THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD

Jackson’s latest retells Stephen King’s Carrie with electric social commentary.

Springville, inspired by real towns in the United States that still have segregated proms, has a lot of learning to do. No one knows this better than Madison Washington, a light-skinned biracial girl who has grown up with her White father and has been passing for White her entire life. At least, until a surprise rainy day during gym class exposes her hair’s natural texture and her Black ancestry and she’s outed against her will. Her White classmates react by throwing pencils at her hair, and a video of the incident goes viral. White senior Wendy, concerned about looking good to potential colleges, decides to try to reverse the negative press by advocating for Springville’s first ever integrated prom. Feeling guilty about her role in Maddy’s bullying, she also convinces Kendrick Scott, her Black boyfriend, to ask Maddy to the prom as an act of goodwill. Fans of King’s novel and its film adaptations will know this doesn’t end well for anyone. Jackson’s expert reshaping of this tale highlights the genuine horrors of both internalized and externalized anti-Blackness, as with the way she weaponizes Maddy’s father’s hot comb as a symbol of terror and subjugation. In this masterwork novel, a teen girl—mistreated from birth by a racist society—finally gets her revenge.

Horror done right.