Tananarive Due

A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephen Jones as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead. Gracetown, Florida, summer 1950. Robert Stephen Jones Jr. is sent to Gracetown School for Boys for kicking a white boy’s leg. But the Gracetown School for Boys isn’t just any reform school. As Robert finds, it’s a segregated school that is haunted from the boys who have died there. The Reformatory is an eerie, frightening novel that explores the horrors of our history.

The Reformatory

Lindsay

He learned that the dead walked beside the living. Sometimes, the dead could help you fly.

Maybe there was no way for a Negro with fixed ideas to avoid being sent to jail.

Robert had a hard time remembering why he'd expected fairness at any turn. Momma used to say, "life isn't fair," when he cried over not getting his way. But he hadn't known then that unfairness was so big, covering the world.

The secret to war is the sacrifices friends make for each other.

"Segregation isn't unique to the South," Lowman said, thinking of how often he'd seen Colored children chased from his Lower East Side library, "just, more flamboyant."

Telling the truth always broke the peace.

"I don't believe in evil in most ways," Ms. Lottie said. "I believe in the devil, alright, but man don't need no hope from Satan to do what folks call evil. Man do evil every day, and call it 'doing their job'. Slave drivers was 'doing their job', beating the skin off folks. Slave catchers, setting dogs to rip out eyes and limbs."

Florida soil is soaked with so much blood, it's a wonder the droplets don't seep between your toes with every step.

Please make sure you read the trigger warning before delving into this, but I would highly recommend this to anyone, especially non-black readers.

As captivating as this was, it’s extremely heavy. I feel like for people without personal / historical stakes in it, one can easily read the book and think it’s an exaggerated narrative, but it’s truly not, which is the most horrific part about it. So much if this was familiar to me, from the way the Black community members speak, to the warnings they give the younger generation from their own learned lessons. Every time I read a Black American centered novel set in the Jim Crow era, I can’t help but to think of my parents and grandparents and everything they’ve instilled in me and my brother. Speaking of my brother, I got choked up reading this just imagining him in similar circumstances and what I would do to save him from them.

I loved how seamlessly real word historical figures were weaved into the story without it seeming overdone. The people that showed up made sense. The topics around intersectionality and ally ship were interesting as well. Overall, this is a very harrowing story that needs to be told. It’s sick how relevant it still is in 2025. Again, check the trigger warnings.

Nik ✨

Please make sure you read the trigger warning before delving into this, but I would highly recommend this to anyone, especially non-black readers.

As captivating as this was, it’s extremely heavy. I feel like for people without personal / historical stakes in it, one can easily read the book and think it’s an exaggerated narrative, but it’s truly not, which is the most horrific part about it. So much if this was familiar to me, from the way the Black community members speak, to the warnings they give the younger generation from their own learned lessons. Every time I read a Black American centered novel set in the Jim Crow era, I can’t help but to think of my parents and grandparents and everything they’ve instilled in me and my brother. Speaking of my brother, I got choked up reading this just imagining him in similar circumstances and what I would do to save him from them.

I loved how seamlessly real word historical figures were weaved into the story without it seeming overdone. The people that showed up made sense. The topics around intersectionality and ally ship were interesting as well. Overall, this is a very harrowing story that needs to be told. It’s sick how relevant it still is in 2025. Again, check the trigger warnings.

Eva Ströberg

The reformatory - Tananarive Due
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Heartbreaking story about marginalised African American children (and family) living in the south in the late 40s. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the segregation policy in the US abolished so late in relation to modern history. It’s unthinkable.
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Gloria and Robert Stephens are siblings and living in Gracetown, Florida. Their mom died of cancer, father is accused of raping white woman (false accusation) and fled to Chicago. Gloria, who is17 and Robert that is ten years old has to fend for themselves in the land of the Klan.
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A little tiff between Robert and the white neighbour kid Lyle ended with Robert being arrested and sent to the Reformatory, school of boys, that is basically juvenile prison, run by sadist called Fenton Haddock.
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There are some horror elements in this, with the ghost appearance in the prison, but the actual horror was the fate of (many) African Americans in that era who had to deal with injustice, misery and racial discrimination.
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The Reformatory

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