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katsbooks's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
"Anxiety is a real thing. I wouldn't be this way for shits and giggles."
"...you can't grow where you're not wanted."
"Why would you hurt yourself because of a... mistake?"
"Change is good. Change is not always necessary. But the right change is most definitely needed."
This was a great horror novel. Take that with a grain of salt, I suppose, since I don't often read this genre. However, I really enjoyed my time reading it. It gave me the creepy crawlies. At one point, I was in a room by myself reading and got so creeped out that I had to walk into the living room and sit with my partner to not completely freak myself out. So the atmosphere was definitely a 10/10. I would give a trigger warning for bug phobia -- every chapter mentions bed bugs so if that's not a thing you can handle, this might not be the book for you. However, this was one of the reasons that I got the creepy crawlies. I also lived the underlying narrative of gentrification. It feels naturally insidious which led itself well to a horror novel. My only major critique is that the ending felt too abrupt. I genuinely thought my book might have been missing pages. There was almost no closure after the climax of the novel.
"...you can't grow where you're not wanted."
"Why would you hurt yourself because of a... mistake?"
"Change is good. Change is not always necessary. But the right change is most definitely needed."
This was a great horror novel. Take that with a grain of salt, I suppose, since I don't often read this genre. However, I really enjoyed my time reading it. It gave me the creepy crawlies. At one point, I was in a room by myself reading and got so creeped out that I had to walk into the living room and sit with my partner to not completely freak myself out. So the atmosphere was definitely a 10/10. I would give a trigger warning for bug phobia -- every chapter mentions bed bugs so if that's not a thing you can handle, this might not be the book for you. However, this was one of the reasons that I got the creepy crawlies. I also lived the underlying narrative of gentrification. It feels naturally insidious which led itself well to a horror novel. My only major critique is that the ending felt too abrupt. I genuinely thought my book might have been missing pages. There was almost no closure after the climax of the novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping
Minor: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
jackelz's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This was creepy AF. That’s it. That’s my review.
Tiffany D. Jackson is an auto-buy author for me. What I love most about her books is that she brings up some seriously heavy topics but doesn’t do the thinking for you.
In White Smoke, Jackson brings up how marijuana laws, mass incarceration, and gentrification disproportionally affect people of color. These laws have sent a majority of the town’s population to jail. None of these issues are fully addressed, because BIPOC are exhausted, and that’s not the plot of the story. Jackson just plants ideas in your head and inspires you to do the work.
I loved Mari’s character development. She had a lot of shit to figure out, and the creepy new house didn’t help matters. Sammy was the best little brother. And I loved the platonic friendship between Yusef and Mari.
Also, can we talk about Piper for a sec? She was the absolute worst. I know this was done intentionally, but I just can’t get over how much I disliked her as a character. She was a snobby, little (white) brat and she got away with everything.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Violence
Minor: Drug abuse and Kidnapping
Additional content warnings: extreme phobia/delusional parasitosis (bed bugs), accidental overdose, sleep paralysis, gentrification, predatory prison systems, child endangerment, anaphylactic shock, attempted murderhexenlibrarian's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism
caseythereader's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
- I've seen a lot of reviews call WHITE SMOKE the YA version of WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING, and I do think that's mostly accurate, but it's also more than that. For one, it was way more creepy and terrifying!
- I loved that Mari wasn't a picture-perfect protagonist (you know I love prickly women and girls), but also that at the same time she was kind of just misunderstood by the adults in her life.
- I don't want to spoil anything, but the way Jackson incorporated real life injustices into the plot was masterful. I hope it gets young kids to read more about it and get involved in righting those wrongs.
- I loved that Mari wasn't a picture-perfect protagonist (you know I love prickly women and girls), but also that at the same time she was kind of just misunderstood by the adults in her life.
- I don't want to spoil anything, but the way Jackson incorporated real life injustices into the plot was masterful. I hope it gets young kids to read more about it and get involved in righting those wrongs.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Minor: Pedophilia
cbbyles07's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Blood, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
rorikae's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
'White Smoke' by Tiffany D. Jackson is an eerie haunted house story that delves into the mental health of its main character.
Marigold is dragged along to the Midwest after her mother receives a writing fellowship. Still dealing with the fall out from a traumatic experience last year, she is dealing with the ghosts of her past and the frustrations that come along with having to deal with her stepsister. But then eerie things start happening in their house. On top of her increasing panic attacks, Marigold starts to suspect that something else is going on in their neighborhood and she has to balance wanting to be heard while not giving her family ammunition to question her mental health.
Jackson creates a haunting story that deals with mental health, the broken past of a neighborhood, and the struggles of being a teenager trying to stitch your life back together. Marigold is a deeply flawed but also deeply relatable character that it is easy to root for. Jackson perfectly writes the annoying stepsister, whose presence and actions add another layer to the eeriness of the story. We get hints of what is going on with each encounter that Marigold has and it slowly and deftly builds the tension. There were many moments in this story that freaked me out and I think it is a great October read. I will add that it has very visceral descriptions of panic attacks that are hard to experience but add a lot to how the reader understands Marigold.
I don't know how to feel about the ending. It happened very quickly and I do think there are some pieces that weren't wrapped up. There is one character present throughout the novel that I thought was going to have a larger part to play though his presence did a lot to heighten the off feeling of the world. Even with this hiccup, I still think this is a great read, especially for the fall season, and I recommend the audiobook.
Marigold is dragged along to the Midwest after her mother receives a writing fellowship. Still dealing with the fall out from a traumatic experience last year, she is dealing with the ghosts of her past and the frustrations that come along with having to deal with her stepsister. But then eerie things start happening in their house. On top of her increasing panic attacks, Marigold starts to suspect that something else is going on in their neighborhood and she has to balance wanting to be heard while not giving her family ammunition to question her mental health.
Jackson creates a haunting story that deals with mental health, the broken past of a neighborhood, and the struggles of being a teenager trying to stitch your life back together. Marigold is a deeply flawed but also deeply relatable character that it is easy to root for. Jackson perfectly writes the annoying stepsister, whose presence and actions add another layer to the eeriness of the story. We get hints of what is going on with each encounter that Marigold has and it slowly and deftly builds the tension. There were many moments in this story that freaked me out and I think it is a great October read. I will add that it has very visceral descriptions of panic attacks that are hard to experience but add a lot to how the reader understands Marigold.
I don't know how to feel about the ending. It happened very quickly and I do think there are some pieces that weren't wrapped up. There is one character present throughout the novel that I thought was going to have a larger part to play though his presence did a lot to heighten the off feeling of the world. Even with this hiccup, I still think this is a great read, especially for the fall season, and I recommend the audiobook.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, and Racism
serena0205's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, and Drug abuse
avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Vomit
plumpaperbacks's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I’ve literally never read a horror book in my life; the only one I picked up prior to this ended up being too scary for me and I never finished reading it. I only picked this one up because I mistakenly thought it was a thriller. It took a few chapters for me to realize what I’d done, but at that point, I was already intrigued and didn’t want to stop reading. So I decided, even though I didn’t know exactly what I was in for, to push through.
I’m glad I did. I’m not about to read Stephen King or anything, but maybe some of the tamer horror books could be fun to try. As long as I didn’t read this too late at night, I actually enjoyed it. I already love psychological thrillers, so this wasn’t too far off, just more physically creepy as well.
As for this book specifically, I think Jackson did a great job across the board. I really liked the protagonist Mari and her younger brother Sammy, and I found all of the characters to be well-written and developed. Their mom was a decent parent as well, which was nice to see, even though it was quite frustrating to see her take her new husband’s side over her daughter’s. Said husband was also frustrating but even more so, and for a different reason: even when presented with evidence that his bratty daughter did something wrong, he did absolutely nothing about it. He’s quite possibly the most spineless father. Massive facepalm.
And then there’s Piper, the bratty daughter in question. I don’t think I’ve ever found a child so insufferable. I just— *muffled screeching* Ahem. Anyway, despite my sizable list of reasons why I despised this child—which I can’t share because spoilers—her involvement in the story wasn’t what I’d expected it would be. She took the story in a unique direction and I liked it. And, shocking as this was…. I even ended up kind of liking her?? Who knew that was possible??
And the house? That’s one big, overflowing bucket of NOPE. Creaky floors, slamming doors, awful stenches, objects moving after they were set down or disappearing entirely, disembodied voices…. I would like to say again: NOPE. Add in the psychological thriller aspect, where Mari’s family doesn’t believe her and we don’t actually know if any of this is happening, and it’s quite a tumultuous, unsettling time.
As if that wasn’t creepy enough, the neighborhood the house is in isn’t right either. Everyone is suspiciously happy until things start going wrong, and plenty of things go wrong. Cedarville isn’t as idyllic as they’d like you to believe, and the residents have a bit of a mob mentality….
The only good people in town are Erika and Yusef, Mari’s new friends. Yusef was super sweet, and Erika was hilarious. I was really glad that Mari had at least a bit of something resembling normalcy in the midst of all this paranormal chaos. I was also glad that there was no romance, despite both of her friends being single. While I’m sure I could’ve been convinced to ship either couple, it felt right to focus solely on the horror aspects of the novel.
I think my one complaint would be the ending. At the very least, I wish we’d gotten an epilogue, if not another chapter or two talking about what happened next. As it is, I feel that the book ended kind of abruptly. I turned the last page, saw the acknowledgments, and was like, “Wait… what? There’s gotta be more.” Turns out, there was no more, unfortunately. The end. Curtains.
All in all, slightly disappointing ending aside, I was surprisingly impressed by my first horror novel. Dare I say, this won’t be my last…? We’ll see. But I definitely recommend this book, both to seasoned horror lovers and those looking for a little something different this spooky season.
Representation
I’m glad I did. I’m not about to read Stephen King or anything, but maybe some of the tamer horror books could be fun to try. As long as I didn’t read this too late at night, I actually enjoyed it. I already love psychological thrillers, so this wasn’t too far off, just more physically creepy as well.
As for this book specifically, I think Jackson did a great job across the board. I really liked the protagonist Mari and her younger brother Sammy, and I found all of the characters to be well-written and developed. Their mom was a decent parent as well, which was nice to see, even though it was quite frustrating to see her take her new husband’s side over her daughter’s. Said husband was also frustrating but even more so, and for a different reason: even when presented with evidence that his bratty daughter did something wrong, he did absolutely nothing about it. He’s quite possibly the most spineless father. Massive facepalm.
And then there’s Piper, the bratty daughter in question. I don’t think I’ve ever found a child so insufferable. I just— *muffled screeching* Ahem. Anyway, despite my sizable list of reasons why I despised this child—which I can’t share because spoilers—her involvement in the story wasn’t what I’d expected it would be. She took the story in a unique direction and I liked it. And, shocking as this was…. I even ended up kind of liking her?? Who knew that was possible??
And the house? That’s one big, overflowing bucket of NOPE. Creaky floors, slamming doors, awful stenches, objects moving after they were set down or disappearing entirely, disembodied voices…. I would like to say again: NOPE. Add in the psychological thriller aspect, where Mari’s family doesn’t believe her and we don’t actually know if any of this is happening, and it’s quite a tumultuous, unsettling time.
As if that wasn’t creepy enough, the neighborhood the house is in isn’t right either. Everyone is suspiciously happy until things start going wrong, and plenty of things go wrong. Cedarville isn’t as idyllic as they’d like you to believe, and the residents have a bit of a mob mentality….
The only good people in town are Erika and Yusef, Mari’s new friends. Yusef was super sweet, and Erika was hilarious. I was really glad that Mari had at least a bit of something resembling normalcy in the midst of all this paranormal chaos. I was also glad that there was no romance, despite both of her friends being single. While I’m sure I could’ve been convinced to ship either couple, it felt right to focus solely on the horror aspects of the novel.
I think my one complaint would be the ending. At the very least, I wish we’d gotten an epilogue, if not another chapter or two talking about what happened next. As it is, I feel that the book ended kind of abruptly. I turned the last page, saw the acknowledgments, and was like, “Wait… what? There’s gotta be more.” Turns out, there was no more, unfortunately. The end. Curtains.
All in all, slightly disappointing ending aside, I was surprisingly impressed by my first horror novel. Dare I say, this won’t be my last…? We’ll see. But I definitely recommend this book, both to seasoned horror lovers and those looking for a little something different this spooky season.
Representation
- Black bisexual protagonist
- Black side characters
- sapphic side character
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Addiction, Blood, and Gore
The protagonist has anxiety. And though there’s no tag for this, it seemed important to mention that there’s frequent mentions of bedbugs; after an infestation in her family’s old house, Mari is paranoid she’ll find them in their new house.sidbookreviews's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Wow, this book was honestly terrifying, but in the best possible way. I love Tiffany D. Jackson and she certainly did not disappoint with White Smoke. I loved how this was not only filled with spine-chilling paranormal horror, but it was also incredibly nuanced and discussed a lot of important social issues, from gentrification to mass incarceration and insidious corporations. This is a classic haunted house story, but also so much more, and I would highly recommend White Smoke to anyone looking for a horror read with depth and a more modern twist to it this spooky season!
Full review to come on my blog soon!
Full review to come on my blog soon!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Blood