Published October 31st, 2023 by Titan Books
Historical Fiction, Horror Fiction, Southern Gothic
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
“The Reformatory is one of those books you can’t put down. Tananarive Due hit it out of the park.” Stephen King
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, World Fantasy Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize, this is a gloriously creepy Deep South horror story based on the infamous Dozier School for boys, perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians and Nothing But Blackened Teeth.
Jim Crow Florida, 1950.
Twelve-year-old Robert Stephens Jr., who for a trivial scuffle with a white boy is sent to The Gracetown School for Boys. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there.
In order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school’s ghosts – only they have their own motivations…
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MY REVIEW:
Florida, 1950. After a trivial scuffle with a white boy from a prominent family, twelve-year-old Robert Stephens Jr is sent to The Gracetown School For Boys. But the reformatory is a chamber of horrors run by a cruel governor who enjoys inflicting pain. The ghosts of boys who died there haunt the grounds, and they won’t leave Robert Jr alone. But these annoying ghouls could be Robert’s only chance of making it out of there alive. But do they have their own motivations for helping him?
Set against the backdrop of a brutal reform school for boys in the Jim Crow era, The Reformatory is a haunting story of racial injustice, corruption, abuse, murder and the supernatural. Powerful, moving, savage, unsettling and consuming, I was hooked from the first page. The story is inspired by the author’s own Great Uncle, who died at a reformatory when he was seventeen. And she makes it clear this is a work of fiction, knowing it was inspired by a true story made it all the more horrifying.
Tanananrive Due is an exceptional storyteller who has crafted an evocative and layered narrative brimming with malice. This is a story where the past doesn’t just echo, it springs to life from the page in vivid detail. There is a quiet, creeping unease and a darker, more brutal savagery that is slowly uncovered, sending shivers down my spine. But despite my revulsion it was impossible to turn away and I found myself thinking about the book whenever I wasn’t reading. There is a strong sense of place and the reformatory feels like a character in its own right, looming menacingly over every page. I felt like I could see the school in front of me, hear the whispers from the ghosts and feel the chill in my bones. And while this is a horror story, at its core it is achingly human, wrecking my emotions again and again.
The characters in this story are richly drawn, complex, flawed and real. Some of them are wonderful, while others are deplorable. Narrators Robert Jr and his big sister, Gloria, quickly stole my heart, though my heart broke the suffering they’d endured already at such a young age. I could feel their fear as Robert Jr was sent to the reformatory and was with Gloria every step of the way as she tried to rescue her little brother from this hellish place. Another character I loved was Miss Lottie. Witty and no-nonsense, I loved her scenes and the way she was there for Gloria. On the flip side, Superintendent Haddock was a vile and evil man who turned my stomach every time he was on the page. Tananrive did a remarkable job of creating a truly disgusting villain who was all the more terrifying because we know there were real men like him at that time.
An eerie, dark and sinister southern gothic that is perfect for the ‘ber months.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
TANANARIVE DUE (tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA.
A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her books include The Reformatory (October 31, 2023), The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, and The Good House. She and her late mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, co-authored Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights.
She and her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, wrote the Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes co-host a podcast, “Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!”
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Thanks for reading, Bibliophiles xxxxx
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