The Weight of Blood is a fictional horror novel, nominated for the North Star Award, about biracial a teen named Mandy Washington. Mandy is a strange girl who has been bullied her whole life. She joined public school at the age of twelve and is liked by nobody. Mandy dresses weird, smells weird, and acts weird. Not a single person knows her secret though, besides her father. Mandy has been forced to pretend that she is white her whole life. Mandy’s father is an extreme white supremacist and forbids her from ever letting anyone know that she isn’t fully white. But one day, Mandy gets caught in the rain and her hair’s reaction reveals that she is partially Black. The bullying gets so much worse but it also makes its way onto social media and attention is being brought to the racism that runs rampant at Mandy’s school. Wendy is a white girl in Mandy’s class who is dating Kenny, who is Black and the star of the football team. Wendy tries to fix the situation by having Kenny bring Mandy to the school’s prom. She believed that having Kenny take her would be a show of kindness and equality that could help erase the bad media exposure. However, majority of the white students hate this idea and many of them begin to act worse towards Mandy. But as Kenny and Mandy get to know each other before prom, Wendy has doubts on if she wants to follow though with her plans.
I loved The Weight of Blood. I loved Mandy’s character. I thought that she was really well constructed and multifaceted. I think that the pacing for the story made sense. None of the plot lines felt like they were too slow or rushed. I found this book really interesting because it reads as realistic fiction for the most part but then there is a couple of fantasy horror elements. The way the story is structured, lots of the relationships and feelings of the characters are often shrouded and I found that that hooked me in and it made me really excited to keep reading. The format is another interesting piece to me. Part of the story is actually 20 years later and is a podcast trying to uncover the mystery of what really happened in Mandy’s town all those years ago.
I would recommend this for any average horror enthusiasts. The Weight of Blood doesn’t really have any unusual elements or extreme gore that some readers look for. But it also doesn’t hold back on the messy details. I think this book works for slightly more mature audiences. There is a lot of sensitive topics brought up like racism and child abuse. This can be a bit triggering for some but it is also good representation of what these topics are like. Readers should also be warned that this isn’t a realistic fiction horror because there are a couple fantastical elements.
YA Horror fanatics will love what Tiffany D. Jackson has to offer. She has managed to capture not only the horrors of what teenagers can be like but also actual horror components in a way that blends for a wonderfully thrilling story. Anyone who loves a revenge story will love The Weight of Blood.