The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Other Tananarive Due books:
My Soul to Keep

I listened to the audiobook of The Reformatory by Tananarive Due because it fulfills the horror book by a BIPOC author prompt for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. Have you noticed that I'm reading a lot of books for that challenge recently? Well, it's because I am way behind and don't know if I'm going to be able to finish the challenge before the end of the year. I still have fifteen books to go to finish. I guess that's five books a month and if I buckle down and focus on it, I can pull this off. 

Twelve-year-old Robert Stephens, Jr. is sentenced to six months at Gracetown School for Boys for kicking a white boy who was hitting on his sister. Robbie soon learns that the ghosts he sees around the reformatory are not nearly as dangerous as the people who work there. 

Gracetown School for Boys is loosely based on the Dozier School for Boys and Robbie was very loosely based on a distant relative of the author. Honestly I wanted this book to be spookier than it was. It was horrifying knowing that the abuse the boys received was based on real events, but if the author was going to raise the issue of Robbie seeing ghosts, I sort of wanted the ghosts to be scarier. Maybe it was a good metaphor that the real danger is in actual living human beings, but I just wanted a bit more ooomph. 

Also, a whole lot of this book was not set at the school, but it followed Robbie's older sister as she tried to get his sentence lowered and, to be honest, the sister's story was a bit boring. I don't know. I wanted to like this, but I thought The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead was a better book with similar source material (although, to be clear, the Whitehead is NOT horror). 

I don't know. Should you read it? I think that depends on your interest in this topic. I did enjoy starting the month of October with this one, though.  4/5 stars

Line of note: 

But mama had been able to cuss people out using the politest words possible clenched between her teeth and in that moment Gloria had sounded just like her. (timestamp 7:25:22)

Ha ha ha. Haven't we all given the equivalent of the middle finger in a polite tone?

Hat mentions (why hats?):

...fixed on his hat to block the sun. (timestamp 1:03:56)

tipped his hat (timestamp 2:01:36)

Younger boys wore smaller paper hats...(timestamp 3:07:24)

As Boone pointed out the hook with Robert's apron and paper hat...(timestamp 3:08:11)

...apron and hat..(timestamp 3:09:40)

...a white boy in a chef's hat and an apron...(timestamp 3:15:28)

fishing hat (timestamp 7:02:08)

...took off his hat to wave with it...(timestamp 7:03:25)

bright red hat (timestamp 7:47:44)

tipped his hat (timestamp 8:11:18)

took off his hat (timestamp 8:20:43)

glamourous hat (timestamp 8:42:26)

take off his hat (timestamp 8:53:49)

pillbox hat (timestamp 9:29:23 and again at 9:56:18)

took off his hat (timestamp 10:04:57)

put his hat back on (timestamp 10:07:09)

in my hat box (timestamp 11:32:03)

brim of his hat (timestamp 11:49:25)

took off his hat (timestamp 11:51:18)

tipped an imaginary hat (timestamp 15:35:08)

the slant of his cowboy hat (timestamp 15:52:50)

knocked his hat back on his head (timestamp 15:54:39)

He took off his hat...(timestamp 16:35:22)

wearing a western-style hat (timestamp 19:44:15)

tipped his chef's hat (timestamp 20:41:25)

stylish hats (timestamp 20:41:45)

hat canted to one side (timestamp 20:44:17)

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Can you imagine a new reader stumbling upon this blog and wondering why on earth I have a giant list of hat mentions? Hi, new readers! I'm neurotic, that's why!

Have you ever read Tananarive Due? Do you have other suggestions for BIPOC horror authors? There doesn't seem to be a ton of them.