Review by cass_lit - White Smoke

3.5

Ok. I have some loves and some dislikes here.

What I loved:

The haunted house. I love a haunted house. Especially when the twist is something like this (and I really wasn’t expecting it here!). I was scared, which means it did its job.
The underlying critiques and commentary on gentrification and the “war on drugs.” There was some really great parallels, although they weren’t as explored as I would have liked (more on that in a few).
The happy ending that two (🥲) of our characters got.

What I disliked:

I get that our narrator is a teenager, but the evil step family plot had me so annoyed. Maybe it’s because I’m from a blended character, but it seemed pretty obvious from the very first intro to her (and later brought up) that Piper’s dramatics are coming from a sad, scared 10-year old who is mourning her old life (and her grandma) and having to do it all alone while it seems like her dad has her stepmom and her step siblings have each other. I was so sad for her basically the entire book.
While I hated the weaponization of Marigold’s past against her and I am generally pro-weed personally, I get where the adults’ concern for a 16-year old who has struggled with stronger drug addiction comes from. And again, I know she’s a teenager, but she was getting kinda woe is me there for a bit.
The END. It just ENDS. There was literally so much left unsaid and undone? I don’t know what’s happening to everyone else. I don’t know what’s happening to the town. I would love for the issues with the mob boss family to have been spread far and wide, and for the issue to be fully addressed to the world. I don’t even know if I know what happened to our unsung hero? Which is cool if there’s a sequel planned (I haven’t seen anything about one), but a lot of it could’ve just been wrapped up with a nice epilogue.

Content Warnings