Review by Booklist Review
In this smart and unsettling retelling of Carrie, Jackson (White Smoke, 2021) tells the story of a community's first integrated prom in present-day Georgia. Maddy Washington has been trained from a young age by her domineering father to keep her mixed-race status a secret. Already an outcast among her peers, she becomes the target of intense bullying when her classmates discover she has been passing as white for years. After an instance of racial bullying at the school goes viral, some students push to combine the school's long-segregated proms, and a popular Black student is convinced to invite Maddy. The disaster that ensues is told through shifting perspectives and formats, including news reports, police statements, and podcast transcripts. Jackson puts themes from the source material (isolation, otherness, bullying) to good use in this story about identity, race, and the lengths communities will go to--and the monster narratives they'll create--that allow people to ignore systemic racism and the problems it perpetuates. A forward by the author gives information about U.S. towns that are still integrating prom.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Jackson (White Smoke) skillfully explores internalized and externalized anti-Blackness in this striking horror novel, which channels Stephen King's Carrie. Though Springfield, Ga., high school senior Maddy Washington is biracial (Black and white), her emotionally and physically abusive racist white father forces her to live as white. To keep up the charade, Maddy must never publicly wet her weekly hot combed hair. When a sudden storm in the middle of gym class unveils Maddy's natural hair texture, though, her white classmates taunt her for it. The incident, and the aggressively racist happenings that follow, cast a spotlight on Maddy's town. Suddenly, a media circus watches the school's every move, and some students petition to end their upcoming prom's segregated "tradition." As the bullying worsens, Maddy's rightful rage culminates in deadly consequences. Fans of the source material will recognize the plot structure, but Jackson's bone-chilling rendition features podcasts and documentary excerpts that follow the trajectory of Maddy's abuse at home and school to book's climax, expertly utilizing current true-crime fanaticism to form a powerfully socially conscious narrative that showcases the intense structural racism still inherent in society. Ages 14--up. Agent: Natalie Lakosil, Bradford Literary. (Sept.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--An astonishingly affecting cast (albeit uncredited with who-read-whom) magnificently enlivens Jackson's stupendous homage to her "favorite movie of ALL TIME" (no spoilers). Here's the basic story: Maddy Washington is raised white by her abusive white father, but she--and the rest of their little town--finds out she's biracial, Black and white. Popular (white) Wendy feels sorry for all the bullying she's never stopped and convinces her (Black) boyfriend Kenny to take Maddy to prom; Wendy and Kenny couldn't go anyway because proms are still segregated in 2014! The book opens with a chilling podcast, "Maddy Did It," which attempts to piece together what happened that fateful prom night; its enthralling episodes are interwoven throughout the mesmerizing 11 hours. Christopher Salazar is podcast host Michael--earnest, prodding, challenging. Sarah Mollo-Christensen as his series cohost, Tanya, is an ideal sidekick with a Sydney accent, clever timing, and doubtful exasperation; she's also remarkable as manipulative, spoiled, rich, and racist Jules. Karen Malina White embodies frightened, simmering Maddy, and Kenny's angry activist sister Kali. JD Jackson is superb as conflicted Kenny. VERDICT Libraries should prepare for an onslaught of requests in every medium for what will surely be one of the most memorable, in-demand titles of the year.
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Review by Horn Book Review
Madison Washington has always been bullied because she's skittish and quiet and dresses in 1950s attire. She tolerates the incessant taunting because she has more to worry about than her small-minded classmates. Maddy is biracial and passing as white in a small Southern town that still has segregated dances, and her abusive father is a religious, conservative fanatic who treats her Black heritage as a sin and forces her to pray in front of photos of white Hollywood stars from the past. Then an unexpected rainstorm causes her flat-ironed hair to rise, revealing that Maddy is not the white girl she has pretended to be, and the bullying intensifies. Meanwhile, a classmate captures a racist incident on video and it goes viral, so student leaders propose an integrated prom to fix the school's reputation. When several students commit a racist prank against Maddy at prom, they find out that she has another, supernatural secret -- one that will result in a deadly incident to be pieced together years later by the true-crime podcast that serves as the book's framing device. This reimagining of King's Carrie is a thrilling, unflinching horror narrative that takes on colorism, racism, classism, microaggressions, white saviorism, and respectability politics. A perfect choice for fans of Abike-Iyimide's Ace of Spades. S. R. Toliver September/October 2022 p.86(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
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. (Horror. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
