Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

139 reviews

pagesandtales's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Child abuse

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

heartfelthullabaloo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No

4.0

It was good but I’m glad it’s over. I was on pins and needles the whole time bracing for something terrible to happen and I’m glad that the author didn’t choose to be more explicit in her descriptions. Unlike any magical realism I’ve read, that aspect did lend an intriguing hand to the storyline. I have heard nothing but glowing recommendations of this book and that was the only thing that gave me the courage to read it after reading the description. Anyone who says we haven’t come far from times like these is crazy. I feel extremely blessed to live in this day and age.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Rape, Domestic abuse, and Pedophilia

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

lightseeker's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Racial slurs

tyreadsbooks_'s review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

✦The Reformatory by Tananarive Due✦ 

★★★★ 4/5 stars

“𝘒𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘢𝘯, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘪𝘭, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳? 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘪𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴.”

✦ 𝒔𝒚𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒔𝒊s

12-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to 6 months at the Gracetown School for Boys for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town - in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s experience of the terrors of the Jim Crow South in 1950 & the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory. What follows is a terrifying journey, full of haints that haunt the school buildings, & real-life horrors that are far worse than the ghostly memories of the dead.

Read if you like :

•historical fiction

•strong sibling connection 

•ghost stories

•multiple POVs

•emotional reads / survival stories 

✦ 𝒎𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔

This is one I probably never would’ve picked up if it wasn’t a bookclub read!

I don’t think I’d call this horror in the spooky sense, but the hell these boys went through was horrific in every way. A compelling, ghostly story where the real monsters are the living, breathing human beings.

Despite all that, the sibling bond between Robbie & Gloria, & the resilience of the characters gives you a sense of hope.

At almost 600 pages, I was intimidated by this whopper of a book. Honestly this was my only complaint - I think it could’ve easily been edited by 150 pages without taking anything important away from the story. The narrator absolutely made this book for me. Her storytelling helped me push through.

While it was a work of fiction, it was based on the very real Dozier School for Boys in Florida, which wasn’t permanently closed until June 2011. The authors note is definitely worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Death

ashtheaudiomancer's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

This is my first Tananarive Due book, and everything I've heard about her writing has, if anything, been underplayed.  This is about a "reform school" that is a thinly veiled death camp where boys are sent for minor and/or imagined infractions, and many never get out. It's also haunted, and young Robbie's ability to communicate with ghosts might be his only chance of escaping. Not for the faint of heart, but essential reading for understanding one of the most unforgivable avenues of racism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Child death, and Racism

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexism, Slavery, Police brutality, and Sexual assault

Minor: Terminal illness

Most of the content warnings you can infer from the description, but just be aware they are very much part of the story and you will not be able to skim over them.

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

box_wine_hero's review

dark emotional tense medium-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

Listened to the audio book and it was amazing. The ghost story combined with the real horrors of the Jim Crow South is so harrowing it was hard to stop listening.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse

Moderate: Murder, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Cancer, Bullying, and Death of parent