Not a book to read for pleasure

The Boys of the Dark by Robin Gaby Fisher








I'd read the horror stories--the true horror stories--so I was kind of afraid to read the book.  But they had it at the library so....

It's a brief history of the Dozier Reform School For Boys near Marianna, Florida, combined with the story of the two courageous men who exposed the torture and abuse that went on there.

If one believed a place could be evil, this would be the place.  It was Florida's first reform school, built in the late 1890s.  From 1900 until its final closure in the 1980s, it was a hellhole of pain and death--death by disease, by fire, savage beatings, occasional murder.  The first report came in 1903--three years after it opened, it was pronounced a failure.  Young boys were being kept in irons like common criminals.  Which was humane treatment compared to what came later. The boys who survived would hide the scars and try not to think of the place; never speak of it.  On top of their suppressed fear and rage was a secret shame--the shame of those powerless against irrational evil.  They couldn't fight back, couldn't escape, couldn't help their friends.  They couldn't even help themselves.

The two men of the narrative tell their stories briefly, then describe their attempts to come to terms with the nightmares, fits of rage, and hidden self-loathing.  After years of silent suffering they want to remember it clearly, get past it, and try for once to live normal lives.  And help the many others with the same hidden pain.  And to get an admission from the sunshine state of Florida that something had been wrong, shamefully wrong, for so many years.

One note to the author--as much as I loved the story and admired your book, resist the urge to foreshadow.  We know it's going to get bad--we read the cover.  You don't need to hint about it.