About This Book:
When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it.
An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she’s dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.
After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High’s racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school’s first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it’s possible to have a normal life.
But some of her classmates aren’t done with her just yet. And what they don’t know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives.
*Review Contributed by Kim Baccellia, Staff Reviewer*
What worked: Chilling, horror story of racism, bullying, and what happens at a small town’s first integrated prom. Jackson shows us a biracial teen who is bullied and who finds she has a secret power. Maddy’s life includes a father who forces her to pray to be like the stars he idolizes from popular 50s shows. All of these stars are white. The torment and abuse she suffers from not only her father that doesn’t want anyone to know she’s in fact ‘biracial’ and the bullying she gets from schoolmates is shown in very realistic detail. One of the main bullies is the rich, popular Jule. She even goes as far as dress in blackface to ridicule Maddy.
Once Maddy finds out she has telekinesis-the ability to move objects-she decides to find out more. There are others in town that are more sympathetic to her plight like football star Kenny, who agrees to ask her to the first integrated prom. There’s also the high school teacher that looks out for her as well.
Riveting, unflinching descriptions of racism continue to this day. Jackson has a Stephen King vibe going throughout this story. What happens at the prom and afterward is something right out of a horror movie.
Think Carrie in a small town set among a first integrated prom that goes horribly wrong. Add a biracial protagonist with the ability of telekinesis to have one amazing story.
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