Reviews with content warning for Medical content - The Weight of Blood

I freakin loved this! Loved the discourse of being multi-racial. I'm mixed myself and always love seeing/reading stories about mixed identities and the struggles that come with it as most people romanticize/fetishize mixed race identities. Loved the discourse on race relations in modern day as well because people like to believe that there isn't the same racism today as in the past, but many small towns still do have overt racism, not just covert racism, and act like it's nothing.
My heart goes out to Maddy in so many ways. I can't begin to imagine the hurt and difficulties her character had to face.
I wish some characters were spared from death

like Mrs Morgan who seemed like the only teacher who gave a shit about the racism happening

. And I wish

Jules had died. That girl was vile through and through and lied even after losing her arm, her college acceptance, her best friend. F that bitch. Didn't acknowledge any of her wrongdoings to Maddy or any of the other black kids. She is irredeemable

. I liked that the podcast host was put on the spot by his guest host about how he framed his show and how he ignored how insidious racism is and how it could've driven Maddy to do what she did. The ending is quite open, and I'm going to believe Maddy was able to find who she needed to find and could finally live a life she wanted.
There are heavy topics in here so read content/trigger warnings.

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imstephtacular's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.25

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instalovewithbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

** Thank you to Netgallery and Harper Collins for a free copy for review. All my opinions are my own.**
And Tiffany Jackson does it again. I tried to listen to Weight of Blood on audio - but soon realized how uncomfortable I was, and that it either needed to be a DNF or a format change. I tried the format change, and reading it thru ebook was much better than thru audio.

The audio narrator does something to you, and I know this is a mix of thriller and horror and I literally could not handle it thru audio. It made me feel on edge a lot of the time. I feel like I could take my time more with the ebook, and could read a page or two and step back.

Now, Jackson is one of the few authors who writes thrillers and horrors that I can read. It isn't the usual genre for me.

And I think it's absolutely brilliant. I never know how to rate her books, because they're brilliant but they're also distressing. The endings are always something that there is some closure but there is still a open ending and you're hoping for the best but in the world's that Jackson creates, they're never the best type of world or story you would want to be in.

Maddy's story ruined me. I still feel a bit numb by it but I feel like it might be a fave of mine, besides Mondays Not Coming.

Read it. I am gunna jump back into Grown once more and see if I can finish it this time.

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ktdakotareads's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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a_libra_library's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you to Katherine Tegen Books and Harper Collins and Epic Reads for this ARC

This was my first ever Tiffany Jackson book that wasn't a collection of other authors and I loved it. Her writing style, her character felt real and whole through the entire story. I love that she took the story of Carrie and added her voice to it. The plot, the themes, the format- it was so amazing.

A five star read that should be on High school teachers radars!

This story follows the structure of Carrie (which added to the horror, if you know you know) with a twist. Tiffany sets our story in a small town in Gregoria in 2014. Maddy Washington is our main character and she's been keeping a few secrets her entire life. One being she's biracial. After a video of Maddy getting bullied goes viral on twitter the media takes a closer look at the town of Springville, its high school and its history of racism since its one of the few high schools that still hosts segregated Proms.
In an effort to make peace and prove that Springville isn't as bad as the media makes them out to be The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date to Prom.

This story is told in a sort of a then/now format. There is a podcast that speculates about the event of the prom, Maddy's life, her secrets and the town history, but then you go back in time to read what actually happens.

Like I said if you know the story of Carrie you may have an idea of what happens next. I truly believe that knowing the story of Carrie and the background of racism in high school will have you on the edge of your seat while reading. I cried, laughed, awhed and threw my arc copy around because I was watching the story unfold.

P.S, I will be preordering so I can get the epilogue to know what happened after prom. (and the sash)

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