The Reformatory

• Author: Tananarive Due
• Genre: Horror
• Publication Date: October 31, 2023
• Publisher: Gallery/Saga Press

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. 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

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.

After reading The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, which tackles the Dozier School for Boys as historical fiction, I remember looking into the history of that “school,” and I use the term at its very loosest. What I learned shocked and disgusted me, and I was curious to see what Due was planning with this story, to make an already horrifying story more so. 

To start with, the story is a slow paced one. It allows Due to really develop the characters, the setting, and the plot, and this is definitely an atmospheric story, with all of the elements inextricably linked together. Living in a small town in northern Florida where everyone knows everyone else’s business isn’t always a good thing, especially when you have family business you’d rather keep hidden. The Stephens family is a Black family living in the deep South during the 1950s, in the heart of the Jim Crow laws. And when Robert Stephens Sr.’s unionizing activities start jeopardizing his family, he leaves town and heads north, abandoning his older daughter, Grace, to take care of her younger brother, Robbie Jr. 

Robbie and Grace live in poverty, barely getting by, and relying on the assistance of an older friend of the family, Miss Lottie. When an older white boy makes an unwelcome advance towards Gloria and pushes Robbie, Robbie kicks him in retaliation. But all that matters is that a Black boy kicked a white boy. That event leads to Robbie gets sentenced to six months at a reform school, The Reformatory, which was the judge going lenient on him. 

When it turns out that Robbie Jr.’s sentencing, and how he would be treated at The Reformatory might be retaliation for the actions of his father, Gloria is spurred to do whatever she can to ensure that she gets her brother out of there as soon as possible. At the same time, Robbie is getting acclimated to his new surroundings, which is full of haints (ghosts), some of whom it is clear were murdered. It makes it more difficult for him to get adjusted, and he quickly discovers some of the horrors in store for him at The Reformatory. 

The horror aspect of the story changes quite a bit from the early parts to the later parts. Initially, the horror is the human one, that did exist in real life. Where poor, often Black, boys were viewed as disposable, and sent to places like this for disproportionately long periods for minor offenses. But in the second half, the haints play a significantly larger role in the story, and it all gets a lot creepier.

Overall, this story was done so well. I was rooting for Robbie the whole time, although I logically knew that he wasn’t going to be able to avoid any issues. The connection between Gloria and Robbie was wonderful to see, and how hard they fought to be able to reach each other. There are a lot of trigger warnings involved in the story, including death of a parent, racism, antisemitism, violence towards children, mention of child rape, and mention of murder of children to name the big ones. But it also tells the story, although taking some creative license, of a horrific period in American history, and an institution that should never have existed, but needs to be talked about to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. This one is well worth the read.