  | Weight of blood Author: Jackson, Tiffany D. | |
| Price: $23.28 | ||
Summary:
An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. But when Springville residents--at least the ones still alive--are questioned about the horror that happened on prom night, they all have one explanation . . . Maddy did it.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: UG Reading Level: 5.00 Points: 13.0 Quiz: 517707 |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (+) (07/01/22)
School Library Journal (+) (00/08/22)
Booklist (09/15/22)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (+) (00/11/22)
The Hornbook (00/09/22)
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 08/01/2022 Gr 9 Up—Inspired by a Georgia school whose first integrated prom was in 2014, Jackson's nod to Stephen King's Carrie incorporates racially charged social justice themes into a narrative featuring her signature twisty suspense. Madison Washington is biracial, but her uber-religious abusive father passes her as white since her mother is dead. He insists that "no one can ever know" about her natural hair that he hot combs weekly. After she's caught in a rainstorm and her secret is exposed, she is bullied and harassed by her classmates for being Black. This viral video incident awakens an energy within her; desks in the classroom levitate but the incident is reported as an "earthquake." White classmate Wendy tries to merge the school's white and Black proms into an integrated prom, so she can attend with her Black football star boyfriend, Kenny. She later encourages Kenny to take Maddy to the prom—but she doesn't count on Kenny developing feelings for Maddy. Meanwhile, the mean girl crowd arranges sinister plans for prom night, and Maddy's telekinetic powers emerge again as the prom erupts in fiery, bloody chaos. Supernatural portions of the book are explosive and riveting, with the racist realistic parts are even more horrifying. A content warning is advised for racism, bullying, colorism, child abuse, gore/violence, police brutality, and racial slurs. The non-linear, fast-paced plot also includes true crime podcast elements, news clips, and witness testimonies. VERDICT Readers will be hooked from page one of Maddy's intense journey that detonates on prom night.—Lisa Krok - Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 09/15/2022 In this smart and unsettling retelling of Carrie, Jackson (White Smoke, 2021) tells the story of a community’s first integrated prom in present-day Georgia. Maddy Washington has been trained from a young age by her domineering father to keep her mixed-race status a secret. Already an outcast among her peers, she becomes the target of intense bullying when her classmates discover she has been passing as white for years. After an instance of racial bullying at the school goes viral, some students push to combine the school’s long-segregated proms, and a popular Black student is convinced to invite Maddy. The disaster that ensues is told through shifting perspectives and formats, including news reports, police statements, and podcast transcripts. Jackson puts themes from the source material (isolation, otherness, bullying) to good use in this story about identity, race, and the lengths communities will go to—and the monster narratives they'll create—that allow people to ignore systemic racism and the problems it perpetuates. A forward by the author gives information about U.S. towns that are still integrating prom. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.
