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The Reformatory

Written by: Tananarive Due
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
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Publisher's Summary

*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 “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.

©2023 Tananarive Due (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio
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What the critics say

"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)

What listeners say about The Reformatory

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ABSOLUTELY AMAZING

I have no words other than amazing. Soooo well written and put together . Definitely recommend. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Two horror stories in one

Completely submerged in the characters , 50s culture, location, haints, visions and the horrors of being black in the 50s. Narrator is perfect.

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Must Read!

The story is well written and keeps moving with no slow areas and the narrator was perfect. This is a must read/listen!

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Absolutely beautiful gut destroyingly beautiful

This is the saddest, most beautiful story I've ever listened to. Highly recommend this book. The characters are amazing, people have dragged it as too long, I don't think that at all, it's the exact right length.

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Just amazing!

I can't be the only one who wants a sequel.
Couldn't put it down.
So many emotions

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Haunting

This story was incredibly well written and read. I fell in love with the characters and grew to despise others. The plight of the Stevens family, their loved ones and the boys at the Reformatory gripped me so completely that I openly wept at times. This story not only provides insight into an ugly past that we too often glaze over but inspires us to continue to make the present and future a better place for EVERYONE, regardless of colour, creed sexuality or any other factor society might use to divide us.

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