When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation… Maddy did it.
I was granted complimentary eARC access to The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson via NetGalley following my attendance at a #FrenzyPresents HarperCollins fall catalogue preview in August. Thank you for the opportunity to read yet another Tiffany D. Jackson masterpiece! Unfortunately, I didn’t gain access far enough in advance of publication day to be able to read it “in advance.” Fortunately, I did finish before the second fall preview event at which Jackson was the guest author talking about this book! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
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About the Book
The Weight of Blood
by Tiffany D. Jackson
Published 6 September 2022
Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)
Genre: YA Horror, Retelling
Page Count: 416
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
Author Tiffany D. Jackson ramps up the horror and tackles America’s history and legacy of racism in this YA novel following a biracial teenager as her Georgia high school hosts its first integrated prom.
When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation… Maddy did it.
An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she’s dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.
After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High’s racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school’s first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it’s possible to have a normal life.
But some of her classmates aren’t done with her just yet. And what they don’t know is that Maddy still has another secret… one that will cost them all their lives.
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My Review
My Rating: 5 Stars
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I was granted complimentary eARC access to The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson via NetGalley following my attendance at a #FrenzyPresents HarperCollins fall catalogue preview in August. Thank you for the opportunity to read yet another Tiffany D. Jackson masterpiece! Unfortunately, I didn’t gain access far enough in advance of publication day to be able to read it “in advance.” Fortunately, I did finish before the second fall preview event at which Jackson was the guest author talking about this book! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
The Weight of Blood is a modern take on Stephen King’s Carrie, but in the 21st Century during the time of social media and the start of today’s social justice movements. Inspired by a very real news story from 2014 about a small town in the USA where a racially integrated prom was being held for the first time and much of the town figured it was unnecessary and wouldn’t become a tradition, The Weight of Blood asks what if the awful townspeople and students in Carrie were also racists.
This book follows the book and film Carrie in broad stokes. A quiet, unpopular, bullied teenage girl from an ultra-religious single-parent home (complete with “prayer closet”) is set up as prom queen, with the popular guy of popular guys as her date, only to be humiliated by being covered head to toe in an unpleasant liquid while up on stage being crowned. She proceeds to use telekinetic abilities to enact revenge on everyone present. Where this book differs is in the small details (paint, not animal blood, for example,) in the added layers of racism within the plot, and in the introduction of a second timeline where survivors and outsiders break down what happened via podcast.
I’m both a big fan of classic horror and an even bigger fan of Jackson’s writing, so this book is an easy 5 out of 5 stars for me! I love what this book changes, from small things like gender-swapping a lot of roles (Maddy lives with her father, the bullies setting up the pranks are girls) to big things like an exploration of what it means to be white-passing in a town that likes to pretend it’s still the 1960s and what happens when the truth is discovered. Maddy is dealing with racism from her white classmates and rejection from her black classmates because the former have realized she isn’t “one of them” and the latter thinks she sees herself as “too good for them.”
Readers be warned that this book is graphic at times, which I do think the title and the inspiration hint at quite well on their own, but it needs to be said. Characters die in graphic ways. Beyond that, there’s a lot of racism, the N-word is used multiple times, and there’s a predictable amount of bullying and abuse toward Maddy and other minors.
Thanks to HarperCollins Canada for the eARC and for my second opportunity to hear Jackson speak about her writing!
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Sounds very interesting!
This sounds brilliant! I’m definitely adding this to my TBR