A review by tyreadsbooks_
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

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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