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Elizabeth (Plant Based Bride)'s Reviews > The Reformatory
The Reformatory
by
by
Elizabeth (Plant Based Bride)'s review
bookshelves: favs-2024, 5-star-reads, bipoc-authors, lgbtqia
Dec 01, 2023
bookshelves: favs-2024, 5-star-reads, bipoc-authors, lgbtqia
Heartbreaking, devastating, and horrifying - yet also, somehow, hopeful. This was one of the best books I read in 2023.
The Reformatory is incredibly engaging, with well-drawn characters that make you root for them and worry for their safety from the first page. Robbie and Gloria were fantastic protagonists, and all I wanted was for them to be safe and together. Due doesn't shy away from the horrors of prisons for children masquerading as boarding schools, nor does she shy away from the realities of life in the South for Black people during the Jim Crow era.
While there is a supernatural element to this story, it is not the haints who are the true villains - it is humanity, the depravity of people who value power over other's lives, people who get pleasure from other's pain and suffering, and not just the evil among us - as Due states in the author's note, "The Reformatory has a central villain, but the actual villain is a system of dehumanization." While there are certainly truly villainous characters in his novel, and there are people in history who were horrible human beings who hurt people and are not without responsibility for what they've done, the true villain is the system of dehumanization that upholds a culture of violence. We even have a haunting moment in the novel where the villain thinks about how he would never have treated his dog the way he treated the boys at The Reformatory. It's devastating to think about the systemic dehumanization of groups of people, allowing not only truly monstrous human beings to perpetrate violence freely without punishment but also otherwise average people, people who do horrible things because society has brainwashed them into believing that certain people don't deserve as much respect as others, that some lives don't mean as much as others, aren't worth as much as others. And this isn't something that only happened historically, it's happening right now. There are groups of people who are so viciously dehumanized that their pain is not worth as much as others' pain; their deaths don't matter as much as other people's deaths; their lives don't have the same value as other lives, and it's heartbreaking watching it continue to happen. This book feels very timely in that aspect - bystanders and regular people are as much to blame for these systems of abuse and oppression as the sadistic monsters revelling in the power they give them over others.
An exhausting, gruelling, intense, and terrifying journey that moved me to tears more than once, The Reformatory will stay with me for a very long time.
Watch me read and review this book (& other nominees in the horror category) here: https://youtu.be/dVOamSxBvnk
Trigger/Content Warnings: racism, racial slurs, sexual harassment, sexual assault, antisemitism, fire death, child abuse, pedophilia, child pornography, murder, child and infant murder, torture, parental abandonment, bullying
You can find me on...
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You can join our book club over on Patreon...
PBB Book Club
The Reformatory is incredibly engaging, with well-drawn characters that make you root for them and worry for their safety from the first page. Robbie and Gloria were fantastic protagonists, and all I wanted was for them to be safe and together. Due doesn't shy away from the horrors of prisons for children masquerading as boarding schools, nor does she shy away from the realities of life in the South for Black people during the Jim Crow era.
While there is a supernatural element to this story, it is not the haints who are the true villains - it is humanity, the depravity of people who value power over other's lives, people who get pleasure from other's pain and suffering, and not just the evil among us - as Due states in the author's note, "The Reformatory has a central villain, but the actual villain is a system of dehumanization." While there are certainly truly villainous characters in his novel, and there are people in history who were horrible human beings who hurt people and are not without responsibility for what they've done, the true villain is the system of dehumanization that upholds a culture of violence. We even have a haunting moment in the novel where the villain thinks about how he would never have treated his dog the way he treated the boys at The Reformatory. It's devastating to think about the systemic dehumanization of groups of people, allowing not only truly monstrous human beings to perpetrate violence freely without punishment but also otherwise average people, people who do horrible things because society has brainwashed them into believing that certain people don't deserve as much respect as others, that some lives don't mean as much as others, aren't worth as much as others. And this isn't something that only happened historically, it's happening right now. There are groups of people who are so viciously dehumanized that their pain is not worth as much as others' pain; their deaths don't matter as much as other people's deaths; their lives don't have the same value as other lives, and it's heartbreaking watching it continue to happen. This book feels very timely in that aspect - bystanders and regular people are as much to blame for these systems of abuse and oppression as the sadistic monsters revelling in the power they give them over others.
An exhausting, gruelling, intense, and terrifying journey that moved me to tears more than once, The Reformatory will stay with me for a very long time.
Watch me read and review this book (& other nominees in the horror category) here: https://youtu.be/dVOamSxBvnk
Trigger/Content Warnings: racism, racial slurs, sexual harassment, sexual assault, antisemitism, fire death, child abuse, pedophilia, child pornography, murder, child and infant murder, torture, parental abandonment, bullying
You can find me on...
Youtube | Instagram | TikTok
You can join our book club over on Patreon...
PBB Book Club
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Quotes Elizabeth Liked
“Cuz, see, colored folks fighting for what’s theirs is like a virus to white folks—and they kill a virus so it don’t spread.”
― The Reformatory
― The Reformatory
“Blue was gone without a goodbye. Robbie kept his eyes on the crow flying off as long as he could see it, but soon the black dot was out of sight, either too far or vanished into the air. Blue was headed somewhere Robert could not follow him—not yet, anyway. Robbie hoped wherever Blue was flying next would be a mystery for a long time. But he would write down the rules for haints so another kid who met another Blue would think twice before putting their life in a haint’s hands: Haints can look different ways. Haints usually come if you call their full names. Haints don’t like to be called haints. Haints can be fun as friends, but you have to look out for yourself or you might die like Redbone. Haints don’t say goodbye, except when they visit your dreams. And haints can kill you.”
― The Reformatory
― The Reformatory
Reading Progress
November 14, 2023
– Shelved
November 14, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
November 24, 2023
–
Started Reading
November 24, 2023
–
6.0%
November 26, 2023
–
54.0%
November 27, 2023
–
Finished Reading
January 9, 2024
– Shelved as:
favs-2024
May 30, 2024
– Shelved as:
5-star-reads
May 30, 2024
– Shelved as:
bipoc-authors
June 30, 2024
– Shelved as:
lgbtqia
