'The Reformatory' tells a story of ghosts, abuse, racism — and sibling love
Tananarive Due's haunting, unflinching novel delves deep into the realities of the Jim Crow South and the very real horrors that took place at Florida reformatory schools in the 1950s.
Tananarive Due's The Reformatory is one of the best novels published in 2023. A superb mix of literary fiction, horror, and historical fiction, The Reformatory tells a story of inequality, ghosts, abuse, and the power of love between siblings.
But it also explores racism in 1950s Florida, a place where race relations weren't much better than they'd been in 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery and gave Black people their freedom — but not equality.
