By: Tananarive Due
It’s 1950, and 12 year told Robbie Stephens Jr., a black boy, is sentenced to 6 months at a boys school, a reformatory, for kicking the son of a well known wealthy landowner, who happens to be white, in defense of his sister, Grace. At the Reformatory, Robbie is learning quickly how to survive. Grace, in turn, is trying to get her brother out of the reformatory. Robbie see ghosts at the Reformatory, or haints. He quickly becomes a haint hunter, thinking that getting on the warden’s good side can only help him. But he was wrong, and things only get worse from there. Nothing is as it seems, and Robbie may not be safe.
Hi! I’m an outlier here. I didn’t particularly care for this book at all. First, this book was SO long. I fell asleep a number of times reading it because I was bored. It was so drawn out. So much of this book could have been cut out and you’d still have the same story. In fact, there wasn’t anything interesting happening until about 50% into the book (that’s over 250 pages into the book). I shouldn’t have to wait that long. I wanted to yell at the book “get to the point already!” Gloria is important to the storyline, but her chapters could have been shorter.
When a book is described as haunting, and there are talk of ghosts, I just expect something different. This is more historical and literary than “horror” or scary. I was just expecting something more thrilling that what I read.
I’ll say this. The author is clearly talented. I just think that I didn’t jive with the writing style, and that I had different expectations going into the book. I just really struggled reading this book. So many people loved this one that you probably can just dismiss my opinion!
Publish Date: January 7, 2025
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