Reviews tagging 'Child death'

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

15 reviews

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Confinement, Classism, Child death, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Hate crime, Torture, Murder, Death, Vomit, Abandonment, Addiction, Stalking, Gun violence, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Medical content, Drug abuse, Cursing, Police brutality, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

emzhay'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:

Spoiler

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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child death, Classism, Gaslighting, and Racism

Minor: Pedophilia and Kidnapping

insect horror, bed bugs

thatenbyisisreads's review

challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-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? No

4.0

This book had a bit of a slow start for me, but it picked up eventually. I made the grave mistake of reading this at night and I had to double check that I was alone in my room.. Don't be like me unless you like scaring yourself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Child death

catsandbookstacks's review against another edition

4.0

Do you have a fear of bed bugs? If the answer is yes, skip this book.

White Smoke is a YA haunted house horror with a lens focused on addiction, gentrification, blended families and the criminalization of marijuana.

I love a haunted house story, asking yourself whether it's paranormal, just in your head or some other explanation. The author blends social commentary into the horror, which is what I typically expect within the genre these days. I'm upset at myself for sleeping on Tiffany D. Jackson until now and look forward to reading more!

Jackson set the ominous scene of Cedarville and Maple Street through the dilapidated neighbourhood, construction workers leaving the site as soon as 5pm hits and odd things happening around the house.

The steady build of peculiar occurrences are balanced by Marcella Cox's vivid narration. I felt anxiety each time Marigold spiraled over her fear of bed bugs. I admit, I checked my bed halfway through this book.

Marigold struggles to find her footing within her family and in a new town. The relationship she has with her brother is heartwarming, though she holds a lot of guilt over him finding her overdosing. Stepsister Piper is just as annoying as you'd expect a ten year old to be from the eyes of an older sibling.

The ending was somewhat abrupt and I could have used an epilogue to provide a little more closure for the characters and town. Perhaps a sequel?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Drug use, Racism, and Addiction

Moderate: Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Child death, Death, and Police brutality

Minor: Confinement and Fire/Fire injury

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

My biggest gripe is the ending. I would have liked to see what happened directly after the events of the last chapter,  when

Spoiler

The Foundation is finally exposed

. Maybe the author left it ambiguous because in real life, those with money, power and privilege usually win.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, and Pedophilia

bookish_ann's review

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

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Content Warnings

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

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

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.

ashleycmms's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Racism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Cursing, Child death, and Blood

Minor: Sexual violence

starrysteph's review

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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

3.25

i launched into white smoke ready to LOVE it. and i did have fun! there were things that jackson did really, really well (i’d love to explore her other books). but there were a lot of loose threads and big misses for me.

the good:
- atmospheric horror and good building of tension; plus the haunted house elements and general “eerie” feelings
- the commentary on gentrification and criminalization of weed (and the general war on drugs) and manipulation by those in power were well-integrated and definitely digestible for young readers (sometimes a little too hard hitting for adult readers). 
- great characterization of our lead, marigold. i felt like we really got to know her.
- exploration of a blended family & the sweetest sibling relationship between marigold and sammy

the not-as-good:
- i was physically pained at the way marigold was treated by her family. it was so heartbreaking to watch them villainize her instead of HELP her. this girl had severe, severe anxiety and paranoia. at not one point does her mother try to bring her to a therapist or get her professional help, and no one explores any further way of supporting her. she’s so desperate to heal her trauma that she is hyper fixating on weed .. and her family (who should be her support system) are just calling her a junkie / drug addict every chance they get. why on earth wouldn’t her parents support her (maybe look into medical marijuana so she could access it safely)?! 
- the opening was very, very slow and WAY too much of mari’s internal dialogue was focused on weed and bed bugs. the repetition was hard to get through. there were scary things happening around her .. but she didn’t really decide to get involved until the second half of the book. why was the first 30% SO slow and only for us to get one of the most abrupt thriller endings i’ve ever read?
- while the commentary i mentioned above was great, jackson falls a bit into the trap of wanting to say SO many things (gentrification, war on drugs, mental health, mass incarceration, televangelism, etc. etc.) at once that several threads started getting lost. it ended up getting a little messy. 
- i guessed the ending pretty much immediately, which made me frown at some of the bigger plot holes during the buildup. predictability isn’t a negative for me, but the issues with the “twist” were. i also think jackson could have had a bit more fun here; the buildup of horror was so great that i wanted to be a little more shocked and delighted at the ending.
- finally, i felt that the character of piper was a little too “adult-cartoon-villain” level cruel at the start. it was unbelievable .. i wished she’d been given a little more depth at the start. and mari’s treatment of her & the way she spoke about her was so sad, too. like .. definitely call out alec for his bad behavior. don’t be so hateful to the 10 yr old kid who suffered a major loss and has been hopping around from place to place! i wished mari came around to her sooner. i would have loved some sister moments.

CW: racism, panic attacks/disorders, drug use, addiction, fire/injuries from fire, death, phobias

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Racism, Mental illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Fire/Fire injury

minor animal injury

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Religious bigotry, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Ableism, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Gaslighting, and Stalking

Moderate: Medical content, Classism, Medical trauma, Bullying, Kidnapping, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Vomit, Child death, and Murder

Gentrification, Displacement, Incarceration