Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Reformatory

I went through so many emotions while listening to this book. It broke my heart, it made me angry, it made me cry. This is a work of fiction based on the horrifying American era of Jim Crow Laws. Even though the story is fiction, the story itself is something that could have happened (and most likely has happened within America’s prison system).

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stiffness_handbook256's review against another edition

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Long winded start, not enough to get me interested

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shesreadingagain_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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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peachani's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

This is my first Due book, and I don't think I could have chosen better. I annotated the heck out of this book; the writing was so good that there were so many sentences, paragraphs - whole pages, even - that I never want to forget. I appreciate the sensitivity with which the author handed a real and truly harrowing experience. She described the horrors in a way that was complete, but not exploitative or gratuitous. I think some of her other books are more straightforward horror (this was plenty scary, don't get me wrong) and I am a chicken, but I plan to read her entire oeuvre. I know I'll find works that will entertain and transform me.

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nineinchnails's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

i genuinely really loved this and it feels weird to say about a book that touches on such dark topics. this felt more like historical fiction than horror at some parts which may be partly responsible for me enjoying this so much. the focus on the cruelty and abuse that occurred at gracetown school for boys (a fictional school/prison modelled after real reform schools that existed at that time, like florida’s dozier school for boys) overshadowed the traditional horror elements at play here almost to the point of obscuring them. the former felt much, much scarier.

i don’t usually mention these, but i really recommend reading the dedication, author’s note, and acknowledgments, as they gave context that made the novel feel even more meaningful. this book gave me similar feelings to “mornings in jenin” by susan abulhawa. this was over 500 pages so it was a long read (from what i remember about horrors) but it was because it was so bleak and heavy rather than it feeling like a slog. not a sentence of this felt wasted and i highly recommend giving this a read, even if it’s not a novel you would typically gravitate towards. everyone has something to learn from this book!

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krisheiney's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

As much as I like the themes of this book, I felt much less drawn into it than I would have liked. The villain was too villainous, the plot dragged at times, and the social commentary fell a bit flat because of how extreme the villain was. Still, good bones, interesting ghost story.

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bkwrm1317's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I’ve had Due on my TBR for a long time and this novel is evidently evidence as to why.

Based on a real place, where real young men lost their lives, The Reformatory follows young Robert Stevens, Jr, his sister Gloria, and others who love them in the Jim Crow south after the death of their mother (lost to cancer), and their father’s need to leave after his attempt to unionize workers strikes fear into the pocketbooks of white folks in their community.

Young Robert defends his sister from the untoward advances of a young white man from a former plantation owning family with a swift kick to the knee, but McCormack senior sees the exchange and convinces a judge to send young Robert to the Reformatory, a place reeking of violence and bloodshed, the mysterious deaths of young men behind its barbed wire fences, and more.

What unveils is a story of friendship created under duress, the ghosts haunting the Reformatory impatiently waiting to exact their revenge on the man representing the system of inequity that led to their untimely deaths, and the horrors hiding under the surface in the Funhouse, the shed, and elsewhere at the Reformatory.

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