I'd heard good things about this book going in, so wondered if it could live up to the hype but, within a short few pages, I was so totally sucked into the story that those fears were swiftly dispelled. It's a difficult read in places, eye opening for someone from the UK who doesn't understand the context of the Jim Crow United States as well as someone who lives there. But the characters provide just the right amount of light to keep you going through the incredible darkness of the tail. The author's notes at the end, explaining the real life people and places behind some of the characters and locales really made it hit home how 'true to life' this book was, and gave extra weight to the story. It may be a haunting, but in no way are the ghosts the scariest thing in The Reformatory.
A New York Times Notable Book “You’re in for a treat. The Reformatory is one of those books you can’t put down. Tananarive Due hit it out of the park.” —Stephen King
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…
Alan Baxter gave us what I think might just be his best book yet in this home invasion meets The Shining crime horror mash up. The warmth between the family - while not being at all saccharine - against the cold brutality of the criminal gang - especially the severely disturbed ring leader - make for tension you can cut with a knife and that's before the supernatural elements kick in. The ingredients of this book seem like too much for a single tome and story, but Baxter masterfully fuses them all together and the result is breathtaking.
What should have been a breeze of a bank heist for James Glenn and his crew goes violently wrong, forcing them to flee, blood-stained and angry. They stumble onto a remote lodge that doesn’t open for another month—a perfect place to lie low until the heat’s off. Except it’s occupied. The Moore family, just arrived to prepare for the season, are taken hostage by the criminals, but not without bloodshed. And when blood gets spilled, something ancient notices. Something malevolent. Something ravenous. Their only hope is the youngest Moore, teenager Rueben, outside and unseen when James and his gang arrive.…
My first book from Hall's Dorin Toth historical horror series but by no means my last. The world we are plunged into in Promise is grimy, war-ravaged and harsh. Toth is investigating a supernatural affliction on a town whose roads are out of bounds and, soon after his arrival, the evil that resides in this place begins to reveal itself. The main character, as well as the supporting cast, are fantastic. The sense of place and time are wonderfully, vividly realised. The research which has evidently gone into the story must have been enormous, but the value of that research is clear to see from the very first torchlit pages.
Two plagues rage in the countryside. One plague is smallpox, a torturous disease that ravages the body, turning homes into tombs. The other ailment is more mysterious, a scourge of occult origin, a plague that ravages the mind and consumes the soul. Here the deepest horrors are made manifest. Here the dead walk the shadowed wood. Here a spirit and its brood of changelings emerge from the earth to feed. Into this malefic maelstrom enters Dorin Toth, famed occultist and investigator. Accompanied by his faithful greyhound, Vinegar Tom, Toth must find the source of the eldritch epidemic. Will…
It’s Seb’s last day working in Turkey, but his friend Oz has been cursed. Superstition turns to terror as the effects of the ancient malediction spill over and the lives of Oz and his family hang in the balance. Can Seb find the answers to remove the hex before it’s too late?
From Kev Harrison, author of The Balance and Below, journey with Seb, Oz and Deniz across ancient North African cities as they seek to banish the Shadow of the Hidden.
