The Weight of Blood

Maddy, a sheltered, biracial teenage girl with magical powers resembling telekinesis and an abusive father, is the novel’s protagonist. From the beginning, the reader knows that Maddy kills more than 200 people at her high school’s first racially integrated prom, which makes her seem like the novel’s villain as well as its protagonist. However, as the novel unfolds, it’s clear that Maddy did not plan to kill all those people, but racist bullying from classmates pushed her beyond her ability to control her magic powers. Since her powers are linked to her emotions, if she cannot control her emotions, she cannot control the supernatural power she wields. A teenager trying to rediscover her identity and place in the world, Maddy is forced to cope as well with being bullied and racist, sexist, and otherwise negative attention. Maddy makes a good-faith effort to learn the nature of her powers and how to control them, but, having no guidance from adults or other people on this issue, she ends up researching the wrong thing—telekinesis. Although Maddy’s powers are similar to telekinesis, this is not the exact power she has, and the methods used in telekinesis aren’t the same methods she should use to fully harness and control her own powers.