Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

59 reviews

hughesie's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

gwenswoons's review

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

ashtheaudiomancer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

This is my first Tananarive Due book, and everything I've heard about her writing has, if anything, been underplayed.  This is about a "reform school" that is a thinly veiled death camp where boys are sent for minor and/or imagined infractions, and many never get out. It's also haunted, and young Robbie's ability to communicate with ghosts might be his only chance of escaping. Not for the faint of heart, but essential reading for understanding one of the most unforgivable avenues of racism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Child death, and Racism

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexism, Slavery, Police brutality, and Sexual assault

Minor: Terminal illness

Most of the content warnings you can infer from the description, but just be aware they are very much part of the story and you will not be able to skim over them.

delilahblues's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This book is a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award this year and I definitely see why. This is not my first experience with Due, so it wasn’t surprising for this book to be so good. I love the writing style as well as the story itself.
The story is about a young man who is sent to a boys school for a minor crime. Once there, he begins to see ghosts and finds out about the dark history of the school. It is a duel perspective book with most of the story told between the young boy and his older sister who is willing to do whatever it takes to rescue her brother. 
I’m not typically a fan of multiple perspectives in books bc they can often be disjointed, but Due’s writing style makes it easier to follow. 
All in all, I cannot recommend this book (or really *any* of her books) enough. This book is hyped for a reason. Be sure to check trigger warnings before diving in though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Torture, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Violence, Confinement, Grief, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Racism

brittonmc1221's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Racism, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Violence, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Torture, Murder, Death, Child abuse, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

wlreed312's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Absolute powerhouse of a book. Taking place in Florida in the Jim Crow South, this is the tale of Robert Stephens Jr who makes the mistake of kicking the son of a powerful white man when the son makes inappropriate comments to Robbie's sister. For this terrible transgression, he is sentenced to six months in the Reformatory, where boys (especially black boys) go to be punished, and far too often, to die. Robbie has a special talent that brings him to the attention of the sadistic superintendent; he can see haints. With empty promises of early freedom, Superintendent Haddock recruits Robbie to help him trap the haints of the boys who have died on the grounds.

This book is one that will make you sit and stare for a while after you finish. It's a hard read, and it's based on the Dozier School for Boys that was in Marianna Florida, and honors Due's relative who died there. The brutality is gut-wrenching, and the fear comes not only from the main villain, but from the system that turns a blind eye (or worse, actively aids) the evil that sends children as young as eight into these institutions. Robbie's sister Gloria is a wonderful character as we see her try to get help to free her younger brother. We see the town through her eyes, and her anger and disappointment with several people who she tries to talk into helping her. These secondary characters are brilliantly nuanced, in my opinion. All Gloria can see is they aren't brave enough to help in a situation where they should; they know what they need to do. And she's right! But one of these is a Jewish man whose children are already being bullied at school; he fears what might happen if he steps even more out of line. It would have been a very real fear at the time, and in the brief time we spend with the character I thought his fear for his family that wars with his need to do more was well done. There's another character who is afraid for different reasons, and I really liked the way they are written as well. It's a great look at a horrible system and how impossible it is to fight it as an individual.

I think my favorite thing about the book was the pacing. It starts off slower, but as it continues the action escalates and my heart was pounding for the last hundred pages or so. The way the tension slowly ramped up was absolutely excellent. Highly recommended if you are in the right space to read it because as far as content warnings oh my god all of them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Racial slurs, Death, Racism, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Slavery, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Murder, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Cancer, Gun violence, and Antisemitism

Minor: Domestic abuse

thehmkane's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

A very good and important book. While I enjoyed Due's prose, I felt like the pacing took much of the urgency out of the story - the climax moves at a good clip, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Confinement, Genocide, Abandonment, Bullying, Torture, Hate crime, Gore, Racism, Animal death, Classism, Death of parent, Blood, Terminal illness, Grief, Police brutality, Child abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Antisemitism, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Medical content, Rape, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Violence, Sexual harassment, and Pedophilia

disguisedposer's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious 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

5.0

I thought this book was a horror story, and it was, but not because of the ghosts in it. It's a truly horrible story of the treatment of Black boys incarcerated at a reform school in the American south in the 1950s. It is fiction, but sounded all too real. I did a mix of reading and listening. It was beautifully written, and I absolutely adored the narrator of the audiobook even though I usually detest audiobooks. This is one that's going to stick with me for quite some time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gun violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Violence, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

erin_l's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Racism, Murder, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Violence, and Hate crime

Moderate: Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Murder

Minor: Sexual violence, Rape, and Pedophilia

tomellibee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Violence, Torture, Confinement, Grief, Racial slurs, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Death, Slavery, Vomit, Gore, Child death, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual content