The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

 

A gripping, page-turning novel 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.

The Reformatory is a brutal, heartbreaking story set in the old South in the days when good old boys would not think twice about lynching a Black man or child for looking at a white woman. 

When 12 year old Robbie defends his sister from inappropriate advances he gets sent off to reform school. More than just a punishment for Robbie, this is a plot intended to make his father come out of hiding. 

Robbie's father was accused of a crime he didn't commit and skipped town before they could murder him, leaving his children behind with an elderly woman.

This reformatory is more a prison than a school, where the living inmates barely outnumber the dead. Many boys never left after not surviving their sentence thanks to the brutal treatment by the sadistic warden who relished any chance to torture the boys for any slight or made up infraction of his rules. The warden and the children are often plagued by ghosts.

If this sounds familiar, you may have seen the real life news stories about the human remains found at the now closed Dozier School, where it should be noted that the author had a relative who did not survive.

The writing depicts the language of those days. If child abuse and racism require trigger warnings for you then you may not be able to handle this book so proceed with caution.

The pacing was a little slow at times but by the final third, I was nearly sick with worry over whether or not Robbie would survive.

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Gallery / Saga Press

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About the Dozier School

 

This is Halloween by James A. Moore

 Author James A. Moore offers up ten autumnal tales of the darker things that lurk just around the corner of Indian Summer. A man learns of a town's obsession with scarecrows and tries to find the answers as to why they are so important. Children move through familiar streets and find that Halloween makes everything different. Tis' the season when ghosts are real, witches soar through the night, and things in the Beldam Woods are not always what they seem. Sometimes it's the monsters that wear the masks.

If the gorgeous cover didn't get me, the title would. Halloween is my favorite holiday. Short horror stories are my addiction, and Halloween horror is my favorite. I expected a lot from this collection, and it delivered all I could have hoped for.

These stories embody the spirit of the season. 

From folk horror to trick or treating at homes that don't exist in the light of day this book held me spellbound from start to finish. You will travel to small towns with strange and deadly customs, meet vengeful spirits, and more. The writing crackles like crisp leaves and snaps like an October wind. And much like Halloween itself, I hated for it to end.

5 out of 5 stars

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Ghoulish Tales Issue #1- Various Authors

 The debut issue of Ghoulish Tales features stories by Robert Nazar Arjoyan, Barbara Castro-Rojas, Clay McLeod Chapman, Chloe Harper Gold, Rae Knowles, Angela Liu, Nina Maar, and Betty Rocksteady. Also includes articles by Nicholas A. Battaglia and Lor Gislason.

This is the first issue of a brand new magazine from Ghoulish books. I hope many more issues will follow.

I have been addicted to short horror stories for as long as I can remember. There's nothing I love more than a good anthology, and Ghoulish Tales delivers some fantastic dark fiction.

This was a quick and creepy read with dark humor, body horror, revenge, and more. There are a couple of articles but to be honest I'm just here for the horror fiction.

My favorites were Life In The Demon's Gizzard by Betty Rocksteady about two sisters, one of whom can't or won't let go of the past. On what is their last night together they share snacks and differing memories of their childhood.

Tonight's Guest Is! by Robert Nazar Arjoyan in which a talk show guest is surprised by the host who seems to know more about his life than what was published in his recent memoirs.

All the stories had unexpected twists, but those two really hit home for me.

My thanks to Ghoulish Books.

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Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

 

Ana and Reid needed a lucky break.

The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling: with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. That's about to change with the words any New Yorker would love to hear―affordable housing lottery.

They've won an apartment in the Deptford, one of Manhattan's most revered buildings with beautiful vistas of Central Park and stunning architecture.

Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia as the price of living in New York―people are odd―but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on the baby.

When Reid and Ana put their names in the lottery for an affordable luxury apartment they never dreamed they'd win. They also never dreamed that their lives would be so different from the time they entered the lottery to the time they finally got called.

When they are shown the apartment it seems perfect for most people, but Ana has misgivings right away. She is confined to a wheelchair these days and can not get down the stairs from their upper floor apartment if there is ever an emergency. Ignoring her unease, and buoyed by her husband's excitement over their win. she agrees to take the apartment. After all, it will do them good to get away from their obnoxious antisemitic landlord.

It's not long after moving day when Ana knows something is wrong with this building. Her baby seems to sense it too, constantly screaming and crying as if she knows this is a bad place to be. Reid becomes obsessed with learning the history of the building, to the point that he loses interest in all else, even gaslighting Ana when she points out the tiny bite marks on the baby after having seen a face at their top floor window.

Not since The Sentinel or Rosemary's Baby has an apartment building had such an unsavory past or housed such sinister tenants. I can't say much else about the plot without spoilers, but I loved the domestic drama as much as the scary parts. The psychological fear mixed with the supernatural terror combined to make Nestlings into an exquisite horror that was perfection from start to finish. This book will land firmly on my best horror of the year list.

5 out of 5 stars.

My thanks to Tor Nightfire.

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