Review: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

The Reformatory

by Tananarive Due

Release Date: October 31, 2023

2023 Gallery/Saga Press

Ebook Edition; 576 Pages

ISBN: 978-1982188344

ASIN: B0BHTN8L13

Audiobook: B0BRNYV5GM

Genre: Fiction / Historical / Horror

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3.75 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

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.

 

My Thoughts

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. 

 

Review: Dracul by Dacre Stoker & J.D. Barker

Dracul
by Dacre Stoker & J.D. Barker
Release Date: October 2nd 2018
2018 Putnam
Kindle Edition; 512 Pages
ISBN: 978-0735219366
ASIN: B079WNXNXS
Genre: Fiction / Historical / Horror
Source: Review copy from publisher

5 / 5 Stars

Summary
It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here...

A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents' Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behavior by Ellen -- a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen -- and that the nightmare they've thought long ended is only beginning.

My Thoughts 
As a kid, Dracula was the first real horror book that I read at eight years old and for years I wondered where and how he would have been inspired to write such a thing.  What you have here is a prequel, written by a descendant of Bram Stoker no less, told in multiple POVs, one of which is Bram Stoker himself, both as a child and as an adult, in order to tell us what inspired the events in his signature novel, Dracula. I have to say I was very reluctant to read this as I remember the magic of Dracula, but I am SO GLAD I DID.  This story is written using Bram Stoker's original papers as the first 100 pages of his original Dracula were removed from the story and although no one is sure what was actually in those pages, they did use his original journals and other papers to create this story.  So the basics of this story do lie within Bram Stoker's original work and I loved learning that fact.

This is definitely a fine piece of gothic literature and I enjoyed it tremendously.  Although told in multiple POVs, the one I preferred was Bram's, and we first meet him as a child of seven years old suffering from a disease that has kept him bed-ridden for most of his young life.  The story is set in Ireland, where Bram and his family lived, and the authors tried to remain as true to his original background as possible,  I kept looking up facts on the Internet as I didn't really know a lot about Bram Stoker's life before reading this and almost all of the incidents that surrounded his family had been documented.  I loved all of the characters and enjoyed reading about them and although I liked Bram's POV the best, the others, mainly his sister and later his older brother, were quite interesting as well.  I kept making comparisons to the original Dracula (I couldn't help myself) and the links between this novel and the original were amazing.  

I have always loved Barker's writing, which is really what drew me to this novel, and although I wasn't sure about Stoker, the two together wrote one amazing book.  I love gothic novels and when well done, are quite fascinating.  The atmosphere and the setting in this novel raises it to a whole new level, capturing the reader and never letting go until the end.  I was actually disappointed when I got to the end as I didn't want to stop reading.  The tale is superb and the build-up is fantastic.  I could almost see the interwoven laces of the tale being woven throughout the novel as I read and I have nothing but admiration for the authors who could pull off something like this.   I can't even imagine what the editing process would have been like.  Throughout the story there is this chill that is woven throughout the narrative that you can feel but can't quite put a finger on which is perfect for gothic literature.  It's in the atmosphere, the characters, their actions, the weather, their secrets, their words, all woven together to create a suspense that makes you wonder what will actually happen.  When you have scenes in run-down old castles, in dark forests, and in morgues, you are being set up for something quite interesting.  I loved it all!

Verdict
Dracul is one of those novels that succeeded on every level. Bram is one precocious child who is very curious about the world and wants answers to questions about things he doesn't understand.  So faced with a mysterious nanny who does mysterious things, he set out to discover her secret, only discovering far more that he bargained for, which shaped his life and his future.  The authors did a great job with Bram and the other characters, and you can see his progression throughout the story, where he would get his ideas for his future works of literature.  The story was impressively strong, kept me enthralled throughout and I began to wonder what was fact and what was fiction.  Luckily, the authors sorted that out in the end in the Author's Note, but even there much can be left to speculation.  I liked how the novel was written from different POVs as well as through the use of journals and letters as it all flowed seamlessly together.  I have to give credit to both of these authors for creating something that really remained true to the original work, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loved Dracula as much as I did.