Due has long been one of my favorite writers, and this book may be her best yet--at the very least, it is absolutely the best historical horror novel I've ever read. With haunting attention to every detail, and equal parts emotional impact and horror, this story is one that will stay with me for ages to come. Due's characters are more alive than ever--which is saying quite a bit--and even the smallest of them gets such attention as to be either heart-rending or terrifying.

I'd absolutely recommend this to any horror reader, as well as readers interested in historical fiction (haunting or otherwise) that deals with race and/or the mid-twentieth-century South. ( )

Okay, so, let's get this out of the way right up front, okay?

This isn't really much of a horror novel. But this is a horrifying novel.

So, while I find it in the HORROR section of my local bookstore, which is fair, because there's ghosts in it, there's no real horror to be found in the ghosts. Sure, they're a bit creepy, but Due keeps the creep factor tamped WAY down.

They appear. People are shocked. We move past it.

The main thrust of the novel is the utterly horrifying, inhumane, and frankly barbaric treatment of anyone who wasn't white in America 70ish years ago. That's captured in the story of Robert Stephens Jr, sent to the titular reformatory for boys at the age of 12.

It's a sad, and sadly familiar tale that we've seen over and over, but Due does a good job of not-so-gently rubbing our noses in it, as should happen. So, from that aspect, the horror of what we do to each other is perfectly and horribly illustrated. There is a particularly brutal scene involving Robert on the evening of his first day that will stick with me for a long time.

If I have any complaint with the novel, it's that the ending was long in coming, and then felt somewhat rushed and undercooked when it came. It got the job done, but I was expecting maybe a little less chase scene action and a little more revelation, but that's just me.

So, come for the story and the heartbreaking writing. But don't expect a horror novel. Do expect a horrifying one. ( )

Possible Triggers: Racial Violence
It's a mix of horror, and historical fiction, that tells a story of inequality, ghosts, abuse, and the power of love between siblings. It also explores racism that exited in Florida; actually, in a lot of the south. in the 1950's... a place where race relations weren't much better than they'd been in 1865, the year that the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery and gave people of color their freedom. However, it didn't offer equality. It's the summer of 1950 when 12-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr. and his older sister Gloria, meet up with 17-yera old, Lyle McCormack, the son of Red McCormack, the man who basically owns and runs the small town of Gracetown. Lyle gives Gloria a look that most any adult will understand, and then touches her arm and says things he never should have said. Meaning only to defend his sister... Robbie kicks him. Robbie's efforts were well intended but he still gets a bloody ear from Red and a six-month sentence at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory with a dark past in which boys of all races often vanish forever, from the state. It's doesn't come as a big surprise that the school is full of racists and Robbie soon learns that the punishment...no matter how small the offense, is quickly administered, extreme, physical, and very, very common. What is a surprise is that Robbie finds he can see ghosts, all the time and everywhere. They don't harm Robbie and he soon learns how to deal with them. He even believes that he can communicate with his dead mother through the pipes in the showers. Most of the ghosts begin to show signs of their past violence and Robbie starts to unveil the school's dark, and violent history through these apparitions. Gloria does everything in her power to rescue her little brother while also coping with their father's absence and the changing ways in which she has to navigate the world as a black girl that's now seen as a "young black woman" by the people of the town. I was born and grew up in Florida, so I wasn't too surprised that I found that there was a great deal of truth in this haunting story that delves deep into the realities of what is known as the "Jim Crow South". The horrors of schools like the Gracetown School for Boys and the atrocities that went on inside their walls, were unfortunately real. The author manages beautifully to deliver a historical fictional narrative that will hit readers in the face with the ugliness of racism, while she also makes every hero in the story a person of color and excellence...figures like Zora Neale Hurston, Thurgood Marshall, and Louis Armstrong. Yes, there is a great deal of abuse here and discriminating words are constantly used a weapon to insult and belittle folks, but ultimately the narrative comes across with love and perseverance making it memorable. ( )

So difficult to stay present for, but so impossible to look away from. The racial horrors of the Jim Crow South mixed with ghosts and actual sadists.
The story building and writing are fantastic, the characters are so painfully real, and the setting is seared into my mind. This is horror in the most real way, and it does it so well. ( )

The Reformatory is a raw and emotional reminder of the Jim Crow era, one that should never be forgotten. This was an incredible read, and some of the things that were described were difficult to read about, as they should be, and I have to give credit to the author for the incredible amount of research that must have gone into this book. However, as much as I enjoyed it, it read much more as a historical fiction novel with a few paranormal elements to it as opposed to a horror novel. So the question to be asked here is, was it scary? No, not really. Was it psychologically disturbing? Yes, definitely, as it should be. But when you put it all together, it didn't quite work for me despite the incredibly strong first third of the book.

First of all, the setting is amazing and I loved reading every description that was given about the reformatory school. I definitely appreciated the level of research the author did in order for her to be able to describe the grounds and the buildings the way they would have looked in the 1950s. And even getting a hint of some of the horrors those building contained was enough for me to read feeling tense wondering when we would visit those buildings and what we would find there when we did. And who in their right mind would name a whipping shed 'The Funhouse'. Twisted people.

This is a long book, something I don't usually mind, but I did find the pacing was off which did affect the overall story. I thought Gloria's story line was unnecessary, and she was annoying a lot of the time. I understand her panic and stress, but I think she was only used to show some of the racial issues that existed during that time period, otherwise her part could have been cut out completely without having any impact on the story. Personally, I thought it would have been better without the interruption.

Robert's story line was the more impressive of the two and I loved the paranormal element that was added to it. The things that Robbie and his friends endured are heartbreaking and absolutely terrible. Other than a couple of scenes though, the author didn't go into detail about what happened and the information was left to the reader's imagination. This is the reason this felt much more like a historical fiction read rather a horror read; instead of feeling truly horrified, I was able to distance myself from what was happening rather easily as there were no descriptions of most of the things the boys went through, just the aftermath. When one of the boys has a broom and the Superintended gets mad because that is his special broom he uses with the boys, it is not as impactful as it could have been. I am not complaining, but horror-wise, it could have been so much worse to read, and this is what I was expecting, even if I was hoping not to, if that makes sense.

I enjoyed Robbie as a main character, and wished more of the other characters had been more fully fleshed out; there was certainly room to do so at 500+ pages. I did wonder at times if the author was unsure if she wanted to focus more on the historical ill-treatment of children at this school or on the paranormal aspect of the story as the two did not always blend together well.

Verdict
The Reformatory is one of those novels over which I have mixed emotions; one the one hand, I loved the descriptions of the school and thought the unjust Jim Crow laws were definitely something that need to be highlighted again, especially with regards to what is currently happening in Florida. However, I did feel like Gloria's story line was unnecessary and the pacing was off which affected the overall tension of the story. I would have liked the secondary characters to have been more developed as they were fascinating in themselves, and although I really enjoyed the paranormal element to the story, I did feel like it conflicted with the main story line at times. Well worth the read just to learn about the school on which the story was based. ( )