From the Bookshelf of On the Southern Literary Trail…

The Reformatory

Tananarive Due

Start date: October 1, 2025

Finish date: November 30, 2025

Discussion: Now Reading: Moderators Choice

Discussion leader: Tom Mathews

Why we're reading this: Tom's MOD choice for October and November. Allowing 2 months due to page count.…more
[close] Tom's MOD choice for October and November. Allowing 2 months due to page count.

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What Members Thought

Dec 07, 2024 Erin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc-review

ARC for review. Paperback version to be published January 7, 2025.

A solid 4.5 stars for this book, rounding up to a five, but I feel good about the five stars…it’s not a perfect book, but it’s a very, very good one. This has been out for awhile and I’m assuming that it was made available as an ARC, and that the release date listed with it, are for the paperback version. It was/is a hugely popular horror book, but also great for anyone who loves historical fiction. It won both the Bram Stoker an ARC for review. Paperback version to be published January 7, 2025.

A solid 4.5 stars for this book, rounding up to a five, but I feel good about the five stars…it’s not a perfect book, but it’s a very, very good one. This has been out for awhile and I’m assuming that it was made available as an ARC, and that the release date listed with it, are for the paperback version. It was/is a hugely popular horror book, but also great for anyone who loves historical fiction. It won both the Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards as well as the LA Times Book Prize and was a NY Times Notable Book along with lots of other accolades.

The book is set in Jim Crow times in small town Florida, an ugly place to be if you are twelve year old Robert Stephens, Jr., son of a racial agitator who has fled to Chicago so as not to be tried on a bogus rape charge (but a mixed hero, at best) and a dead mother. Robbie is then hit with a trumped up assault charge against a white boy and is sent to the segregated boys reformatory near his home, and to say that it is hell on earth doesn’t scratch the surface.

It’s also haunted by the dead and Robbie is able to see them, which makes him desirable to the sadistic overseer of the reformatory. Meanwhile his sister, Gloria, is trying to get him released before the worst comes to pass. The novel is based, in part, on the true story of the infamous Dozier school and those who lived there, and, dear readers, suffice to say I don’t think I could bear to read the true accounts. This was hard enough.

In fact, despite all the praise for this novel, my love for horror and my appreciation for Due I dismissed this when it was released; I honestly didn’t think I could stomach the subject matter no matter how good it was supposed to be. When the opportunity to get an ARC presented itself again I figured the universe was telling me to read it and I’m so very glad I did, though it isn’t an easy read, and there are images that will stick with me. Due is incredible, as always, and the book is amazing - the true life horrors and the supernatural elements of the story combine to make this one of the most striking novels I’ve read this year.

Oh, the glorious Gloria and the brave Miss Lottie. The wonderful Redbone and Blue. And, of course, Robbie who, at twelve, is the perfect child-becoming-a-man age. Again, it was difficult knowing some of these horrors were real…part of our nation’s shame.

Highly, highly recommended. ...more

20 likes · Like · see review

Jan 14, 2024 Ctgt rated it it was amazing

Outstanding

10/10

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 25, 2025 Beth rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-star-review-must-reads, diversity, 4-star-nonfiction

Such an amazing, yet heartbreaking story about a reform school for young boys set at the Dozier School for boys in Florida. I wouldn't be surprised if Florida is now suppressing all history about this school, because it was horrible, with kids being abused and sometimes even killed.

Everyone should read this book. ...more

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