Review by dwinn5 - The Reformatory

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

dwinn5 's review for:

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

4.5

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was a very well-written, incredibly disturbing story. I highly encourage checking your CWs/TWs before diving into this one, even if you don’t normally, but once you have, I definitely recommend for anyone who enjoys historical fiction/supernatural horror and ghost stories.

Both Gloria and Robbie were compelling characters with unique and distinct voices; I was pleasantly surprised by the dual POV (plus a couple others thrown in) because I felt like it added a lot to the story and helped keep the pace up when it started lagging a bit in the middle. There was also a Tell-Tale Heart aspect to the story that I found very compelling despite how horrifying it was.

One of my only complaints was the occasional mix of perspectives within the same chapter; it switched between 3rd person limited for the majority of the book to omniscient in one or two chapters with no warning, which was a bit disorienting and brought me out of the story while I was trying to figure out who was speaking.

This book had so much to say about the twin natures of slavery and Jim Crow, trauma and its connection to geography/community, systemic oppression, whiteness, familial bonds, friendship, morality, grief, and so much more that I felt like it tackled as well as it could in 500ish pages. The fact that Robbie was based on Due’s own great-uncle adds a lot to the book’s impact; I highly recommend reading the Author’s Note and Acknowledgements at the end.

…………….

"I believe in the devil, all right, but man don't need no help from Satan to do what folks call 'evil.' Man do evil ev'ry day and call it doin' their job” (108).

“Gloria had always found it silly that so much effort went into trying to send humans to space instead of learning how to get along on Earth” (256).

Content Warnings