White Smoke

By: Tiffany D. Jackson

Narrated by: Marcella Cox

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

The Haunting of Hill House meets Get Out in this chilling YA psychological thriller and modern take on the classic haunted house story from New York Times best-selling author Tiffany D. Jackson!

Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty 10-year-old stepsister, Piper.

The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street, sitting between dilapidated houses, surrounded by wary neighbors has its...secrets. That’s only half the problem: household items vanish, doors open on their own, lights turn off, shadows walk past rooms, voices can be heard in the walls, and there’s a foul smell seeping through the vents only Mari seems to notice. Worse: Piper keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone.

But “running from ghosts” is just a metaphor, right?

As the house closes in, Mari learns that the danger isn’t limited to Maple Street. Cedarville has its secrets, too. And secrets always find their way through the cracks.

An Amazon Best Book of the Month

Parade's Best YA Books of the Year

Indigo Best Books of the Year

SLJ Best Books of the Year

Kirkus Best Books of the Year

A YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Book of the Year

©2021 Tiffany D. Jackson (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

So Much Potential

I really wanted to like this. I heard many good things about it and how creepy it was and the supposed twist. It's boring and predictable. The beginning seemed like a bad rip off of "Wait till Helen Comes." So many chances for excitement and creepiness just to be interrupted with inane bs no one cares about such as Marigold's stupid obsession with weed or her dumb and very boring to read about fear of bedbugs. But the absolute death of this story, is Marigold herself. Let me tell you what kind of person Marigold is, she's the obnoxious kid in your middle school class who has a dramatic meltdown every week and wants everyone to pay attention to her and feel sorry for her because she's so special and "complicated."She's that dbag in high school who has a new BFF every week because she uses people and throws them away. She's the adult who moves cities/states every few months "for a fresh start" because everyone around her begins to hate her and can't stand her toxic behavior anymore. That annoying, unreliable coworker who just floats around with no meaningful connection to anyone and always broke and a chore to talk to because her only personality trait is weed. Also, Erica, for some reason her whole personality is being Marigold's gay and always high friend and then is disposed of and forgotten. Gay people are not accessories for your garbage main character. Then there's the love interest, he's sought after by every girl at school and is still a virgin because he's been waiting for special, unique, not-like-other-girls Marigold. Give me a break! So many chances to take the actually interesting elements of the book (the creepy house, the riots, the magic seeds conspiracy etc) and create a compelling story and instead we just get a really boring story with no real ending. It has so much potential I almost want to start a wattpad or a fanfic to rewrite it so it's actually GOOD.

Fantastic

Everyone’s taste is different. I am into wonderful stories and I drive long hours and this was absolutely fantastic! I finished it in two days because I could not stop listening to her voice and what she did with all of the sounds in the book and the characters fantastic. I hope there is another book in this becomes a series because it was really good.

A New Favorite

I honestly abandoned this at first. I was initially turned off by the main character. But I returned to it, and once I got past the opening chapter, I was hooked. The characterization is sufficiently complex, and the story is beautifully layered. This is a new favorite.

Loved it!!

This book was so fun to get wrapped up in.
The narrator was so great at differentiating between characters in a way that was natural and easy to follow. Plus, her sound effects were sooo good. ❤️ It was so great to hear a story with a black female main character in a genre where these kinds of voices aren’t often present. My only quip is the ending- I need more!!

It's necessary

I believe this book is necessary for the genre but it's missing something. I felt like deeper storylines were built but didn't lead anywhere and I wasn't captivated enough to give a second book a chance. I would like to know why the step dad had a key to the basement. Had he ever been inside?

I couldn’t turn it off!

I absolutely loved this book! Tiffany D Jackson never disappoints! The plot, the twists, the performance. I couldn’t stop listening, wondering what would come next. Excellent storytelling.

sat in the car in a parking lot at 5am to finish

Really enjoyed the narrator. The story was solid the characters were believable. This is light years better than the last YA horror I listened too, heck better than the last "adult" horror I listened to, I liked these characters and cares what happened.

Ending was ..ehh

The story was great ,but the end was anticlimactic. I would still recommend though

Seriously creepy and devastatingly timely

I might not sleep much this week, but it was absolutely worth it. What a fantastic story!!!

Tiffany “Keep You on the Edge” Jackson did it again!

I don’t know what kind of Magic tea Tiffany is drinking but I need some. After listening to her book, “Allegedly” and “Monday’s not Coming“, I honestly did not think she could surprise me anymore. But I was wrong! And she has!

Where does her creative mind end?! 😀😀

Creepy and well done!

Really enjoyed this! Was creepy as hell and easy to get through. I wish it had been longer to dig into some of the race and prison aspects more but given it is a YA novel, I guess high level was better.

Brilliant Book

excellent book. I absolutely loved the narrator. Brilliant Story and well thought out characters.

Good but left me wanting more

White Smoke is a part classic horror, part psychological thriller that follows Marigold, a young lady as she moves to a new town with her brother, mom and her mom’s new husband and his daughter. It isn’t long before Mari realises her new home may have more ghosts than the one she is running away from. But with a past like hers, will anyone believe her?

The classic horror elements were well executed and would translate well on screen, as the tension and timing were on point throughout. Admittedly I didn’t find it scary as such, but I don’t find horror scary. 🤷🏾‍♀️

However there were a couple of the themes that I was excited about diving into:
•Living with anxiety disorder.
•Racial disparities in marijuana enforcement in the U.S. (where Black people are 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people).

Sadly, I did not feel that either theme was explored enough for me to feel satisfied, and parts of the racial elements felt like they were forgotten.

My main issue was the portrayal of Mari’s anxiety disorder, having lived with it myself. It was clear that Mari had several complex mental health issues, which were thrown under the anxiety umbrella. There was also a half hearted attempt late in the book to show the downsides to Mari’s weed addiction. I found it negligent to not show that weed can trigger panic or anxiety attacks in some, especially since she spent half the book drooling for it.

Then there was the fact that she kept saying she had ‘anxiety’. Everyone experiences anxiety and that alone is not a mental health issue. It’s when it becomes disordered that it is a problem and it’s important to know that feeling anxious isn’t a mental health problem necessarily.

To make it worse, I didn’t like Mari. I didn’t like Piper. In fact, the only characters I liked were Sammy, Yusef and Buddy.

The writing itself was good, I just wanted more. And I wanted a longer ending.