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Horror Book Club: The Reformatory

  • Solid State Books 600 H Street Northeast Washington, DC, 20002 United States (map)

Join us for Horror Book Club where we’ll discuss The Reformatory by Tanaarive Due with host Philippe Nassir. This book club meets monthly on the 3rd Wednesday.

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.

Earlier Event: January 15
Horror Book Club: Maeve Fly
Later Event: March 19
Horror Book Club: Lapvona