The Weight of Blood

I honestly don't know how to feel about this book. In theory, this book is five stars: beautiful and engaging writing, a nicely paced plot, intriguing characters and nuanced themes. However, the atrocities that have been committed in this book are a direct cause of black trauma. Madison's constant bullying was at times really hard to listen to and it has made me really conflicted on whether I liked the book or not.

While the themes in this book were relevant and complex, the overarching black trauma was too dominant...and this goes to show how many Black authors like Jackson fill their books with trauma and shock value to bring about their point so their books can sell.

So while I didn't like the execution of the themes, I can still appreciate that this story was an excellent one, and truly stands out from the inspired material. However, due to this book causing emotional distress, I might have to take a break from Jackson's books for my mental health.

OMG! I was angry and sad and maybe the tiniest bit of hopeful. There was so much packed into this book. The micro aggressions and then that turned into bigger aggressions. There were secrets and horrible decisions by awful people. I was just so emotional throughout most of the book. Tiffany D Jackson is amazing!

audio was fantastic, podcast element with full cast narration; extremely well done retelling of Carrie;

I was listening to this while I read Mary by Nat Cassidy and they make a great book pairing.

the RAGE
i felt that the pacing was slow but I wasn't bored at all, it's such a powerful story

I feel like this could have benefited from being less of a retelling of [b:Carrie 10592 Carrie Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1166254258l/10592.SY75.jpg 1552134] and focused a bit more on Maddy as a character, but it was still a good Halloween read and one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to YA readers. 3 old-timey movie references out of 5.

Ah this was so so good!

This is a fairly close retelling of Carrie by Stephen King, so if you know even a little bit about that story you'll know the way this one will go.

The difference here is that this is just told much better. Everything about this is an improvement on Carrie, in my opinion.

Although this is YA and about high school age kids and their prom, it didn't get lost in being juvenile which I appreciated.

I enjoyed Allegedly by this author previously so will definitely be looking out for more from them.

easily a top tier book i have ever reas. carrie was the first horror movie i ever watched so the story alone holds a special place in my heart. this story was SO powerful and i loved reading it. I think this retelling was perfect because it had some of the things in this classic but so many things were different. This is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year so far.

Fun retelling of Carrie. I would recommend listening to this one as it's a full cast production.

I am always hesitant on reading books that retell other books but Tiffany D Jackson is an auto buy author for me, and of course she did not disappoint. 

The Weight of Blood is a reimagining/Inspired by Stephan King's Carrie but ya know with twist. 

My heart continuously broke for Maddy. Even after all the destruction and devastation she rained down on that town all I could say in the end is ... Good for Her. Everyone hated and shunned this girl for what? She was neglected, bullied, and lied to her whole life and finally went off the edge. 

I loved the format of the book being told through podcast, documents, and flashbacks. 

This book gave me some good laughs though. Between Wendy being so self centered, and Jules as evil as she is there was some genuine good times while reading. 

SPOILER

The epilogue does show that Maddy and Kenny are alive and well and found her mom down in South Carolina. This warmed my heart so much.

SPOILER OVER

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If you like Carrie by Stephen King, chances are you'll love The Weight of Blood. Awesome retelling and audiobook.

Review pending resolution of HarperCollins strike.

I really enjoyed this! I can't speak to the parallels between this and Carrie, since I only know that from cultural existence, but the book works well on its own. The podcast transcript and other ephemera are well done and the ending leaves a lot of mystery, which I always enjoy.

Finally, I will say that I found Maddy's home life with her father really difficult to read so I imagine if you have any issues surrounding parental abuse/violence, just have a heads up.

I haven't liked this authors previous books, but this one was so good! I loved the familiarity of the Carrie story, but with a modern twist. I loved the social commentary on it! The characters felt very flushed out, and the bullying shed light on the issues in society today regarding race. The ending was great, and scary and I really loved the buildup you got from the different mixed media elements. I don't read/like YA horrors and thrillers typically, but this one was well worth the read. 

read for stabathon 2022: jill robertsread for blackoween 2022: a book recently releasedread for halloweekend: a book with a halloween word in the titleread for the full moon book club september 2022

literally i loved so much about this book. i've seen some reviews say how they didn't really like the segregation aspects of this book because it was set in the modern age but i think honestly that can be very realistic to how it can actually be today still. there are many places that show the segregation displayed in the book. i also loved the writing as usually and it was so immaculate. this is honestly one of the best retellings i've read. it really took the original plot and story structure and added so much flare and twists to it, where it still felt like the original story but in a new, reimagined way. 10/10 tiffany has done it again 

I'm having a really difficult time deciding what to say about this book. I fully support Jackson and her reasons for writing this. The fact that these things happen day to day still in 2022 is absolutely horrific. 
The racism shown in this is absolutely more of the horror story than the paranormal aspects to me. This book made me cry. 
The systemic racism of an entire town that still practices SEGREGATED proms made me want to vomit.  
The amount of people that had grown up with these beliefs and practices for so long that they don't realize why it was an issue. The lack of remorse for severely racist actions. Straight up hate crimes that the characters refuse to take responsibility for is revolting. 
The deep rooted racism that some of these characters make apologies for, try to explain away, try to make excuses for is heartbreaking and maddening. 
Including some of these actions coming from a black person. The internalized racism he's developed from being constantly exposed to casual racism form people who are supposed to be his friends is rough.
This book turned my stomach and infuriated me. Being inside the head of a racist and getting their POV broke my heart and boggled my mind. Especially knowing that the types of people that behave this way aren't even  uncommon to run into during day to day life.
HOWEVER, the overall plot of the story as a horror kind of bored me. Yes, I know it's a retelling of Carrie by Stephen King but the paranormal aspect felt so disjointed and out of place for me. I think that the social commentary of this book was phenomenal, and extremely important and as a contemporary it could provide similar vibes to The Hate U Give. But I simply didn't enjoy the book as the horror/paranormal novel it told me it was going to be and think I would have enjoyed it more without that aspect. 

As someone who primarily listens to audiobooks I found this  initially jarring and irritating given the podcast format, because I was expecting a book read and not a full cast podcast but once I let go of that and settled in I loved it so much. I was a little concerned wondering if I was getting a different experience than if I'd been reading it, but it felt like a real podcast mixed in with the story and the back and forth was so much fun and really immersive. 

I loved all of the different perspectives and discussions going on. Its all around a really unique, well done and impactful retelling of Carrie with so many important things to say. 

4.5