Reviews tagging 'Classism'

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

25 reviews

caughtbetweenpages's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-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

3.25

Not my favorite Tiffany D Jackson book, but still really, really good! Setting Marigold up as an unreliable narrator was an excellent decision in terms of adding to the sense of dread throughout the novel, not only because you couldn't tell whether the horror elements/the supernatural was in her head or real until closer to the end of the story. The looming, constant presence of a darkness both internal and external kept the suspense up throughout, and made me genuinely worried for this child who is regularly ignored or disbelieved by the adults in her life. I wish that some of the interpersonal character relationships were treated differently; I don't think this story needed a romance element, and that in fact it detracted from page space that could better have been spent developing Mari's familial bonds with her siblings (esp. with Piper; I feel like we should've known more about that from the jump), and that the complicated and sometimes shitty way Mari treats all her friends would've been betrayal enough in Yousef's eyes without adding in the element of "he has a crush on her and feels used and betrayed". The twist of the

rich white folks planning to take over the town, push out the Black population, and use the citizens themselves to burn down a neighborhood to make the takeover easier

felt incredibly real, and I loved the ending note of the story was one of taking action against it. This story was about Mari surviving. What comes after is a different story, one that may be even more fraught. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Racism and Classism

readsandsuch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

She can’t keep getting away with this. 

Extra content warning since storygraphy still doesn’t have a specific tag for this:

insects/insect horror. The main character has a phobia of bedbugs and discusses them in graphic detail very often.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Child death, Racism, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Pedophilia and Kidnapping

insect horror, bed bugs

lovealwaysadi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Hate crime, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Minor: Confinement, Racism, Excrement, Grief, and Alcohol

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I sadly did not enjoy this one as much as I was hoping. I do have to say that the discussions in this are good and very important and I enjoyed those. I did enjoy the plot of this book and the family dynamics I do have to say nothing really creepy started happening until about 60% of the way through so that was kind of a bummer I didn’t see something coming so that was cool and I do have to say the last 15% I really liked.  I just found this to be boring at first and I know she’s an addict and I know weed helped her with her anxiety but hearing about it every other sentence was driving me crazy. I really liked Sammy as a character as well. He was probably my favorite part of the book. I think I also didn’t like this because the main character was very unlikable at times and that was hard like I understood her side of things but it was just too much of at times.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bookish_ann's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

blackcatkai's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

3.5/5☆~

CW: addiction, mental illness, anxiety/panic attacks, ableism (casual and otherwise, use of words like st*pid & j*nkie), drug use mentioned, blood, violence, death, classism

I really liked this one, the ending twist is one of my favourites, and I really liked Mari as a character. a lot of this book reminded me of growing up just outside Detroit, with the mentions of things like coney dogs, devils night, and pop. makes me miss my hometown just a smidge. honestly, my only real issue is how abrupt the ending feels. but overall I'd definitely recommend this one for the spooky season!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Bullying, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

Minor: Gun violence and Medical content

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

Maybe I’m a sucker for spooky/ghost stories, but this book was SO good. The twists were interesting and gave me what I wanted out of a story - to the point where I didn’t even mind the predictable parts

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

thehappylittleelf'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? Yes

4.5

This was awesome. In my perfect world, I would've booked a bed & breakfast in an ancient with a roaring fireplace with nothing but the fire and my book light to read this book. It's creepy and suspenseful and the way the conflicts in the book are executed perfectly to take advantage of Marigold, the main character's, weaknesses created a compelling and tense story. Some people thought the ending was too abrupt, but I thought it was appropriate. 
I'm a new fan of Tiffany Jackson. I will absolutely read her other books. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Gaslighting and Injury/Injury detail

queenshrike's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Rather slow to start. I feel for Mari more than I like her. There were so many threads here that you could have potentially just made 3 books about each storyline and then connected them.

It ends so abruptly that I can't even really say I finished it. It leaves room for a sequel simply with all the loose ends.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

emily_mh's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I could not put this book down! It was so gripping and fast-paced. Jackson did a superb job at crafting a super tense, atmospheric storyline that was rooted in and explored systemic racism. The MC of the story, Mari, was so dynamic and undergoes really meaningful development. I also liked the focus on sibling relationships. I cannot wait to read more of Jackson’s backlog because this has just solidified to me how much I enjoy her writing. 

I docked a half star because at first the plot is a little directionless, and the ending could have done with a bit more resolution. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Graphic warnings for insects, gentrification, imprisonment, anaphylactic shock, divorce Moderate warnings for eye trauma, sleep paralysis, self injury, blackmail, missing loved one Minor warnings for loss of a loved one, bomb, menstruation, theft Use of the ableist s-slur. It is my understanding there is a different culture around this word in the US? But I don't know why it was not edited out in the UK/Commonwealth copy.