Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

AMAZING!

Tiffany D. Jackson is always on point with her books and this is no different. Maddy does Carrie justice as the new misunderstood girl with an overbearing parent and a gift. Jules is the perfect mean girl who has never been held responsible for her actions. As you are reading and as a fan of Carrie things may seem to be predictable as it does follow the original closely, but the end, of course, has a twist that Tiffany is known for.

I can't wait to get this book and get it into the hands of students who love horror. Perfection as always.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC of The Weight of Blood. I am a huge fan of Tiffany Jackson and was thrilled to see her coming out with another horror book. I wasn't the biggest fan of White Smoke and felt it was an average YA Horror, but she knocked it out the park with this one! I love Stephen King and this was a great take on his work Carrie. Highly recommend.

This is one of those books that I place in the "not for me" category, which is distinct from being "not good".

I've been a huge fan of Jackson's YA (GROWN was one of my favorites of 2020), but her recent turn towards horror/supernatural hasn't been as interesting to me. THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD presented similar issues for me with all the telekinesis, and a lot of the dialogue fell flat even with interesting characters. If you liked WHITE SMOKE, you will probably love this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for this review.

I loved every minute of this book! In typical Tiffany D. Jackson style, she masterfully melds an engaging storyline with timely societal issues. In this case, Maddy is a biracial student who has been forced by her father to pretend
she’s white, until an unexpected rainstorm reveals her secret. Immediately after, she is
bullied (sadly, nothing new in her life), and she finds she has unexpected powers. These powers build, culminating in an apocalyptic prom night. The story is told in flashbacks, along with snippets of a podcast a decade after the horrific events of prom night. And, also in true Tiffany fashion, expect a twist! Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

A reimagining of Stephen King's 'Carrie' centered on a lightskinned Black girl whose identity is traumatically revealed to her racist peers, only for her to get revenge as she begins developing telekinesis. This book is the best kind of reimagining, paying homage to its source text while elevating its ideas in an original way. It particularly strikes the balance well between emphasizing the youth of the main cast with how many of them are still perpetuating the racism they've been generationally taught.

Tiffany Jackson's books typically address difficult topics with both uncomfortable reality and sensitivity. This book is no exception. Just reading the author's note at the beginning will make most people uncomfortable due to its references to modern (post 2010!) segregated proms. Beyond the social messages, this book is such a great read! The opening pages are enthralling and made it difficult to put the book down. Readers know the ending but the path from A to B is haze one can't wait to see through. The major characters do largely feel real and multidimensional. Some of the characters do feel occasionally like cartoon villains, but they're also directly using popular rhetoric and talking points. This book is entertaining, thought-provoking, a great addition to high school libraries, and would be an exceptional book club choice!

This is a Carrie re-telling, through an updated lens tackling racism both overt and implicit. When Maddy Washington is outed as biracial, the individuals at her high school and in her small Georgia town react with astonishment and vitriol. Maddy is blamed for her actions, despite not having had much of a say in what happens in her life due to the overprotective and overbearing attitude of her father. When a few students decide that the solution to all of their troubles is to integrate their prom, Maddy is pulled into the spotlight in a way that has disastrous consequences for all involved.

I absolutely loved reading this. Although I knew the essential beats of the story, it never felt boring or unsurprising - this was the best kind of retelling, where you know what's coming but are consistently surprised about how the story unfolds. I especially enjoyed getting to see inside the minds of several of the teens involved in the narrative; each has their own reasons for their actions which make sense. Jackson makes the decisions of even the most racist characters seem believable and justified in their own minds. We understand that they are terrible, but the narrative is that much stronger because each character is more complex. Absolutely fantastic, can't wait to read this again around Halloween!

“It all started with the rain” . I was hooked from the first line. This book is a bit of a love letter to the movie Carrie. Maddy Washington is an outcast in her community, she has a big secret that she has been keeping her whole life. When her classmates find out all hell breaks loose. I love Tiffany D Jackson, I love her writing style, her heroines and the absolutely crazy twists. This book is all that I wanted with a supernatural twist. Mandy Washington is a heartbreaking, awe inspiring and scary character. I wanted so much more of her and I really wanted more of her discovering her power. As a true crime and horror fan this book checked all of the boxes. I received an ARC for my honest review.

Tiffany D Jackson is one of my favorite YA authors. I was so excited to get this one. I will be honest, I didn't realize there was a supernatural aspect to this book (not my favorite) like her last book. Although supernatural is not my jam, I read anyways. Parts of it seemed totally implausible (a town in modern times with a segregated prom and no one questioned it?) but it is fiction, I suppose. Overall, I thought the writing was solid and it kept me guessing in a few parts, but not my favorite of hers.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

4.5 stars, a little slow, the characters are downright horrible humans-not horribly written, but ugly individuals, and I wish there was a little more plot information at the end. Otherwise this was an amazing story. I loved the twist. It was so dark. A great new take on Carrie. So many important issues that I never realized were still so prominent today.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for this book and wow wow wow! I am a huge fan of Tiffany Jackson and I may have applauded at my desk when I saw I was approved for this. Like all of her other books, this does not disappoint. As an avid horror and thriller reader, this was a fast-paced, engaging read with nods to Stephen King that I appreciated. Pick up this book as soon as you can, you won’t be sorry.

While it's impossible not to see this book as an homage to Stephen King's Carrie, Tiffany D. Jackson breathes new life into the story, viewing it through a modern societal lens. While a close third POV narrator shows us what life is like at a small-town Georgia high school, we're also treated with excerpts from a true-crime/paranormal podcast and a fictional novel written about the event. These outside speculations open the story up, allow the reader to think more critically about the characters and the world they inhabit, and turn an eye to our world and society. Jackson has truly made this story her own, and the horror canon is better for it!

Look, I read a lot of books for teens as a high school librarian. And for the most part, I find them good and enjoyable and worthy of my collection. Tiffany D. Jackson's books are on another level. Her writing is so evocative and fiery, and being able to read her writing is a treat.

I'm so excited to put this book into our collection. It's a perfect tale of horror and the realities of racial identity.

Tiffany Jackson has outdone herself with "The Weight of Blood.'" Jackson creates a cast of characters that are deplorable in their actions towards poor Maddy Washington. While Jules was just an outright villain, I could tolerate her for the fact that she was who she was all of the way through. Wendy, on the other hand, was a character who I could not stand for the simple fact that she put on a facade for the town of Springville and Kenny just so she could look good and maintain the perfect reputation. Even though she eventually redeems herself, I found myself still disliking her by the end of the novel. The Kenny + Maddy plot line gave me the chills, especially when they attend prom together. I was so, so happy for Maddy and Kenny's love and romance which seemed so genuine.

**SPOILERS**

I was, however, somewhat disappointed by the ending. It seemed a little abrupt and fast. I understand that Wendy was doing the 'right' thing but there was a part of me that was disappointed she didn't meet the same fate as some of her other friends. And what happened to Kenny?! Does he live? Die? Does he join Maddy later on? This was a part I wish I had some closure. I guess there is a part of me that wanted to see the happy ending between Maddy and Kenny. After reading "The Weight of Blood" I realized it was an homage to Stephen King's "Carrie". Having never read or seen "Carrie" I looked up a brief synopsis and loved the creative spin Jackson took with her novel.

An homage to Stephen King’s Carrie, The Weight of Blood tackles racism, bullying and more.
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Maddy did it. Those are the words from the survivors of the Prom Night massacre that took place at the town’s first All Together Prom where the Black and white students were finally able to attend a prom together…in 2014. Racism is alive and well in Springville, Georgia where Maddy has just been outted as Black when her hair gets wet in the rain. The teasing she experienced for years only worsens now that the seniors know she’s been passing as white all this time. When the star quarterback asks her to prom to try and soothe racial unrest rising throughout the town he has no idea how much he will enjoy her company. But at prom the telekinesis powers Maddy has been playing with get out of control when a racist prank goes too far.
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@writeinbk is the GOAT for thriller/scary YA in my opinion so as soon as I could get my hands on this advanced readers copy. I devoured it and loved every page! Everything from the cover to the multiple POVs to the interview/podcast style had me flying through to see how it would end. I’m going to be thinking about this one for a while. Preorder now for release September 6!
CW: blood, vomit, violence, death, police brutality, racism, microaggressions, bullying, physical and emotional abuse

In her love letter to Carrie, Tiffany D. Jackson retells the story through a more modern and racial lens.

Maddy Washington is an outcast with telekinesis in a small, predominantly white, conservative town who faces religious and racially motivated abuse from her single father. The biracial teen has been raised to hide her Black parentage her entire life, straightening her hair and actively avoiding any acknowledgment of that side to her.

After getting caught in the rain during gym class, the bullying takes on new life and this is where the story begins.

The book plays out very similarly to the original source material in the religious zealot single parent, the excessive cruelty from the students and town, and the adults witnessing everything being passive with little to no interference. Jackson, like King, inserts excerpts from interviews and research studies about the incident to shape the world around the incident but makes sure to establish separation from the original source material by making the telekinetic teen’s parent her father instead of her mother, bringing racial motivation into the child abuse and bullying, and dropping the possibility in the early chapters that there’s a conspiracy of Maddy surviving the prom night massacre. It’s in these story differences that keep this very familiar story fresh, demanding curiosity to see just how different the ending plays out (especially with an author known for her finales).

We watch Maddy’s father raise her to quite literally worship white women. It’s a very interesting shift in motivation from Carrie White’s mother. Maddy’s father idolizes conservative values and ways of living with intense Christian beliefs being very much included but not the sole focus. Instead of seeing a mother punishing her daughter with the Bible as a result of violent internalized misogyny and self-hatred, we see a white man going to extreme lengths to torture and shape his Black daughter for a range of motivations.

I’m also so fascinated by the depth given to Maddy. On top of the expected interest in telekinesis and prom, Maddy goes on a journey of self-discovery in better understanding her racial identity as well as trying to understand her lost parentage. Instead of just seeking out terminology to better understand her power, she goes a step further to develop a bond to it and looks toward a future where she can finally belong to a community. The gift almost has a personality of its own, communicating with Maddy instead of being a muscle to flex.

Ugh!

White saviors and complacency. How segregation persists in the modern-day. The layers the term “complicit” takes on. A spectrum of the quiet kind of racism that hides behind the excuse of it “just being a joke” and the more violent, undeniable hatred that demands to be acknowledged. Navigating identity and exploring the various approaches to survival.

And, of course, a bloody mess on prom night.

I could talk about this book forever and I genuinely do prefer it over the original book.

Should be 4.5 stars. Thank you NetGalley for a copy of the ARC.

Ms. Jackson knocks it out of the park with this look at societal racism in a small town through the lens of a story in the same vein as Stephen King’s Carrie. Definitely an homage to Mr. King!

This was a book I took my time reading, savoring every page, every description of the horrors that Maddy faces. Two proms, one for the white kids, one for the black kids. A girl who is hiding in plain sight as a white girl, who is taunted for being strange, until the truth comes to light that she is of mixed race, white and black, however forced by her father to pretend to be white. The bullying ramps up and the reader begins to wonder who can Maddy trust? Why does Papa treat her like he does? Are Kenny’s feelings true or are they a manifestation of Mandy’s desires manipulated by her “telekinesis/powers”. Told through flashbacks, court documents & through multiple interviews on a podcast investigation, the book asked the reader to consider whether or not Maddy is guilty of what happened on Prom Night in Springfield. This book takes a hard look at how segregation still happens in small towns, where people still turn a blind eye to it and sweep it under the rug.

TW: bullying, physical & emotional abuse, violence, blood,

At first glance, I assumed this was a take on "Carrie." Reader, I was very, very wrong. Sure, Jackson uses the vibe of Carrie like one would wield a folktale, twisting and weaves it into something modern and evocative of the current thoughts that pervade our collective brains. Jackson does a LOT of work here, raising questions left and right about race relations, blackness, and the histories that still darken our doorsteps. And like all great novels, she doesn't answer those questions. They are for us to think about, discuss, and decide. This novel is going to be a great way to get teens to start thinking about these heavy issues, all wrapped in this little treat of a story that is at once familiar and strange.

This is an intense and very well written homage to Carrie by Stephan King. I could not put it down, read it in one sitting.

This is a Carrie re-telling set in a modern-day South that tackles segregated proms. The plot is very close to the movie that was released in 2013 but has a bit more of a satirical/dark comedy feel than psychological horror. However, as the book goes on it begins to lose its satirical, dark-comedy feel and becomes more social commentary horror which is very different from her other books and previous horror White Smoke (this had commentary but it was more in the background not in your face). The characters start off humorous but after Part I, they became more like caricatures (excluding one of the main ones--Maddy) with not a lot more to them than just either being racist or dealing with racism. Jackson is a powerhouse and an auto-buy author for my library and classroom, but I'm not sure if students will really connect to this as much as her other books where there is more nuance in the narrative and the characters feel more dimensional. The main character, Maddy, had a very interesting backstory and subplot that tied her heritage to Black witches and Gullah culture but that never really went too deep as the story became heavier with commentary about police brutality. Overall, it's a quick, interating read but much more social horror than supernatural horror.