Step into the heart of revolutionary France with Panico! Marie Antoinette’s Journey During the Reign of Terror—a gripping, gothic reimagining of the doomed queen’s final days. Blending historical horror with psychological suspense, the poetry collection paints a haunting portrait of Marie Antoinette as she navigates betrayal, fear, and the crumbling world around her. With lush prose and chilling atmosphere, this poetry collection explores the blurred lines between reality and madness as the guillotine looms ever closer. Perfect for fans of eerie historical fiction, Panico! is a visceral descent into the mind of a queen on the edge of history—and sanity.
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For the first time, she understood the liberation of having nothing left to lose.
PLOT SUMMARY
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 of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.
Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.
GRADE: A+
REVIEW
This book has been receiving a lot of hype and positive reviews and whenever that is the case for a book, I try to take it in stride – however, this novel is worthy of all the hype and then some! I was so thoroughly captivated by Robbie’s dilemma and trying to find out if his sister Gloria could truly help him get out of the Reformatory that I read it in two days (and this isn’t a short novel!). Despite learning about Jim Crow in my history classes, this book made the reality of that time period very real and honestly, this should be read in literature classes at school so that students get a better idea of what Jim Crow South truly entailed and meant.
Now, the horror aspect of this book was fascinating (who doesn’t like a good ghost story?). I found it very fascinating and although I guessed the plot twist before it actually happened it didn’t lessen my enjoyment of this book. This book is brutal, and will get you in the feels in a way not many books will be able to. It’s a haunting story of survival and coming of age, weaved into a historical setting that aims to shed some light on what actually occurred in these schools for young boys and how many didn’t live to ever make it back out.
This was my first read from Tananarive Due and I can certainly assure you that it won’t be my last – I actually look forward to checking out all of her previously published books.
If you’re going to read only one book this year, make sure it’s this one, it’s an incredible, haunting read that you won’t forget very easily after reading it. The hype is real and I truly hope this book wins all the awards it’s been nominated for.
*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Saga Press for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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The Inkblotters 