The Weight of Blood

Starred review from August 1, 2022
Jackson (White Smoke) skillfully explores internalized and externalized anti-Blackness in this striking horror novel, which channels Stephen King’s Carrie. Though Springfield, Ga., high school senior Maddy Washington is biracial (Black and white), her emotionally and physically abusive racist white father forces her to live as white. To keep up the charade, Maddy must never publicly wet her weekly hot combed hair. When a sudden storm in the middle of gym class unveils Maddy’s natural hair texture, though, her white classmates taunt her for it. The incident, and the aggressively racist happenings that follow, cast a spotlight on Maddy’s town. Suddenly, a media circus watches the school’s every move, and some students petition to end their upcoming prom’s segregated “tradition.” As the bullying worsens, Maddy’s rightful rage culminates in deadly consequences. Fans of the source material will recognize the plot structure, but Jackson’s bone-chilling rendition features podcasts and documentary excerpts that follow the trajectory of Maddy’s abuse at home and school to book’s climax, expertly utilizing current true-crime fanaticism to form a powerfully socially conscious narrative that showcases the intense structural racism still inherent in society. Ages 14–up. Agent: Natalie Lakosil, Bradford Literary.

Starred review from August 1, 2022

Gr 9 Up-Inspired by a Georgia school whose first integrated prom was in 2014, Jackson's nod to Stephen King's Carrie incorporates racially charged social justice themes into a narrative featuring her signature twisty suspense. Madison Washington is biracial, but her uber-religious abusive father passes her as white since her mother is dead. He insists that "no one can ever know" about her natural hair that he hot combs weekly. After she's caught in a rainstorm and her secret is exposed, she is bullied and harassed by her classmates for being Black. This viral video incident awakens an energy within her; desks in the classroom levitate but the incident is reported as an "earthquake." White classmate Wendy tries to merge the school's white and Black proms into an integrated prom, so she can attend with her Black football star boyfriend, Kenny. She later encourages Kenny to take Maddy to the prom-but she doesn't count on Kenny developing feelings for Maddy. Meanwhile, the mean girl crowd arranges sinister plans for prom night, and Maddy's telekinetic powers emerge again as the prom erupts in fiery, bloody chaos. Supernatural portions of the book are explosive and riveting, with the racist realistic parts are even more horrifying. A content warning is advised for racism, bullying, colorism, child abuse, gore/violence, police brutality, and racial slurs. The non-linear, fast-paced plot also includes true crime podcast elements, news clips, and witness testimonies. VERDICT Readers will be hooked from page one of Maddy's intense journey that detonates on prom night.-Lisa Krok

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2022
Grades 9-12 In this smart and unsettling retelling of Carrie, Jackson (White Smoke, 2021) tells the story of a community's first integrated prom in present-day Georgia. Maddy Washington has been trained from a young age by her domineering father to keep her mixed-race status a secret. Already an outcast among her peers, she becomes the target of intense bullying when her classmates discover she has been passing as white for years. After an instance of racial bullying at the school goes viral, some students push to combine the school's long-segregated proms, and a popular Black student is convinced to invite Maddy. The disaster that ensues is told through shifting perspectives and formats, including news reports, police statements, and podcast transcripts. Jackson puts themes from the source material (isolation, otherness, bullying) to good use in this story about identity, race, and the lengths communities will go to--and the monster narratives they'll create--that allow people to ignore systemic racism and the problems it perpetuates. A forward by the author gives information about U.S. towns that are still integrating prom.

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September 1, 2022
Madison Washington has always been bullied because she's skittish and quiet and dresses in 1950s attire. She tolerates the incessant taunting because she has more to worry about than her small-minded classmates. Maddy is biracial and passing as white in a small Southern town that still has segregated dances, and her abusive father is a religious, conservative fanatic who treats her Black heritage as a sin and forces her to pray in front of photos of white Hollywood stars from the past. Then an unexpected rainstorm causes her flat-ironed hair to rise, revealing that Maddy is not the white girl she has pretended to be, and the bullying intensifies. Meanwhile, a classmate captures a racist incident on video and it goes viral, so student leaders propose an integrated prom to fix the school's reputation. When several students commit a racist prank against Maddy at prom, they find out that she has another, supernatural secret -- one that will result in a deadly incident to be pieced together years later by the true-crime podcast that serves as the book's framing device. This reimagining of King's Carrie is a thrilling, unflinching horror narrative that takes on colorism, racism, classism, microaggressions, white saviorism, and respectability politics. A perfect choice for fans of Abike-Iyimide's Ace of Spades. S. R. Toliver

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from July 1, 2022
Jackson's latest retells Stephen King's Carrie with electric social commentary. Springville, inspired by real towns in the United States that still have segregated proms, has a lot of learning to do. No one knows this better than Madison Washington, a light-skinned biracial girl who has grown up with her White father and has been passing for White her entire life. At least, until a surprise rainy day during gym class exposes her hair's natural texture and her Black ancestry and she's outed against her will. Her White classmates react by throwing pencils at her hair, and a video of the incident goes viral. White senior Wendy, concerned about looking good to potential colleges, decides to try to reverse the negative press by advocating for Springville's first ever integrated prom. Feeling guilty about her role in Maddy's bullying, she also convinces Kendrick Scott, her Black boyfriend, to ask Maddy to the prom as an act of goodwill. Fans of King's novel and its film adaptations will know this doesn't end well for anyone. Jackson's expert reshaping of this tale highlights the genuine horrors of both internalized and externalized anti-Blackness, as with the way she weaponizes Maddy's father's hot comb as a symbol of terror and subjugation. In this masterwork novel, a teen girl--mistreated from birth by a racist society--finally gets her revenge. Horror done right. (Horror. 13-18)

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