This was one of my first reads after the 2024 presidential election, and it has reminded me that 74 years after this book is set we have to keep fighting for justice for people like Robert and Gloria Stephens. The story is based on a real school in Northern Florida during the Jim Crow South and is clearly very well researched. The author has tragic familial ties to the school, and I could read her passion for talking about the injustice of juvenile incarceration and systematic racism. There is a vivid villain in Superintendent Haddock, and two strong and despairingly young main characters in Gloria and Robert. The side characters also added a lot of color to the story, particularly Redbone, Miz Lottie, and Mrs. Hamilton. At first I wasn’t sure if the book needed its paranormal aspect, but I ended up really valuing its window into Black spiritualism and its function as an allegory for the way our society pits Black and marginalized people against each other. “The Reformatory” is a very heavy, harrowing read that I highly recommend you pick up. Reading is political, and this book is a call to action.