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A review by squids_can_read
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Blood, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racial slurs