Review: The Weight of Blood

I haven't been doing well today. I don't know, for some reason, I just woke up with a sore throat. This rainy season kind of like really just messed up with my throat. Like seriously, I can't even talk properly.

When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation... Maddy did it.

An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.

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. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life.

But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret... one that will cost them all their lives.

QUICK THOUGHTS AND REVIEW: 4.8/5, WAOW, LIKE GENUINELY, SIMPLY, WOW.

Possible Trigger Tags:

1. Segregation

2. Racism

3. Use of racial slurs

4. Child abuse

5. Gore

6. Mentions of panic attacks

7. Toxic friendships

8. Religious bigotry

WHAT DID I FEEL ABOUT THE  BOOK'S: 

1. Writing Quality: I really like Tiffany D. Jackson's books, I read her other book Monday's Not Coming and I'd really liked it except that she pulled a 'this was never real, you were on meds' card, which I think is the most anti-climatic way to end a book. But I think Jackson really nails it with the writing style. I really love how the exposition is done in a very layered manner, revealing just a bit, but not enough to actually know what is happening until you're further into it. You'll have to peel the layers away bit by bit to actually know what's happening and I think I really enjoy that in a mystery/thriller novel.

2. Character Development: Oh man I have so much to say about the characters.

Maddy: I feel so bad for her, I mean, her father literally abuses her in the name  of making her a good Catholic and on top of that she just got picked on at school because she stayed quiet and was different from the other popular kids. And it just became worse once it got out that she was biracial. I mean, it just makes me feel sad. She just wanted one person who could love her for all she is and she couldn't even be what she was because her father wouldn't let her. He literally stripped her off the normalcy that would have happened at her age and simply just made her what she was. I mean, if he treated her like a normal kid, maybe Maddy would have had a normal life.

Jules: Burn her, seriously. Privileged little shit. Just because she's white and has all the money in the world, she thinks that making depreciating jokes at someone else's expense and basically ruining their life. I mean, she was the reason half of the senior class died, I mean it is her fault. And also I think that her getting kicked out of university? She fucking deserved it.

Wendy: I think Wendy is like the two faced bitch that's neither here nor there. These are the ones that are most dangerous because you'll never know when they'll turn in on you, while trying to make themselves be the good guy and gain the pity of other people. And these type of people just irritate the living shit out of me. I hated her character more than Jules, you know. Stingy bitch.

3. Couldn't put it down- Ness: 10/10, really, it's so interesting you can't stop.

4. Intellectual Depth: This book hits right in the feels, you know. The blatant segregation and bullying just makes you think how much white privilege is a thing that goes on even today. You could be an average white person and the world wouldn't even bat an eye, but being a BIPOC person, that shit could literally get you killed.  Like it hit me so hard, none of the shit in the book would have happened if some privileged white kids had gone out of their way to make someone else feel miserable. Especially Jules, like seriously, why actually try to meddle into someone else's life when all they want is to chill and actually fucking graduate. I mean seriously, bullies are literally jobless if they think picking on other people is fun. And I feel for Maddy so hard, because she has to endure abuse not only inside her home but also at school.

 

5. Plot: When it comes to plots, this book is a killer. Okay, that pun was literally not intended. But yeah, the plot's very much interesting. A very important plot point would be the Halloween in May integrated prom, and there are two ways in which the story is told. Through the main story, which tells us the events before the prom, basically telling us all of Maddy's story and the other is the podcast called "Maddy Did It" which tells us about the aftereffects of the prom from the white person perspective. At first the podcast doesn't throw much light into the story but as one goes deeper, one can see how it connects to the actual story. It does get a bit boring, the podcast part, but I guess it is worth it.

OVERALL, A GREAT READ, definitely one worth remembering.