Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - The Weight of Blood

Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson

99 reviews

pagesofplatypus'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? It's complicated

5.0

The Weight of Blood is an incredible paranormal Black horror entry. Much like Carrie, The Weight of Blood centers around teenage Maddy, who has always been quiet and ostracized by her peers, until one very bloody prom. Told in alternating perspectives from leading up to fateful prom to seven years after, The Weight of Blood will have readers engrossed in what really happened that night as they piece together everything from podcast interview transcripts and the unfolding narrative itself.

Themes of anti-Black racism, the systemic anti-Black sentiment still heavily prevalent in many small towns, and complicity are all deftly explored as students and Maddy's town react to Maddy's previously kept secret and the increasingly glaring spotlight cast onto their town as news platforms catch wind of the numerous and very public incidents of racism against Maddy.

Particularly chilling is Maddy's long endured suffering at the hands of her zealous and very much stuck in the 50s father who sets up a prayer closet filled with photos of white 50s and 60s actresses and does everything he can to hide Maddy's Blackness.

Another one of my favorite aspects of The Weight of Blood is the dynamoc between sibling Kendrick "Kenny," the token star Black football player who has also had to live up to everyone else's expectations and his sister Kali who serves him some much needed truths.

Lastly, the last 20% of The Weight of Blood goes deliciously, full throttle horror with plenty of tension and gore. I also kind of like the ambiguous ending for this, despite not typically being a fan of open endings.

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anaheeta's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This was an incredible book! I LITERALLY could not stop reading. I am now a fan of Tiffany D. Jackson’s writing.

Full review coming.

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modernmatilda's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Carrie by Stephen King is one of my favorites; I'm fascinated by all of the differences between the book, the movies, the musical, and so on. Not to mention the gore and utter chokehold that Carrie in her final stage has on me. I was excited to start The Weight of Blood, with a fresh take on the trauma Maddy/"Carrie" endures. I think this book would make an excellent selection for book discussion groups who would be able to discuss race, belonging, guilt, obligations, first love, parental control, and so much more. I loved listening to the cast of multiple narrators. I do wish the scare/gore/haunting factor of the book would have been dialed up; it felt incredibly soft and the climax was borderline boring (where was the fire? the death? the scary factor?). I would recommend this book!

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devynvictoria's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this so much. For a book that you know the (vague) ending of in the first chapter, it still found ways to make my jaw drop. There was great character development, had me really feeling for characters and absolutely hating the antagonist characters— literally found myself scoffing and rolling my eyes at some of the hateful things Jules or Madi’s papa would do/say. I would definitely recommend the audiobook, it has different narrators for each perspective and it was just a great listen.

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kelsokake'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? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

holy shit, just the way this starts; Jackson is an absolute master at setting the scene and showing what’s at stake. i’m not even 15 pages in and i’m stressing. this is gonna be so good.

i don’t even really care about it being a carrie retelling (and that’s why i wanted to read this in the first place); i’m incredibly invested to see what all is gonna happen.

—
i absolutely devoured this book. even knowing how it was going to end didn’t make me want to put it down. the way it explores race in a small town is phenomenal. the way the students talk to each other felt so real and so did all of the outbursts and arguments. i didn’t find myself rolling my eyes at all. i loved reading this and can’t wait to explore more by this author.
—

Kenny exemplifies the struggle to find the balance between being true to yourself and feeling accepted by your (white) peers.

Wendy (Kenny’s gf) may not fully believe the racist things all of the people around her (especially Jules) say/do, but she’s defo not an ally.

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triggs4780's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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squids_can_read's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Mad Mad Maddy has been hiding her identity from the little town of Springville. But a freak rainstorm reveals the secret that Maddy had been viciously trying to hide. Now this small town is tearing itself apart and Maddy is dead in the middle of it.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I think that the overall plot of this book, with the characterization, was really amazing. But I didn't really believe in the setting.

The plot of this book is basically Carrie by Stephen King if Carrie was African American. Which is fine but I thought that it focused a lot on the beats of Carrie without the author really making it her own. It just seemed like every time that an important plot point came up, I immediately was thinking which part of Carrie it related to. I just wish that the author made the story a bit more her own overall. I'm not going to talk about the characterization except for that I really enjoyed the characterization of the people that were supposed to be good but I thought there was a lack of characterization for the people that are going to be bad.

Finally the setting. I want to preface this by saying that I do not know if this setting was realistic in 2014. I just want to say that it didn't seem to me to be realistic to me but if it is then the setting in the book is done amazingly. So in Springville(small town Georgia) in 2014 there is still an institution of separate but equal. This just seemed really unbelievable to me that a town would outright implement racist institutions instead of the town trying to hide it. One of the characters says that the racism of the school board is full of microaggressions but to me it just read as aggressions. I think that the overall setting would make more sense if the racism was supposed to be more covert than overt. But overall the setting was just really unrealistic to me.

Overall, though, I set aside my belief and really enjoyed this book. I think great read, especially if you enjoyed Carrie by Stephen King but wanted it to discuss more current issues.

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