Review: White Smoke

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 ten-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.

As promised in my September Wrap Up, here is my review for White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson.

This was my first time reading anything by Tiffany D. Jackson, and I was not disappointed! Their writing style was amazing. As I had recently talked about, I had been in a very, very long reading slump, and one of the things I said I was going to try to get out of my reading was to try out different genres. Horror novels or psychological thrillers are not something I read much of, but I got sent an ARC for this novel last year, so I knew I wanted to try it out. I didn’t get to it last year, so I had been saving it for this time of year.

It was definitely worth the wait!

I devoured this novel! I listened to the audiobook for it, and it did a great justice to the novel. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook for it. Considering I read this when I was just coming out of my reading slump, I read it so quickly and I couldn’t put it down. It creeped me out so much and there were so many moments that made me physically shiver. I was reading this book in the evening, and I had about an hour and a half left of the audiobook when I had to turn it off. I am such a wimp; I couldn’t continue reading it whilst it was dark and at night! But I think that is also a credit to the writing style. It was all so atmospheric and enticing.

Marigold is our main character, and I honestly loved her. She definitely had her flaws, like the way she always refused to view Piper as a young child and instead would always assume the worst from her. But even then, her frustrations with the young girl were valid. I think she was very well written. She was constantly frustrated at people around her thinking the worst of her, whilst also understanding her past is what had made them think this way. She was dealing with a lot and balancing it all. The one thing that did creep me out was the constant mention of bed bugs. I think the phobia and the anxiety of it all was very, very well written and the way Marigold reacted in those situations felt very realistic to me.

I really loved the town it was set in. It was such a small town that was creepy, but also had some dark, dark secrets. I feel like I could read another book set in this town and really dive deep into the injustices and worst traits of the town.

I highly recommend this novel, and I cannot wait to read some more by Tiffany D. Jackson! This was the best book for me to kick off the spooky season and get you in the mood for Halloween.

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