Reviews - The Reformatory | The StoryGraph

6.56k reviews for:

The Reformatory

Tananarive Due

4.56 AVERAGE

muminah1234's review against another edition

5.0

Omg this was amazing!!! My favourite book of 2025 by far

haylz17's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

dr_anarcute's review against another edition

3.0

If this was 50% shorter, it would almost be 5 stars. The story is solid good but damn it draaaaaaaaaged.

daniturkeysammie's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

cshigh4013's review against another edition

4.75

Wow! Good book

kirstensviews's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The Reformatory is a hauntingly authentic look at a terrifying time in America’s South. Robbie, age 12, is sent to a boys' school for 6 months after kicking the local landowner’s son in the shin. Despite attempts to appeal, there is no justice for boys like Robbie in Jim Crow’s South. What horrors await Robbie at the school…

ashleewardy's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional 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: Complicated

Phew. This book took me over a month to get through…not because it wasn’t good, but because the material is HEAVY. It’s intense. It’s heartbreaking. While The Reformatory is technically fiction, it’s plot follows chilling real-life events: the atrocities committed at the Dozier School, the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, and the so-called Indigenous “schools” in Canada. It also draws from author Tananarive Due’s own family history, including the incarceration and brutal stabbing of her late uncle. 💔

This novel offers an unflinching, powerful portrayal of the dehumanizing reality of juvenile incarceration. I’ve had this Aardvark book for a while, but reading it now…while our current administration continues to unlawfully and inhumanely detain hundreds of people in appalling conditions…made it hit even harder. The parallels are gut-wrenching. 🤢

It’s not an easy read, but it’s an essential one. It gave me a new perspective on life in the Jim Crow South of the 1950s, where survival itself required unimaginable strength. The characters are unforgettable, their resilience both inspiring and devastating. I felt Gloria’s fear through every page.

While the books genre is listed as “horror,” the most horrifying thing isn’t the supernatural. It’s the very real, systemic racism that defined the era and STILL!!!!! poisons our society today. How the fuck are we still here?

I try not to get overly political in my reviews, but I’ll make an exception here: every trumper needs to read this. Then tell me - honestly - that what’ is happening at “@lligator @lcatraz” is anything less than barbaric.