Reviews

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

frankienicole's review

dark tense fast-paced

5.0

theliteraryhooker's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is the most emotionally invested I've been in a book in a long while. I found myself angry, wishing I could reach through the pages to intervene on Robbie's behalf. The last third or so had me feeling so tense, I could barely sit still while reading. A fantastically written novel with an important message woven throughout an extremely compelling plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Racism, Death of parent, Death, Rape, Racial slurs, Cancer, Murder, Violence, Child abuse, Grief, Hate crime, and Physical abuse

hrrreads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious sad 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

ksteele18's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

5.0

gr33nb00ks's review

4.0

4.5!!

viridis's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

This book is so. Worth it. Yeah, it's uncomfortable, it's sad and brutal and you'll want to stop reading. I had to take breaks because it was just too heavy at times and it could make my whole day feel depressing. But at the same time this was inspired by real events, real people and things like these do happen and in a sense it was me pushing myself to finish it, to get through this really raw book. Now to the wirting itself, it's very good, it makes you keep reading. Because of the nature of this book there aren't really weak spots, except maybe for Gloria's POVs but even those had a message in them. I'm really glad I finished the book and learned more about history, since we don't really learn a lot of this in schools (at least not European schools).

booknorikop's review

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? It's complicated

5.0

courtlane's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

mari2880's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

Absolutely loved this one! Tananarive amazingly crafted this story and I felt myself get completely sucked in. I like that this burned sort of slowly but not too slow that you lose interest. Her detailed scenes warranted the extra add-ins & it helped me connect better with the story overall. I truly just fell in love with her writing and I would absolutely read something from Tananarive again. Though it’s fiction, her use of near-true events, characters and settings was even a bit informational and made me interested to learn more about reform schools. 

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexual assault, Bullying, Cancer, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Hate crime, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Gaslighting, Sexism, Vomit, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Rape