A disturbingly prescient twist on the story of Carrie. Tiffany D. Jackson uses her heart-pounding, nauseating storytelling prowess to give us a modern retelling with a racial theme. 

 

Maddy Washington is a biracial teenager raised by an religiously obsessive & abusive father who forces her to hide her Black identity. When her natural hair is revealed one day at school … her conservative Georgia town violently turns against her. But Maddy is discovering she has some power after all, and all threads culminate in tragedy during the town’s first-ever integrated prom.

 

Like other Jackson books, The Weight of Blood is a tough read. Maddy’s isolation and abuse is heartbreaking - you feel for her and yearn for what could have been if only someone had intervened earlier & if she had true parental support and love. 

 

Carrie is an epistolary novel & The Weight of Blood integrates media as well. I generally found the true-crime podcast transcripts to be the weakest part of the novel, but enjoyed many of the news clippings and interviews.

 

I also felt the multitude of POVs was incredibly effective. I wanted to hear a bit more from Maddy, but seeing the same events happen through the eyes of different characters with varying identities and ages was fascinating. Jackson explored microaggressions & identity struggles & & classism & colorism in a deep, impactful, and thoughtful way. 

 

It is VERY much a retelling - plotted out nearly identically to the original Carrie. But while the overall plot was indeed the same, the characterization (Maddy’s father & his altar of white women! Kenny’s identity struggles! Performative white allyship!) and issues explored were brand new.

 

You know from the start how the story will end - in tragedy & with a massive body count. But Jackson keeps you almost hopeful … rooting for the arcs of these characters and hoping they’ll be safe. 

 

I couldn’t put this one down - and I think the ending (a bit of a departure from the original) was crafted brilliantly.

 

CW: death, murder, racism, bullying, racial slurs, child abuse, police brutality, classism, colorism

 

(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)