The Reformatory: A Novel

Well written historical fiction!

Robbie and his journey through his time at the reformatory. The story is a telling of hope, commitment and courage during a time when he is only considered as black and being black in a time and place where you didn’t even exist to white folk. Being raised by his sister and coming into himself as a young black boy in the south. Life has dealt him a hand of cards and he has no choice but to play his hand, this game of survival in the dirty south. Evil is all around and for a boy who is left to figure things out on his own Robbie has to grow up faster than what his family would like. Robbie has a family that is determined to get justice for him. Gloria, Mizz Lottie, and uncle June but sometimes that’s just not enough, you have to get it for yourself. That’s the only way Robbie can make it out the Reformatory but he has to leave the 12yr old boy who first went in behind. He is has to fight against the devil himself and only one of them can win this fight.

If you are picking up The Reformatory, pace yourself. I read it as an ebook for a book club and had to take real breaks, not because it drags, but because Jim Crow Florida and a brutal boys’ reform school will take the air right out of your chest. The horror is both supernatural and historical, and the historical side hurts the most. The Dozier School for Boys loosely inspires it, so every chapter carries that weight. We follow twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens Jr., sent to the Gracetown School for Boys after defending his sister, Gloria. Robbie sees haints, and they are not there just to scare you. They witness. Early on, Tananarive Due drops a line that tells you exactly what kind of book you are in for: “Florida’s soil is soaked with so much blood, it’s a wonder the droplets don’t seep between your toes with every step.” I felt that in my bones and kept thinking about how the land refuses to forget. What really worked for me is how balanced the two storylines feel. Robbie faces the day-to-day terror inside the Reformatory while Gloria pushes through a maze of segregation and risk to get him out. Both threads matter, which is rare in split narratives. The stakes stay high, and the book still leaves room for grace. The dialogue cuts clean. Lines like, “We can’t expect justice in a racist court,” frame Robbie’s sentence before he even arrives and remind you how stacked the deck is. This is historical horror that teaches while it haunts. Due to the story's ties to real history and family truth, grounded research makes the ghosts feel like accountability. When the haints show up, it never reads like a gimmick. It reads like memory refusing to be erased. Yes, it is heavy. I had to step away, more than once. I also had to see it through. There is hope here, and the ending finally let me breathe again. If I were building a required reading list for high schoolers, I would include this. The conversations it opens about racism, rehabilitation, education, and freedom are precisely the ones we should be having.

Engaging, horrifying, heartbreaking, vindicating, uplifting and spooky. I can't tell you more. Just read it, and don't miss the author's dedication.

WOW! This book was a wonderful historical horror that I am so pleased to have picked up from my library's shelf. Due is an exceptional author that writes with engaging stories and historical accuracy. I am always amazed at the level education in the US only slightly touches upon the horros they caused to African Americans. They claim the Civil Rights Movement solved racism, when only a couple years before, they were doing all the things this book built a plot around. I know it is a ghost story, but it was also such an educational and beautifully written testament to the rise of those under opression. I really hope it gets turned into a movie.