Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - The Weight of Blood

From the cover, it was easy to see this would be a retelling of Stephen King’s Carrie. I loved it. I loved the story but didn’t care for the way the story was told through interviews. Really great way to study race. Another book I would like to teach to high school students. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure Texas has banned good book in the schools. Grrr…for that reason alone, I’m upgrading this to a five.

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tey_lynn's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

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bookishkellyn's review against another edition

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dark tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Putting a racial twist into the retelling of the legendary Carrie story was genius! Ms. Jackson’s writing pulled me in, and I found myself rooting for the main characters (Maddy and Kendrick ‘Kenny’) even though I knew the story was fated for a tragic ending.

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gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful relaxing sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

The Details:
Narrated by full cast
Unabridged

A Carrie retelling, with a podcast narration style, focusing on racial identity and segregation.

It was a nice suprise to have the podcast style as I wasn't expecting that and I've been enjoying the use of this tool or podcasts being a theme in my reads this year (e.g. Sadie).

Reminded me also of Anna dressed in blood as well as Carrie.

This was such a moving and distraught story of a young girl forced to suppress her nature (in multiple ways) under the cruelty of her father and the racist, segregated town she lives in. It felt so dated in the way the views of the white people held on the Black community and demonised them and the themes about equality in this day and age was painful and poignant.

Just when you hope Maddy can catch a break, all hell breaks lose at an awful happening of police brutality and that's when the Carrie retelling really shines.

This was a fantastic character study and discussion of deep rooted hatred of the 'other' with well done supernatural elements.

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dragonwriter's review against another edition

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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

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taytayfondue's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

3.75

I feel like I almost liked this book but it was missing something. The writing was fine but a bit lacking sometimes.

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augustinedreams's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I highly recommend reading this book. It is a fantastic take on the classic Carrie but with a modern day twist that comments on modern racism. Take your time with this book it has so much to give and all of it is brutally honest.

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