Tangled Prom

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany Jackson is a solid homage to Stephen King’s Carrie. It is also another 2025 high school Nutmeg nominee.

Maddy’s dad has forced her to hide the fact that she is biracial her whole life. Her dad is white and the mother she never met is black. Maddy has always been a quiet loner, but once her secret comes out the bullying becomes ruthless. One female classmate in particular takes the lead in her humiliation. She finds some refuge in honing her newfound telekinetic powers.

Her small town of Springville begins getting a lot of attention for its racism both against Maddy specifically and the fact that it holds two proms as a means of segregation.

Wendy is one of the popular girls who decides to spearhead combining proms. Not only will it show their town is progressive but it will make her look good too. She also pushes her star athlete boyfriend Kendrick to invite Maddy to the prom.

Readers can predict how it goes from there based on news interviews from the prom’s bloody aftermath interspersed throughout the book.