Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

221 reviews

fabiandtheberts's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Murder

thrillofthepage's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

booktribe's review against another edition

Tananarive Due is my favorite author of all time, so I look forward to all of her new releases! But, sadly I can’t finish this one. Partly because of the pacing. The story is moving incredibly slow. I got 39% in & I feel like everything that has happened could’ve happened within the first 20% of the novel. But, I wouldn’t mind the slow pacing much. My main problem is that the book is too triggering for me. As a Black woman, it can be hard for me at times to read Black trauma, and it’s especially hard to read trauma happening to Black children. I knew going into this novel that there would be racism, but I thought it’d be balanced out by the ghost aspect of the story. But, there were barely any ghosts, just racism and trauma. 

I still feel that this is a great book and that this story needs to be told, especially knowing that it is based in truth. I’m just not in the headspace to handle the content at this time. I may come back to it when I’m more mentally prepared. 

Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own. 

TW: racism, recurrent use of racial slurs, death of a parent, cancer, sexual harassment, child abuse

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

kirstyyreadsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Rape, and Death of parent

pagesandtales's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

hughesie's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Antisemitism, and Sexual harassment

heartfelthullabaloo's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

It was good but I’m glad it’s over. I was on pins and needles the whole time bracing for something terrible to happen and I’m glad that the author didn’t choose to be more explicit in her descriptions. Unlike any magical realism I’ve read, that aspect did lend an intriguing hand to the storyline. I have heard nothing but glowing recommendations of this book and that was the only thing that gave me the courage to read it after reading the description. Anyone who says we haven’t come far from times like these is crazy. I feel extremely blessed to live in this day and age.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape

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: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lightseeker's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

tyreadsbooks_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

✦The Reformatory by Tananarive Due✦ 

★★★★ 4/5 stars

“𝘒𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘢𝘯, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘪𝘭, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳? 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘪𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴.”

✦ 𝒔𝒚𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒔𝒊s

12-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to 6 months at the Gracetown School for Boys for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town - in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s experience of the terrors of the Jim Crow South in 1950 & the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory. What follows is a terrifying journey, full of haints that haunt the school buildings, & real-life horrors that are far worse than the ghostly memories of the dead.

Read if you like :

•historical fiction

•strong sibling connection 

•ghost stories

•multiple POVs

•emotional reads / survival stories 

✦ 𝒎𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔

This is one I probably never would’ve picked up if it wasn’t a bookclub read!

I don’t think I’d call this horror in the spooky sense, but the hell these boys went through was horrific in every way. A compelling, ghostly story where the real monsters are the living, breathing human beings.

Despite all that, the sibling bond between Robbie & Gloria, & the resilience of the characters gives you a sense of hope.

At almost 600 pages, I was intimidated by this whopper of a book. Honestly this was my only complaint - I think it could’ve easily been edited by 150 pages without taking anything important away from the story. The narrator absolutely made this book for me. Her storytelling helped me push through.

While it was a work of fiction, it was based on the very real Dozier School for Boys in Florida, which wasn’t permanently closed until June 2011. The authors note is definitely worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Slavery