casparquarius's Reviews (91)

it's hard to know what to say about this book without sounding trite, or trivializing, or hyperbolic. the reformatory is a masterfully crafted story about the very real horrors of anti blackness, incarceration, police, white supremacy, and classism blended with perhaps less real horrors. it is a story full of grief and survival and relationships and community, their supports and their limits. it is very, very good and I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time

I'd heard nothing but great things about Stephen Graham Jones generally and My Heart is a Chainsaw specifically, but I was still not prepared for how fully I would fall into the story. let alone how much I would love Jade, one of the single best and most realistic teenage characters I've ever encountered. I feel like I was friends with her in high school, was her a little bit. one of my favorites I've read so far this year.

this book was so incredibly compelling from the start, and only sucked me in more and more. the characters were all fleshed out more than I expected, which brought a welcome depth to the narrative. by the time I hit the climax I was incapable of putting it down, the story just took me with it through to the end and I very much enjoyed it