The atmosphere and the writer's ability to pull you in and tug at your heartstrings was truly astonishing. Because of the nature of the setting (Jim Crow Florida 1950) it absolutely horrified in the treatment of the children within the school. But the human spirit within the main characters to survive and overcome, that there was always hope, pulled you on, always rooting for them to come out on top.
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…
This was the book I asked for for last Christmas, I have a tradition of after cooking the dinner, the rest of the day is mine to read my present - and reader, I finished it before the Day was out. I adored Circe, her independence, the idea that you could go your own way, even in the world of Zeus. Books I read have to take me away from where I am - and this one certainly did that (and it got me out of the washing up!)
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Circe is a strange child - not powerful and terrible, like her father, nor gorgeous and mercenary like her mother. Scorned and rejected, Circe grows up in the shadows, at home in neither the world of gods or mortals. But Circe has a dark power of her own: witchcraft. When her gift threatens…
You think that nothing new can come from the zombie/undead trope but this was different - and it certainly rattles along at a pace. It is part of a duology so I will need to get that when it's out in paperback.
Could I just add that the print copy I have has a certain quality of paper and binding that I just love to hold and flip through, I don't know what it is, but it is a book that demands to be held. I kept flicking the 'read' pages as I carried on reading, very strange.
“Exciting, suspenseful, horrifying, and written at a flurry-of-punches pace. Read Fever House now.”—STEPHEN KING
A small-time criminal. A has-been rock star. A shadowy government agency. And a severed hand whose dark powers threaten to destroy them all.
A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
When leg-breaker Hutch Holtz rolls up to a rundown apartment complex in Portland, Oregon, to collect overdue drug money, a severed hand is the last thing he expects to find stashed in the client’s refrigerator. Hutch quickly realizes that the hand induces uncontrollable madness: Anyone in its proximity is overcome with a boundless compulsion…
When the world threatened to end, a select few went into an underground complex and left those above to survive any way they could. Scientist Faith Hamilton and her grown daughter Josie are two of the abandoned. A Barricade around the entrance to the bunker ensures those below would never be allowed out.
Twenty years later they start hearing strange voices, seeing shadows within. Those below start to appear in the inner circle of the Barricade asking to be let out. Those above still refuse. Faith and her friends discover it hasn’t isolated them as they thought, that in fact there has been communication and manipulation by those underground all this time.
“…a monstrously grim dystopian tale exposing the human condition with all its frailties. Uncovering themes of abandonment, trauma, and mental health…” — Lee Murray
“…the worst kind of dystopia: one which is all too believable, especially in the actions of the few who remain.” — Kev Harrison
“A riveting story that doesn't flinch from the worst in us and, in spite of this, somehow left me feeling stronger. An empowering narrative that will lodge in your thoughts for a long while.” —Angela Yuriko Smith
