson Bass mystery. A year or so ago I read a nonfiction account of the Dozier Boys' School. Here, Ms. Due fictionalizes a story from her own family history, bringing incredibly vivid detail, from the perspective of a Black Family living in North Florida in 1950, a region where slavery might not be legal or obvious, but all the effects and the power of authoritarian [White] rule was still present, real, and constant.

Release October 31.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Reformatory by Tananarive Due!

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Told with such a voice of intensity, I ate this book up. Taking place in the 1950s Florida, Due brings a mix of the injustice of treatment of Black people, their needless suffering at the hands of the Klan and segregation, with this really compelling element of supernatural and power.

When twelve year old Robert is sentenced to a six month stint in a segregated reformatory for defending his older sister Gloria from a white boy with intent to harm her, he feels scared and lost. The warden is an evil man with the express desire to not only abuse Black children but has a predilection for more disgusting behavior.

Robert, having always been gifted with the ability to see haints (ghosts) begins seeing them frequently at the reformatory. Soon, he is wrapped up in a whole mess with the warden extorting him for his abilities.

Meanwhile, Gloria is trying to free her little brother while being attacked by the Klan who want her dead.

This was such a powerful read. I loved the characters and the writing. I thought the haints and their plight incredibly intriguing. This was just all around a great read!

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In 1950, twelve year old Robbie Stephens Jr and his sister Gloria live in Gracetown, Florida. Jim Crow laws in the southern states have marginalised African Americans by denying them equal opportunities in education, health care and employment. Violence was rife with mobs and the KKK terrorizing Black communities, lynching those who spoke out and burning their houses and businesses.

Robbie and Gloria’s father Robert Stephens Snr is wanted by the Sherriff and the KKK for voicing his desire to unionize African American workers and has fled for his life to Chicago, leaving his children in the care of Miss Lottie Powell, Robbie’s godmother. However, when Robbie defends his sister from the unwanted advances of a white landowner’s son by kicking him in his knee, the Sherriff sees a way of getting at Robert Snr through his family and Robbie is sentenced by a judge to six months at the notorious Gracetown School for Boys, otherwise known as the Reformatory.

The Reformatory is no ordinary school for boys. Segregated into white and black campuses, the white boys receive a good education while the black boys only attend classes in the afternoon and are expected to work in the fields, foundry or butchery in the morning. The school is run by Superintendent Fenton J. Haddock, a sociopath who loves nothing better than punishing boys, both white and black, but especially the black boys, who are beaten for the slightest misdemeanour. While the beatings are excessive and severe, sending boys to the infirmary with flayed backs, Haddock has worse punishments in store for repeat offenders. It’s no surprise then that boys have died at the Reformatory and that their ghosts remain to haunt the place.

When Haddock discovers that Robbie can see the ghosts, he finds a special use for him. However, Robbie not only sees the ghosts of boys who died at the R1eformatory but sees the torture they underwent first. He realises his only way to escape Haddock’s attention is to get out as soon as possible, something his sister and Miss Lottie are also working on. The only problem is boys who try to escape are hunted down by vicious dogs and end up dead.

This is truly a horror story and it’s not the ghosts that are the most horrific element. What it was like to live in Jim Crow America and experience racism, injustice, fear and violence every day is vividly depicted. Based on a real reformatory, the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida, it tells a horrendous tale of racism, torture, abuse and murder by those who ran it. Despite several investigations during its 111 year history, the Dozier School wasn’t closed down by the State until 2011. Tananarive Due is not only a popular writer of speculative fiction, but also co-wrote with her mother ‘Freedom in the Family’ about her mother’s struggle for civil rights in 1960s America, so she is perfectly placed to combine these two genres into a historical fiction novel full of aggrieved ghosts. Superbly written and paced this is gripping and suspenseful novel of racial injustice.

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This book will send chills up and down your spine. No twelve-year-old boy should be taken from his family and placed in The Reformatory. The place where stories are told that will cause nightmares. Boys' behavior will instantly change when the school crosses any adults' lips. The sheer number of stories that have leaked under the fence makes you unable to doubt the amount of extreme physical and mental abuse, racism, rape, and the list goes on. Tananarive Due based this book on the Dozier School for Boys. I will let you go down the rabbit hole of google for this one. It will make your heart clinch and tears well in your eyes.

Robert Stephens Juniors last few years have been incredibly hard. First, he lost his mama to cancer and his father ran out of town. Racial issues are at its peak, leaving everyone holding their breath, and trying not to catch the eye of the local sheriff. Robert and his sister Gloria are on their own trying to make it. When one of the local neighbors (a white man) starts causing trouble with his sister. Which leads to a kick that sends Robert to the Gracetown School for Boys for six months. As soon as he steps foot on the property the ghosts fill his every sense. Something horrifying has been occurring on the grounds. Robert needs to keep his head low and out of trouble until his time is up.

This story sucks you in. It is a startling notion to have racism and details of what happened to the boys at this school through ghosts. The first half was a bit slow moving for me. But the second half was insanely intense. You will be constantly watching over your shoulder. Looking out for both ghosts and the living. Thank you to Tananarive Due and Gallery Books for my gifted copy.

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THE REFORMATORY is a tale that blends American history, racism, ghost stories, and phenomenal writing that results in a heartbreaking story that is unfortunately mostly true.

Robbie and his older sister Gloria are walking one day, not long after the death of their mother. On their walk they run into the son of one of the most powerful, (white), men in their Florida town. The boy makes a move towards Gloria, and Robbie kicks him in the shin. Before you know it, Robbie is dragged before a judge and sentenced to 6 months at the reformatory. Robbie's life will never be the same. Robbie can see ghosts, you see, and the reformatory is full of them. (Though he calls them haints.) Will Robbie get out of the school/prison alive? Will the ghosts there leave Robbie alone? Will Gloria succeed in her strenuous efforts to get him released? You will have to read this to find out!

Based on the story of the Dozier School for Boys, this book is set in Florida and partially details the events that went on there that resulted in the death of dozens upon dozens of boys and young men. Boys in dryers, boys beaten to death, buried in the dead of night, and so on.

Tananarive Due takes all of this horrible truth and weaves into it a type of ghost story. Several ghost stories, in fact. I mean, just imagine how many ghosts there would be in a place like that. Robbie's story broke me many times over, but Gloria's story was also compelling. Her efforts to free her brother end up drawing attention to their family, even more attention than the fact that her father had to flee the area because he was trying to organize a union. Gloria's family isn't loved by the rich whites and businessmen of the area and these people make that fact known. Over and over again.

Due's writing is extraordinary. I couldn't be further away from such an experience, (being born white in the northeast), but she brought it home to me. I felt Gloria's and Robbie's feelings as if they were my own. Gloria's desperate fight to bring her brother home. Robbie's panic, fear and desperation when he sees the warden heading his way. I felt these emotions deep down in my very soul. This book left me shook. I'm still shook a week after finishing this haunting tale.

Other than the fact that I think this book was just a smidge too long, I enjoyed it for many reasons. These stories need to be told, these events have to be dragged out of the darkness and examined, lest we make the same mistakes in the future. (Though sometimes I wonder if we will EVER learn.) With racial hatred making a rise in this country yet again, (or maybe it never went away), books like this are important. The fact that it's so effortlessly weaved into a ghost story makes it more palatable for some, but I was drawn to it because of Due's writing. It's evocative, it's emotional and it's downright appalling.

As such, I highly recommend THE REFORMATORY. Just brace yourself because the picture it paints is not pretty. Available this Halloween, what a perfect date for this important, compelling tale!

*Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*

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I think I was reading two different books at the same time. That's how I felt. One was about the treatment of black children in a reformatory. The other was about a kid who could see ghosts. They were forced together in a way that made me feel like they were not supposed to be together. I enjoyed both stories, as horrific as they sometimes got.

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This one is getting some unfair panning for not being the horror book that it isn't meant to be. How would you judge the same story set in Auschwitz/Nazi Europe would be my thought on setting more accurate expectations.

The draw here is the characters. They are fleshed out quickly, and ones met for mere moments stick with you. The narrative use of the supernatural lets Due pack a lot more into the story than Robbie alone. Robbie's witnessing of the haints works beautifully. The attempts to share historical asides through Gloria's ability to see futures, not so much. These items felt clunkily inserted, which is small and could easily be overlooked.

The true shortcoming is that there were so many stories unfinished / characters are just dropped. The ending felt too pat and rushed to a happily ever after. What happens with the reformatory? What about the characters wound up in Robert & Gloria's story? It's hard to elaborate here without context, but many central characters are just dropped. The lead up to the escape attempt didn't match what happened in when it got there. What about the warden's personal property that was so incredibly important for the whole book?

Overall, it felt like the meme about running out of time on your test with the half-drawn horse. I can't decide if I'm hoping a new book is to come with the rest of the story or not.

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Set in 1950s Florida, The Reformatory is mix of ghostly and human horrors that will leave you rooting for Robert Stephens, Jr., the 12-year-old protagonist. When Robert is unjustly sent to the Gracetown School for Boys, also known as The Reformatory, he quickly must figure out who to trust and how to stay out of harm’s way. Grim with a glimmer of hope, this historical horror story has a few surprises that you keep you reading.

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Haunting and well-written, The Reformatory is bound to have readers question everything within its pages. I was pulled in from the very first pages. It's still sticking with me well after I put it down.

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Set in 1950 Jim Crow Florida, where the brutal realities of systemic racism have literally contaminated the soil, The Reformatory is both haunting and compelling. This is historical horror at its most effective, where the history—and its legacy—is more terrifying, more disturbing than the horror, and every choice, every action, every decision is fraught.

If you've wondered if this book lives up to the hype—and I know there's been quite a bit of hype—then stop wondering and start reading. This is the kind of fiction that leaves its readers changed.

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The Reformatory gives you a different kind of horror. Not only does the failed systematic social justice haunt you at this time but the pure unsettling atmosphere of the institution that knows no honor soaks your skin and bone with pure rage. Highly recommend for anyone who is willing to dig deeper than a surface level of horror!

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Sixteen year old Gloria and twelve year old Robbie Stephens, Jr. are living on their own in 1950 Gracetown, Florida after their widower father flees for Chicago after being falsely accused of raping a white woman. When Robbie is sentenced to 6 months at the Reformatory school for kicking a white boy while defending his sister's honor, Gloria springs into action to get her brother released ASAP.

This book is an emotional gut punch. We've all learned about the rampant racism thar went on in the Jim Crow era, but to see it play out in this book, despite it being fiction, takes it yo a whole new level. This book will suck you in and make you want to keep turning the pages all while making you really think about the things these characters and real people went through in this time. It will make you angry and pull on your emotions. Which is how you know this is an extremely well written book. Be warned though, just because this book has hints in it, doesn't mean it's a horror novel, buy it is a novel of horrors, both psychological and physical in the way young Robbie is treated, as well as the other Black characters in the book.

The characters aren't necessarily fully fleshed out, but you get enough to get behind them and hope the best for them as they try to survive each day and set things right for Robbie. The pacing is also a little slow at times, but it wasn't enough that I didn't want to put it down. I'm sure I'll be thinking about this one for quite a while.

My thanks to Gallery Books, author Tananarive Due,and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

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