The Weight of Blood is a 2022 YA horror novel by Tiffany D. Jackson.

Background

Set in the fictional "sundown town" of Springville, Georgia, the story follows the final days of multiracial high-school senior Madison Washington who has been oppressed by her white supremacist father and forced to hide her ethnicity by passing as white and straightening her hair. The book is a retelling of Stephen King's 1974 horror novel Carrie, that elaborates on its themes in a 21st–century context.^[1] Its narrative follows the epistolary style of Carrie, while also adding sections of third-person omniscient action sequences in between transcripts of news articles and podcasts about the events of the novel from the future. It deals with themes of US racism, high-school bullying, and modern witchcraft.^[2]

Jackson has said that she wanted to honor King's work while at the same time subverting the message it puts first to provoke thought and discussion amongst her readers.^[3]

Plot

In the present day, a podcast series is released detailing the events of a massive fire at a prom in the small town of Springville, Georgia. It is stated that half the town was killed, and according to the survivors, the perpetrator was Madison "Maddy" Washington.

In 2014, Maddy is a shy, biracial teenager who lives in Springville with her abusive and racist father, Thomas, who forces Maddy to pass as white. A senior in high school, Maddy is bullied by her peers, most notably the wealthy and popular Jules Marshall. One day during gym class, Maddy is doing a track running exercise with her classmates when rain begins to fall. As a result, her hair reverts to its natural form and her secret is revealed. During history class, Maddy's classmates, including Jules and her best friend Wendy Quinn, mock and throw pencils at her, which results in her triggering a then-unknown telekinetic event that causes her to raise the chairs and tables off the ground and destroy the windows of the classroom. The history teacher, Mrs. Morgan, alerts the principal of the bullying, and Maddy is removed from her classroom. When Thomas finds out about what happened, he beats Maddy and locks her in a closet.

A video of the bullying is released and ends up going viral. Wendy worries about the video ruining her reputation and suggests having an integrated prom to make it look like the school isn't racist. The seniors vote, and they decide to combine the proms into what is called an All Together Prom. Days later, Jules arrives at a senior week rally in blackface pretending to be Maddy, earning the anger of Wendy's Black boyfriend, football star Kendrick "Kenny" Scott. The incident goes viral and puts the school in even more negative light. Jules has her college acceptance revoked and blames Maddy for ruining her life.

Maddy discovers her telekinetic abilities and begins to practice them. She also finds a journal that belonged to her mother and learns she may not have died in childbirth as she had always believed and that Maddy shouldn't listen to her father's advice or else she might lose control of her dangerous powers. Meanwhile, Wendy asks Kenny to take Maddy to prom in order to look selfless. Maddy suspects that the invite is a prank but she eventually believes Kenny and agrees to go. Jules confronts Wendy when she finds out about this and the two end their friendship.

When Maddy tells Thomas she wants to go to the prom, he beats her and she demonstrates her power to him, which results in him denouncing her as a witch. Jules, wanting revenge on Maddy, has one of her friends rig the prom queen and king election while she and her boyfriend Brady break into her father's store and steal cans of paint. On the night of the prom, Maddy is picked up by Kenny and the two have sex. Meanwhile, a protest, led by Kenny's sister Kali, is held outside the country club. Maddy and Kenny are crowned king and queen but when they get onstage, Jules drenches her with white paint before she and Brady leave, running past the protesters. Kenny takes Maddy away and tries to get into the country club to confront the perpetrators, but a police officer refuses to let him pass the protestors. A girl trips into Kenny, causing him to trip into the officer, who beats him unconscious.

References