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secretofmusing's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I loved Carrie by Stephen King so I knew I would enjoy this retelling.
Absolutely brilliant with more depth to the story than the original. This story is told from the third perspective through multiple POVs, podcast transcripts and court/investigation documents.
Quotes from The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
“Chew on grief for breakfast, devour aches for lunch, inhale life’s acid, let it burn the costume he has forced upon you.” Pg. 226
““I don’t hear anything. No one’s laughing. She spun to Brady. Why aren’t they laughing?”” Pg. 328 - her ridiculous expectation that it would be a funny joke makes me want to rip my hair out. Fucking psychopath.
“She had no idea her body was morphing to accommodate an erupting savage madness.” Pg. 335
Absolutely brilliant with more depth to the story than the original. This story is told from the third perspective through multiple POVs, podcast transcripts and court/investigation documents.
Quotes from The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
“Chew on grief for breakfast, devour aches for lunch, inhale life’s acid, let it burn the costume he has forced upon you.” Pg. 226
““I don’t hear anything. No one’s laughing. She spun to Brady. Why aren’t they laughing?”” Pg. 328 - her ridiculous expectation that it would be a funny joke makes me want to rip my hair out. Fucking psychopath.
“She had no idea her body was morphing to accommodate an erupting savage madness.” Pg. 335
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Animal death, Bullying, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Blood, and Religious bigotry
spicycronereads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
- 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
5.0
This book. Oh my goodness. It is a retelling of Carrie, but the central figure, Madison, Washington, is a multi racial young woman who has been passing as white. Her father is white and her mother is Black. Instead of being focused on the seggsual agency of young women, it includes that, the main focus is a really nuanced approach to thinking about race.
This book is so smart. Just starting with the name of the central character. If you look up, Madison Washington, you will find that this was the name of an enslaved person who led a revolt aboard a slavery transport ship in the US and was responsible for freeing over 100, enslaved persons by redirecting the ship to an island colonized by the British, who had outlawed slavery. So to have our central character named after this historical figure just adds layers to the story. In addition, the main antagonist is named Jules. And I don’t know if it was intentional, but I had this professor in grad school, who would always say that yt women were the jewel in the crowd of yt supremacy. So it seems really fitting that the horrible yt girl is named Jules. And then there is the way that the author connects the trauma of the civil rights movement to contemporary traumas of police brutality to the trauma of child abuse and bullying experienced by the central character. It’s so well done.
Chapter 26. In the book, there are some revelations that really made me reflect on the assumptions I had made about the story and some of the characters. It was a jaw-dropping moment. I was literally driving down the highway with my mouth hanging open!
I don’t want to say too much more for fear of spoiling the book. So I’ll move on now to talk about the audiobook. The audiobook is narrated by a full cast. And the audio format works so very well here because the narrative structure of the book is told through official transcripts, book, excerpts, and an investigative podcast. So to have the audiobook and the podcast hosts narrating really adds a layer of immersion to listening to this book.
The narrator performances are really strong. They add emotion to the narrative and really take you along on the journey.
Chapter 29, where the podcast hosts perform their final analysis in their concluding episode, felt a little heavy-handed and didactic to me. That’s nothing to do with the audiobook performance and more to do with the writing. It did a lot of the analytical, interpretive work that I would have done on my own as I was reflecting about the book. And so I feel like I lost out on the pleasure of doing that analysis and interpretation myself. However, I can understand why the author chose to go that direction given the way in which US culture remains steeped in racism and YT supremacy. You can’t exactly trust that the reader would get there on their own. I guess technically it’s also a YA book and so maybe some of that interpretive work was necessary for younger readers.
The book is a five star read for me. It was just so well done. And the audiobook? Seven out of five stars!
This book is so smart. Just starting with the name of the central character. If you look up, Madison Washington, you will find that this was the name of an enslaved person who led a revolt aboard a slavery transport ship in the US and was responsible for freeing over 100, enslaved persons by redirecting the ship to an island colonized by the British, who had outlawed slavery. So to have our central character named after this historical figure just adds layers to the story. In addition, the main antagonist is named Jules. And I don’t know if it was intentional, but I had this professor in grad school, who would always say that yt women were the jewel in the crowd of yt supremacy. So it seems really fitting that the horrible yt girl is named Jules. And then there is the way that the author connects the trauma of the civil rights movement to contemporary traumas of police brutality to the trauma of child abuse and bullying experienced by the central character. It’s so well done.
Chapter 26. In the book, there are some revelations that really made me reflect on the assumptions I had made about the story and some of the characters. It was a jaw-dropping moment. I was literally driving down the highway with my mouth hanging open!
I don’t want to say too much more for fear of spoiling the book. So I’ll move on now to talk about the audiobook. The audiobook is narrated by a full cast. And the audio format works so very well here because the narrative structure of the book is told through official transcripts, book, excerpts, and an investigative podcast. So to have the audiobook and the podcast hosts narrating really adds a layer of immersion to listening to this book.
The narrator performances are really strong. They add emotion to the narrative and really take you along on the journey.
Chapter 29, where the podcast hosts perform their final analysis in their concluding episode, felt a little heavy-handed and didactic to me. That’s nothing to do with the audiobook performance and more to do with the writing. It did a lot of the analytical, interpretive work that I would have done on my own as I was reflecting about the book. And so I feel like I lost out on the pleasure of doing that analysis and interpretation myself. However, I can understand why the author chose to go that direction given the way in which US culture remains steeped in racism and YT supremacy. You can’t exactly trust that the reader would get there on their own. I guess technically it’s also a YA book and so maybe some of that interpretive work was necessary for younger readers.
The book is a five star read for me. It was just so well done. And the audiobook? Seven out of five stars!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Violence, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Police brutality, Racism, and Gun violence
Moderate: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Mass/school shootings
The “n-word” is used multiple times. It seems appropriate to the plot.dragonwriter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
In this "Carrie" retelling, Maddy Williams is a white-presenting half-black girl in her senior year of high school. Initially kept at home to hide her from the world, Maddy was finally allowed to go to public school when she was twelve under the condition that no one ever discover her biracial heritage. Her white father wanted her to be white, so he kept her hair straight and her out of the sun so her skin wouldn't tan. This over-protectiveness made Maddy reclusive at school--a situation not helped by a water balloon attack from her classmates, triggered by her apparent fear of water. The abuse continues into her senior year, when a rainstorm during gym reveals her dark secret, turning her straight hair into an afro. Things only get worse when her classmates begin to throw pencils into her hair, laughing when it sticks--and then someone shares a video of the bullying to social media. The video begins to circulate, casting a damning light on the small town, a town that still has segregated proms. In an attempt to recover their good reputation, white student, Wendy, suggests to combine the two proms, but that only seems to add flame to the fire. Infuriated that their traditions are being called into question, white students begin to target the girl that "started" the problems: Maddy Williams, and Maddy and Wendy both watch as the small towns' "traditions" tear their world apart.
There was a LOT going on in this book. Poor Maddy was getting racism from all sides! She was too black for her father, her black classmates were accusing her of capitalizing on her light-skin priviledge, and her white classmates said she deserved all of their bullying for lying to them--ignoring the fact that they had bullied her even when they thought she was white. The true ray of sunshine came in the form of Kendrick, the high school football star, though he only asked Maddy to the prom initially because Wendy wanted to save face to the press. and she told him to. Seeing Kendrick grow from being the "black best friend" whose silence justified the way his white friends talked about and treated Maddy (and other black kids in the school) to standing up for his people was brilliant to see, especially knowing how his own father taught him to ignore the various micro-aggressions he faced every day in order to advance in the world. I was really stressed in the back half of the book as Prom approached--and I think I would have cried if it hadn't been for the prologue. Definitely recommend!
TW: Bullying, racism, gore, mass murder, misogyny, parental abuse
There was a LOT going on in this book. Poor Maddy was getting racism from all sides! She was too black for her father, her black classmates were accusing her of capitalizing on her light-skin priviledge, and her white classmates said she deserved all of their bullying for lying to them--ignoring the fact that they had bullied her even when they thought she was white. The true ray of sunshine came in the form of Kendrick, the high school football star, though he only asked Maddy to the prom initially because Wendy wanted to save face to the press. and she told him to. Seeing Kendrick grow from being the "black best friend" whose silence justified the way his white friends talked about and treated Maddy (and other black kids in the school) to standing up for his people was brilliant to see, especially knowing how his own father taught him to ignore the various micro-aggressions he faced every day in order to advance in the world. I was really stressed in the back half of the book as Prom approached--and I think I would have cried if it hadn't been for the prologue. Definitely recommend!
TW: Bullying, racism, gore, mass murder, misogyny, parental abuse
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Racial slurs, Racism, Bullying, Gore, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Abortion
pandact's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Tiffany D. Jackson always has her way of making you think and delivering the most satisfying fakeouts, and her fans will enjoy it!
The plot is almost like Wicked (2003) with the themes of Riot Baby (2020) and epic gore. Two things bothered me though: why did Wendy think fake dating would help her? Also, I guess it's cool to have an extra with a hearing aid, but why did Maddy stop needing glasses when she got powers and a boyfriend?
The universe sings to meeee!
The plot is almost like
The universe sings to meeee!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Hate crime, and Child death
Moderate: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Animal death, Death of parent, Classism, Outing, Mass/school shootings, Grief, Car accident, and Body shaming
Minor: Ableism
maya_cole321's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Torture, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Bullying
toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
5.0
This is a "Carrie" retelling, and I've never read that book nor have I seen the movie. This was so brilliant though, I don't think I'm ever going to even need to read the original. This book didn't even read like YA for me, I really think that any fan of horror could pick this up and appreciate it. The main characters are complicated and well drawn, the character development (for better and for worse) is off the charts. I also really loved the podcast element that ran all through the book. It reminded me of the best parts of "Sadie" which is a book I loved in 2020. If you do pick this up, keep a tissue box nearby, mind your triggers, and enjoy.
Also: Tiffany D. Jackson I LOVE you.
Also: Tiffany D. Jackson I LOVE you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Racism, Hate crime, Police brutality, Murder, Ableism, Violence, Child death, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Blood, Infidelity, Mental illness, Bullying, and Animal death
Minor: Slavery and Self harm
there is no mass shooting in this book BUT there is a mass murder and i felt like i had to note it somehow.kassiereadsbooks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Blood, Racial slurs, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Torture
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