The Reformatory

Tananarive Due's The Reformatory is the kind of masterpiece Stephan King could write if he was a Black woman. It skillfully blends two genres of horrors: the horrors of the supernatural, the haints, and the spaces they inhabit and the horror created by racist whites in post WWII Florida. The stuff the Chamber of Commerce types positioning the Sunshine State as a vacation and retirement paradise never got to mentioning. It also shows the humanity and dignity of those despised and degraded in every way possible.
Robert is a twelve-year-old who has effectively lost both of his parents, although only his mother to death. His father is a union organizer who aggravated the rich and powerful whites in his town. And they knew how to enlist the lesser whites: claim that he raped a white woman. He barely managed to escape alive and can't return to his children because of the people who would turn out for a lynching party if he as much as set foot in the ironically named Gracetown. All he has left for immediate family is his older sister, Gloria.
One day Robert and Gloria are accosted by Lyle McCormack, the teenage son of the wealthiest and most powerful farmer in town. When Lyle asks why they don't come to the swimming hole any more Robert senses a decidedly sinister undertone to this seemingly casual question, an intuition confirmed when Lyle starts showing a far from innocent interest in Gloria.
"He didn't want Lyle McCormack's hand and eyes on his sister a breath longer. He squeezed himself between Lyle and Gloria.
'Leave her be' Robert said."
When the fully grown Lyle tries to push him out of the way Robert, a scrawny preteen kicks him in the knee.
What under most circumstances would be written off as boys being boys results in a deputy arriving at Robert and Gloria's shack with handcuffs. In a farce of a trial without lawyers or a jury Robert is sentenced to six months in Gracetown School for Boys, a place where boys, some much younger than Robert, are starved, overworked, abused in every way possible, and hunted down and killed if they try to escape.
Gloria and Miz Lottie, the woman their father asked to look after them, start franticly searching for a way for a way to win Robert's freedom. They know as horrific as six months is, his sentence will likely be extended, the authorities using the boy as bait to lure his father back to where they can Lynch him. After pursuing all legal avenues in vain they realize they'll have to break him out.
Meanwhile Robert is experiencing all the horror the reformatory has to offer. His first night there he is beaten so severely he has to go to the infirmary. But his talent for seeing ghosts catches the attention of the very evil warden. The place houses more of the undead—the haints—than the living. They're the boys whose lives were brutally ended. Warden Haddock decides Robert will be his key weapon in ridding the place of these very uneasy spirits.
Due maintains the suspense for over 500 pages. True horror lovers will be hooked right from the beginning.
Fortunately this is not her first rodeo. She has a bunch of previous books. Lucky for you they're now all on my reading list.
On a personal note, I had a really good check up. Even my blood pressure is right where it should be. The only red flag is that my weight is down to 98.
A great big shout out goes out to the friends who will help me figure out how to stop losing weight while cutting down on sodium, fats, sugar, and caffeine.
Jules Hathaway