Reviews

Gloria and Robert, two young siblings on a stroll to their local pool for a swim are stopped by their neighbor, Lyle. When Lyle continues to make unwanted advances towards Gloria, Robert does the only thing he could think of - give Lyle a swift kick. Kids at times get into minor squabbles, but Lyle is not just any kid. He's the son of Red McCormack, the white family that once owned Papa's family, and Robert, a 12 year old black boy living in 1950's Gracetown, Florida. And unfortunately for Robbie, Red saw it all. Now Robbie has been sentenced to six months at The Reformatory, a labor camp disguised as a school for "troubled" boys.

The Reformatory mainly follows two points of view, Robbie trying to survive The Reformatory and Gloria, his sixteen year old sister, racing against time and a justice system during the Jim Crow era. Due's writing is stellar and at times reminds me of Toni Morrison's Beloved, (see quote above for example), but at times the impact of her story is lost due to the slow pacing of the narrative. Gloria is racing against time and as a reader I wanted to feel the tension of time falling away at every turn, but that doesn't happen. For a book that is over 500 pages there are supportive and nefarious characters that needed more development than what we got. At times Gloria and Robbie must use the performance of cordiality to survive a world that looks past them at best and at worst seeks to unlive them.

It's this intermingling of what these siblings must face that is the horror, (triple K gang, police overreach, segregation), rather than any paranormal element at play in The Reformatory. Ultimately, the present and historical United States is Black Horror. If you enjoy movies by Jordan Peele or horror books written by Stephen King, you'll want to pick up The Reformatory.

aswygs's review against another edition

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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? No

5.0

this is emotional from start to finish
so well written. not at all what I was expecting from a ghost story
a ghost story where the ghosts are the good guys
the weaving together of southern Christianity (or both black and white folks) with hoodoo and spiritualism was artfully done
the community and personas of the haints was powerful to witness
incredible portrayal of Jim Crow Florida, which I feel is often excluded from “the South”
referencing rosewood and groveland as critical events of racial terror that black communities continue to reference as historical trauma
the shift in povs between Gloria and Robbie (and regretfully the warden sometimes 🤢) was so effective. even when I really wanted to focus on Robbie and the school, I still connected to Gloria’s journey. esp with the NAACP and Miss Lottie and her uncles
connected to this is the lore around her father as a grassroots civil rights organizer
with Gloria you get to see the broader community and culture with her interactions with the NAACP, law enforcement, the Klan that helps to round out the story
“there is more than this”
REDBONE
and truly the community Robbie creates with Redbone and Blue and even Cleo
“no one stays nice”
the whole thing is giving Stanford prison experiment
I appreciate Boone and crutcher as foils to one another: both black
employees in this hell forced to assimilate
something I appreciate about this book is that it does not shy away from the atrocities, but doesn’t give dramatized, embodied accounts of some of the list terrible acts (e.g. the shed, the box). I don’t think I could’ve handled a description
my only complaint is that I wanted to know how things unraveled once Robbie and Gloria arrived to Chicago - what did they do with the photos. was the school shut down? what happened to June and waymon? Miss Lottie? I have some u answered questions. And maybe that’s because in the authors note, she says she wanted a happy ending for this Robert Stephen’s that her ancestor didn’t get, and 5e possibility of justice is so grim in gracetown. but I still wanted to know!!
there’s a line in the beginning where their dads had said, “the reformatory is where they first started killing us” and I think that is so timeless when we think of the school to prison pipeline and the juvenile justice system

other books recommended by the author about The Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, FL:
“We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys by Erin Kimmerle
The Boys of the Dark: A Story of Betrayal and Redemption in the Deep South by Robin Gaby Fisher
The Bones of Marianna: A Reform School, a Terrible Secret, and a Hundred-Year Fight for Justice by David Kushner
I Survived Dozier: The Deadliest Reform School in America by Richard Huntly
The White House Boys: An American Tragedy by Roger Dean Kiser
The Dozier School for Boys: Forensics, Survivors, and a Painful Past by Elizabeth A. Murray, PhD
The Boys of Dozier by Daryl McKenzie
Lies Uncovered: The Long Journey Home—The Truth About the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys by Duane C. Fernandez, Sr.
It Still Hurts: My Father’s Painful Account of Survival at the Florida Industrial School for Boys by Marshelle Smith Berry and Salih Izzaldin, edited by Joseph Carroll”.

mitchell_1's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

rekslovesreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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