Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

10 reviews

amberpants's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

There came a point, about a quarter of the way into this book, that I put it down and wasn't sure if I would be able to pick it back up. The moment in the story was overwhelming for me and, though I felt like I owed it to the characters to go on the journey with them, I wasn't sure that my heart could take it. The story is engaging, believable - it is based on things that have happened - and immersive, the last not exactly a positive when dealing with such tragic subject matter, though perhaps necessary. In the end, I did finish the book, completed the journey, and am glad that I did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Violence, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Racism, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Rape, Child death, Abandonment, and Pedophilia

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Animal death, and Sexual violence

kyrstin_p1989's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.5

Hauntingly beautiful prose yet still direct and plain enough for everyone to access. This book is equal parts historical fiction, horror, and thriller. The paranormal aspect made the story more compelling and without it, it would’ve been just another story about the Jim Crow south and the horrors that occurred there. The characters are brave and heroic and hopeful even when they have no reason to be. This book has the potential to become a classic and should be read widely. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Slavery, Child death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Cancer, Alcoholism, Dementia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

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

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.

thehmkane's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Confinement, Genocide, Abandonment, Bullying, Torture, Hate crime, Gore, Racism, Animal death, Classism, Death of parent, Blood, Terminal illness, Grief, Police brutality, Child abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Antisemitism, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Medical content, Rape, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Violence, Sexual harassment, and Pedophilia

zyxtasaurus's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Torture, Racism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Racial slurs, and Hate crime

Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Gore, Bullying, Abandonment, Cancer, Slavery, and Cursing

Minor: Gaslighting, Grief, Animal death, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Vomit

caseythereader's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Child death, Racial slurs, Violence, Confinement, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Medical content, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Murder, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, and Islamophobia

Moderate: Rape and Slavery

Minor: Antisemitism

wylovat's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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: Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Hate crime, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Death of parent, Rape, Sexism, and War

janatropper's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful slow-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

5.0

If you're looking for a scary story, you've come to the right place. 

This is a scary story, yes, but it's also a story of familial love, a historical fiction haunted with real horrors of the "good old days," and somehow, a map for finding a spring of hope in a desert. This is a slow burn read with dread woven into the very fabric of its premise, and sharp twists of the knife throughout. 

Tananarive Due has done her due (sorry) diligence in research: the book is sprinkled with cameos of and references to real people from the time period, both her own family members and public figures such as Ruby McCollum and NAACP president Harry Moore. Grounding this story in a shared past makes the genre elements all the closer to home. This is no alternate universe - it's very much ours.

The influence of Stephen King is clear here - even a near quote from Pet Sematary (you'll know it when you see it) - but this is no imitation. Where Stephen is king, Tananarive is the empress: yes, like King, she has memorable characters, efficient world-building, and a well-paced plot, but along with all this, she lets the narrative breathe. She lets her characters explore every avenue of escaping their fates and builds tension with every page by methodically shutting them down one at a time - in the dead of night among the spirits of half-burned corpses, in the broad daylight of a public road, in the chambers of a racist judge whose exploitation of loopholes and shield of privilege allows for state-sanctioned kidnapping, assault, and murder.

There are rare moments to catch one's breath. And in those moments of hope and occasionally even joy, a reader can almost forget the looming danger over nearly every character. Almost.

The theme that resonated with me on my first read was the exploration of power dynamics across identities: color, gender, ability, age, and even living status. Who creates the systems, who enforces the systems to benefit from the aura of privilege, who has inherits power, who earns it, and who could have it if only they knew the strength of their numbers. 

This book may be one you read once, its words rooted deeply into your soul. It may be one you reread again in different seasons of your life to see which ghosts still haunt you. There is only one way to find out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Hate crime, Blood, Physical abuse, Grief, Torture, Racism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Death, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

grimdark_dad's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Child death, Antisemitism, Blood, Hate crime, Homophobia, Bullying, Cancer, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Rape, Racial slurs, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, and Vomit