The Reformatory: A Novel (Hardcover)
Staff Reviews
THE REFORMATORY is a new supernatural historical novel from Tananarive Due is a nail-biting suspense story set in Jim Crow Florida (at the same real-life school as Colson Whitehead's THE NICKEL BOYS -- only Due had a relative killed there!). A young boy is rail-roaded into a boy's reformatory where he can see ghosts. While his sister tries to get him released through legal channels, the warden, a despicable man, sees the boy as an instrument to get rid of the phantoms haunting the school. Allegorical shivers ensue! The final hundred and fifty pages detailing a thrilling prison break will have you climbing the walls! This is an excellent book for readers of horror fiction, literary, or historical fiction, and I think it will please everyone!
— From Bill recommendsGracetown, Florida
June 1950
Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.
Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.
The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.
“With fully realized characters and well-placed twists, Due ratchets up the tension until the final, extraordinary showdown.”
–Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“A vividly realized page-turner, which is at once an ingenious ghost story, a white-knuckle adventure, and an illuminating if infuriating look back at a shameful period in American jurisprudence.”
–Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Her fiction is always powerful, and The Reformatory promises to be her most moving — and horrifying — tale yet.” —Vulture
“One of the greatest living horror writers.... Sure to be as powerful as it is haunting.” —CrimeReads
“Due knocks it out of the park every damn time.” —Book Riot