The Reformatory

Nessuna copertina — The Reformatory (Paperback, 2023, Titan Books)

Brossura, 576 pagine

Pubblicato il 31 Ottobre 2023 da Titan Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-80336-653-1

(1 recensione)

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…

4 edizioni

plutonian ha recensito Reformatory di Tananarive Due

Heartbreaking, terrifying, and horrificly relevant

4 stelle

This was the perfect vacation read; I practically couldn't put it down. It kept me up late at night first because I didn't want to stop reading, and second because I was too creeped out to sleep.

But like all of my favorite horror, this book will also tear the heart right out of your chest. The horrors in here are torn from real life and thus all the more disturbing. And this story is deeply personal: Due names her protagonist for her great-uncle, who died at the Dozier School for Boys. But although this is historical fiction, it's incredibly (and uncomfortably) relevant to this year of our lord 2024. As Due notes in her author's note, these horrors are systemic and ongoing. We live in a society of incarceration and injustice, and we all know that there are still Haddocks viciously enforcing their own perverse tyranny in all corners …

This was the perfect vacation read; I practically couldn't put it down. It kept me up late at night first because I didn't want to stop reading, and second because I was too creeped out to sleep.

But like all of my favorite horror, this book will also tear the heart right out of your chest. The horrors in here are torn from real life and thus all the more disturbing. And this story is deeply personal: Due names her protagonist for her great-uncle, who died at the Dozier School for Boys. But although this is historical fiction, it's incredibly (and uncomfortably) relevant to this year of our lord 2024. As Due notes in her author's note, these horrors are systemic and ongoing. We live in a society of incarceration and injustice, and we all know that there are still Haddocks viciously enforcing their own perverse tyranny in all corners of this country, while their communities look the other way. Hell, half of them would vote for Haddock for president. It's not the horror of a single monster, or the ghosts they leave behind; it's the horror of the community that protects and feeds the monster.

This book is admittedly intense, it will have your heart pounding and then fill you with grief; but it is also filled with human warmth and hope. I will not forget Robbie, Gloria, Redbone, or Blue any time soon. And I will always, always show up for anything Due writes.