The Reformatory

A Novel

By: Tananarive Due

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

*Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner * New York Times Notable Book * Locus Award Finalist * Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the Shirley Jackson Award *

“You’re in for a treat...one of those books you can’t put down...Due hit it out of the park.” —Stephen King

A gripping, page-turning “masterpiece” (Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman) 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.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Joniece Abbot-Prat voices Gloria’s strength and despair alongside her chilling performance of Robbie’s terror." ( Matthew Galloway)

“…Set during the Jim Crow era and inspired by the real-life Florida School for Boys in Marianna, The Reformatory is a terrifying, nerve-wracking novel, steeped in ugly truths about racism and American history. Narrator Joniece Abbott-Pratt manages to heighten the considerable tension with her heartfelt interpretations of the shifting, powerful emotions of Robert and Gloria: their anguish, fear, longing, sorrow, and, eventually, furious determination. She never lets you forget that they’re children facing the unthinkable, like so many children before them…Abbott-Pratt’s precise vocal inflections also bring to life the secondary characters, among them Redbone, a boy who befriends Robert at the school; Boone, a corrupt prison guard obsessed with haints; Miss Lottie, the elderly church lady who doesn’t leave home after dark without her pistol; and the warden himself, whose soul is a murderous black hole. It’s a tour de force performance, a worthy enhancement to Due’s vision.” (Connie Ogle)

“…Set during the Jim Crow era and inspired by the real-life Florida School for Boys in Marianna, The Reformatory is a terrifying, nerve-wracking novel, steeped in ugly truths about racism and American history. Narrator Joniece Abbott-Pratt manages to heighten the considerable tension with her heartfelt interpretations of the shifting, powerful emotions of Robert and Gloria: their anguish, fear, longing, sorrow, and, eventually, furious determination. She never lets you forget that they’re children facing the unthinkable, like so many children before them…Abbott-Pratt’s precise vocal inflections also bring to life the secondary characters, among them Redbone, a boy who befriends Robert at the school; Boone, a corrupt prison guard obsessed with haints; Miss Lottie, the elderly church lady who doesn’t leave home after dark without her pistol; and the warden himself, whose soul is a murderous black hole. It’s a tour de force performance, a worthy enhancement to Due’s vision.” (Connie Ogle)

Just wow-flawless and haunting read

When critics of the horror genre make remarks that horror is void of depth, substance, or heart. I present to you those book.

This book keeps you on edge

Between ghost, abuse, and plain old fashion racism, you are constantly on edge for the characters of this story. It really makes you question just how much you understand about the limits and horrors of jim crow.

I’ll never fully recover.

This book was so well written. The characters were rich and vibrant, the descriptions of the setting made me feel like I had seen it on TV.
I usually don’t get a visceral reaction from books, but JFC my heart was in my stomach and I was sweating ice water at multiple points in the story.
It was bleak, depressing, terrifying, and nauseating. Probably exactly how a lot of people felt everyday in the Jim Crow south. Amazing read, 2 thumbs up for Mrs. Due!

Shockingly good

This was unexpected as I selected the book based on a reviewer on TikTok. It’s wonderfully performed and brings a ghost story where the true horror is the history that inspired it.

Phenomenal!

It usually takes me about seven days to finish a book. However, this one drew me in immediately, and I was done in 48 hours. I loved it and will reread it soon!