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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Now Reading: Moderators Choice

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last updated 23 hours, 10 min ago

* Final Impressions: The Knockout Artist, by Harry Crews – September 2025
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last updated 8 hours, 1 min ago

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What Members Thought

Jan 10, 2025 Lisa (NY) rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook

The Reformatory is a propulsive read inspired by the Dozier School for Boys, which operated in Florida until 2011. Due is a strong writer who has crafted memorable characters and a gripping plot. For me, the ghosts (yes there are ghosts) felt like an unnecessary distraction—there was already plenty of real-life horror for Blacks in 1950s Jim Crow Florida.

21 likes · Like · see review

Oct 26, 2023 Icy-Cobwebs-In-Space rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: a1-i-own-books, armchair-southeast-u-s, 2023_reads, 2023_ng_current, 2023_netgalley, 2023_horror, 2023_decades_ha, 2023_netgalley_reads, 2023_all-reads, 2023_climate

THE REFORMATORY by Tananarive Due is an exceptional narrative of trauma and an intimate sociological unflinching gaze at a horrific chapter in American history, its prequels, and the tremendous toll on individuals, families and extended families, neighborhoods, communities; and on integrity, character, compassion, goodness. I think very few will be able to read this heartwrenching narrative without empathy, horror, and tears.

Several years ago I first read of infamous Florida Boys' School in a Je ...more

6 likes · Like · see review