This may be a long one, folks, because there’s a lot to unpack.
Here’s the thing: Right back at the beginning of 2023, I’d heard about this novel, and how it was a “modern retelling” or a “fresh, original adaptation” of Stephen King’s CARRIE. And I went on a tear about it.
In case you’re wondering, here’s my post from back then:
Seriously?
Why did no one tell me I could get an agent, be a popular author, and get accolades for days by just rewriting a Stephen King book and adding a topical twist?
Original ideas need not apply?
And this… this right here…is EXACTLY why I chose to self publish.
I’m seething right now.
I mean, what’s to stop me from rewriting King’s THE DEAD ZONE but with Johnny Smith revisioned to a person who faces persecution for being trans while also struggling with trying to save the world from a Trump-like presidential candidate who may destroy the world? I mean, are all authors works up for grabs now? Does plagiarism only apply if you’re copying it word-for-word? If you add some social commentary, it’s okay to steal a novel, beat for beat?
Apparently, that’s a yes.
Anyway, having seethed about this for quite some time, all I kept reading were glowing reviews of the novel, including the inevitable “better than the original!” ones. And I realized, I really can’t talk much about this unless I actually read it. After all, I’m that guy that always says, “if you choose not to vote, that’s fine, but you can’t bitch about the government.” Same applies here.
So, that’s what I did.
Some quick impressions, right off the top…in Jackson’s attempt to take all the major events and try and do something different with them, I found most of them really watered down.
Instead of the harrowing “plug it up” scene that opens CARRIE, we get…rain frizzing hair. Yes, it reveals Maddy’s secret, but it’s weak, in comparison.
And what happens in the classroom right after that? That felt like something written for the inevitable movie deal, and it gives away far too much, far too soon.
Let’s skip right to the end. Everyone has seen the image of Sissy Spacek from the original 1976 CARRIE movie, blood splashed on her, the trigger for the violent end of all who’d bullied her. Without spoiling the ending of WEIGHT OF BLOOD, I’ll just say that the adjustment made, while symbolic, took away much of the power.
But come on, when you’ve written a book that will likely always reference the fifty-year-old book that you lifted the entire story from, to me, that’s already a problem. And I think this is where I realized the central problem with THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD lies, in relation to its inevitable comparison with the source material.
Jackson took on two major tasks, one she chose, one she had no choice with. The first was the social commentary on how, despite our supposedly enlightened society, racism still exists and, more than that, it still flourishes in some parts of the world. And quite frankly, I applaud the author taking this on. Fiction—especially horror fiction—is a really good venue to tell a compelling story while getting an important point across. Just look at Matt Ruff’s LOVECRAFT COUNTRY as one example.
The second task, as mentioned above is to not give us a scene-by-scene retelling of CARRIE, but change it enough that at least there’s a few surprises along the way. And in a lot of cases, those changes were far weaker than the original.
For example, changing Carrie White’s fanatically religious mother into Maddy Washington’s father who’s fanatical about old movies and hiding his daughter’s true colours (literally) took a lot of the crazy away. When he locks her in the closet to pray, I literally thought, wouldn’t it be such a freaking cliché if, instead of religious iconography in there, he’d covered it in white women? Imagine my surprise when that’s exactly what was in there.
Having said that, when Jackson chooses to completely break away and create her own scenes…the blackface incident with Jules, and the meeting of Jules and her father with the school admins afterward, Kenny’s soulbearing conversations with his sister…all of those scenes simply sparkled with life. They were very good, and illuminating.
But as soon as we got back into Carrie country, it just didn’t seem to (pardon the pun) carry the same weight.
My point here is this…Tiffany D. Jackson obviously wanted to shine a light on America’s racism issue, both casual and explicit, through a horror novel setting. Fantastic. I’m the first one to line up to read that novel. But taking a well-known, well-loved novel by the bestselling and best known horror author on the planet? Taking a book where the main character is so well known that if you mention “high school” and “Carrie” in the same sentence, everyone knows what you’re talking about? Nope.
King, I don’t believe, had much of an agenda with CARRIE. He’s very open about modeling Carrie White on two different girls he knew back in school who were mercilessly bullied by everyone. He was able to tap into that teenage rage and frustration every one of us who were never cool enough to be popular, and mold it into a powerful novel of revenge.
Jackson wanted (I’m guessing) a powerful novel of revenge as well, and wanted it to be in reaction to the hate-filled racism. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I just firmly believe that, had Jackson taken a different path, written an original novel that did not draw from CARRIE, I truly believe she would have produced a masterpiece.
If this book had come out and there WAS no CARRIE fifty years before it, I think she could have made some different story choices and I would have said it was a great story. But when the original is a novel that knocked it out of the park, this one pales in comparison.
Now, obviously I’m in the minority here, because this book is getting rave reviews from everywhere (though I can’t seem to find anything on how Stephen King feels about it, so if anyone has a link, please post it below), but having read both books, and seeing how closely this one followed the original, I just couldn’t help comparing the two.
I remember, way back in 1983, Mötley Crüe released an album called Shout At The Devil. And one of the songs on that album was a cover version of the Beatles’ Helter Skelter. And I remember reading a review of that album that said something along the lines of, “Mötley Crüe’s version of Helter Skelter shows exactly how great a heavy metal band the Beatles were.”
I think the same sentiment applies here. Tiffany D. Jackson’s version of CARRIE shows exactly how great a horror author Stephen King is.
