Book Review: ‘The Reformatory: A Novel’ By Tananarive Due

The year is 1950, in Gracetown, Florida, where black people are still subject to Jim Crow, and treated like bad second hand citizens. For Gloria, who is 16, and Robbie, who is 12, they really have to watch themselves, after their father flees to Chicago, and their mother died years ago. On this day on the way home from school, they’re stopped by a local white, rich boy, who they were friends with, and he starts harassing Gloria, and Robbie defends her and himself, after he’s pushed. He ends up arrested, and sent for six months to a reform school, not known for being a good place. Robbie, who claims to see ghosts, tries to keep this a secret, and sees the ghosts of past people, and the horrors of things that have happened in the past. Gloria does everything she can to try and get him out, and to reunite with him. This is a haunting, and at times hard book to read, meaning that in a good way, Author Due has written an intense novel, and this is one of those books you don’t want to put down.

You can pick up The Reformatory in stores on Tuesday, October 31st from Gallery.