Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Reformatory

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

56 reviews

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.

Content Warnings

tyreadsbooks_'s review

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

ashtheaudiomancer's review

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

author_d_r_oestreicher's review

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

delilahblues's review

Go to review page

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!

Content Warnings

wlreed312's review

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

thehmkane's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense slow-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

4.0

A very good and important book. While I enjoyed Due's prose, I felt like the pacing took much of the urgency out of the story - the climax moves at a good clip, though.

Content Warnings