A review by abbie_
White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

I started listening to this one by the pool in Gran Canaria and it was fine when my surroundings were sun and palm trees… but then I got home and was back to audiobooking while I walk my dog at 5am in the dark 👀 Definitely gave me the heebie jeebies! 

I’ve listened to 4 books by Tiffany D. Jackson now, all up to now thrillers/crime/mystery, so I was intrigued and then impressed by this foray into horror. The atmosphere of unease she creates is superb, and at one point I felt genuinely frightened. I liked that she toes the line between paranormal and real horrors, and at no point did I know where the story was going!

I wasn’t 100% enamoured with Marigold, the main character. She behaves very selfishly at times, including making her best friend commit a felony?? 😂 Tbf, Tamara gives into that way too easily. There’s also a friend she makes in her new town for purely selfish reasons, and then something happens to them and they’re simply never mentioned again. A few little loose strings like that did feel unresolved by the end.

Like I mentioned earlier, White Smoke does a great job balancing creepy horror scares with real life boogeymen - corrupt politicians, laws that target Black and brown people unfairly, racism, mob mentality. Good anxiety rep too! But just a few too many straggling plot points for me to feel totally satisfied.