Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

39 reviews

thrillofthepage's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Confinement, Racial slurs, Rape, Slavery, Physical abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Racism, Torture, and Violence

hughesie's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Confinement

Moderate: Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Racial slurs, Torture, Bullying, Rape, Death of parent, Violence, Death, Grief, Hate crime, and Pedophilia

Minor: Antisemitism, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, and Sexual assault

gwenswoons's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Whew. This was an agonizing, devastating, painful read. But the storytelling and the world-building is unlike anything I’ve ever read, I think. My Dad has been obsessed with Tananarive Due for the last several months - reading absolutely every word she’s written - and I read this since it was the first one he read and started telling me about a while ago. It’s astonishing by every measure: gorgeous writing, unflinchingly  in the telling of history, a vivid point of view all the time. Every possible content warning for this - it is a novel about the Jim Crow south, and the violence and terror permeates every moment. If you have the mental space and the fortitude, it is profoundly worth reading. I listened on audio (truly excellent narration by Joniece Abbott-Pratt), and I had to take big breaks and listen to/read lighter stuff - it’s scary and deeply heavy. I kept thinking it was like if Stephen King (à la The Institute, in the most possible parallel to me) seriously knew how to write (literary fiction), had a real reason for telling the story he was telling, was actually able to inhabit other perspectives. This story is loosely based on/inspired by part of Due’s family history, which includes an uncle who was killed at a similar (real/not fictional) institution in Jim Crow Florida. Anyway - I am grateful to have finished this - emotionally wrecked - but will be thinking about it for a long time and hope you will take the time to read this novel or other works of Tananarive Due’s.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, Body horror, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Slavery, Child death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Blood, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Child abuse, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Body shaming, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Abandonment, Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Trafficking, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Classism, and Death

amberjackonski's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Death, Pedophilia, Blood, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Racism, and Gun violence

author_d_r_oestreicher's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

 

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due is set in 1950, Jim Crow Florida. Twelve-year-old Robert Stephens, Jr. defends his older sister Gloria from the unwanted advance of white Lyle McCormack. For kicking Lyle, he is sentenced to Gracetown School for Boys—a brutal place run by the psychopath Fenton Haddock. The brutality of the Jim Crow South is balanced by the nice people that Robert meets and the haints (ghosts) that befriend him. A novel about the United States in the 1950s, and well worth reading. 

 

For my extended notes: https://1book42day.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-reformatory-by-tananarive-due.html 

“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.” 

Check out https://amzn.to/3vfHVqc to see my books. 

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Torture, Bullying, Child death, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Child abuse

Magic realism

hausedgerton's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Found this book to be completely different than what I thought I was getting into—and I am so glad it was. The characters, story, and the accurate depiction of Jim Crow South amazing. Was a book I could not put down and would recommend to everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, and Racism

delilahblues's review

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award this year and I definitely see why. This is not my first experience with Due, so it wasn’t surprising for this book to be so good. I love the writing style as well as the story itself.
The story is about a young man who is sent to a boys school for a minor crime. Once there, he begins to see ghosts and finds out about the dark history of the school. It is a duel perspective book with most of the story told between the young boy and his older sister who is willing to do whatever it takes to rescue her brother. 
I’m not typically a fan of multiple perspectives in books bc they can often be disjointed, but Due’s writing style makes it easier to follow. 
All in all, I cannot recommend this book (or really *any* of her books) enough. This book is hyped for a reason. Be sure to check trigger warnings before diving in though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Torture, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Violence, Confinement, Grief, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Racism

wlreed312's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Absolute powerhouse of a book. Taking place in Florida in the Jim Crow South, this is the tale of Robert Stephens Jr who makes the mistake of kicking the son of a powerful white man when the son makes inappropriate comments to Robbie's sister. For this terrible transgression, he is sentenced to six months in the Reformatory, where boys (especially black boys) go to be punished, and far too often, to die. Robbie has a special talent that brings him to the attention of the sadistic superintendent; he can see haints. With empty promises of early freedom, Superintendent Haddock recruits Robbie to help him trap the haints of the boys who have died on the grounds.

This book is one that will make you sit and stare for a while after you finish. It's a hard read, and it's based on the Dozier School for Boys that was in Marianna Florida, and honors Due's relative who died there. The brutality is gut-wrenching, and the fear comes not only from the main villain, but from the system that turns a blind eye (or worse, actively aids) the evil that sends children as young as eight into these institutions. Robbie's sister Gloria is a wonderful character as we see her try to get help to free her younger brother. We see the town through her eyes, and her anger and disappointment with several people who she tries to talk into helping her. These secondary characters are brilliantly nuanced, in my opinion. All Gloria can see is they aren't brave enough to help in a situation where they should; they know what they need to do. And she's right! But one of these is a Jewish man whose children are already being bullied at school; he fears what might happen if he steps even more out of line. It would have been a very real fear at the time, and in the brief time we spend with the character I thought his fear for his family that wars with his need to do more was well done. There's another character who is afraid for different reasons, and I really liked the way they are written as well. It's a great look at a horrible system and how impossible it is to fight it as an individual.

I think my favorite thing about the book was the pacing. It starts off slower, but as it continues the action escalates and my heart was pounding for the last hundred pages or so. The way the tension slowly ramped up was absolutely excellent. Highly recommended if you are in the right space to read it because as far as content warnings oh my god all of them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Racial slurs, Death, Racism, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Slavery, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Murder, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Cancer, Gun violence, and Antisemitism

Minor: Domestic abuse

disguisedposer's review

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I thought this book was a horror story, and it was, but not because of the ghosts in it. It's a truly horrible story of the treatment of Black boys incarcerated at a reform school in the American south in the 1950s. It is fiction, but sounded all too real. I did a mix of reading and listening. It was beautifully written, and I absolutely adored the narrator of the audiobook even though I usually detest audiobooks. This is one that's going to stick with me for quite some time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gun violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Violence, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

sshelbyreadss's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional

5.0

This story was so gripping and powerful. I was on the edge of my seat during the climax and about had to pull my car over while listening. The number of times I was clutching my chest and holding my breath with hope! Dear god!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Torture, Gun violence, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence