Reviews tagging 'Racism'

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

101 reviews

meant2breading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.5

This is the level of horror I can handle reading, more eerie and mysterious that is chilling and thought provoking vs. lots of describing gory or grotesque visuals. Jackson is a great storyteller!! I loved that we felt the suspense and energy of the house and town immediately so it was a book I didn’t want to put down. I read this in about 8-9 hours. White Smoke felt like an easy read, but the author does a great job at tying in complex individual and societal struggles such as addiction, mental health struggles, social injustice, systemic racism, and gentrification. 

The only reason this wasn’t a higher rating for me was due to the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Drug abuse, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

melodysmash's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Racism, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Avoid if you can't tolerate rumination on insect phobia/parasitophobia.

dragoninwinterfell's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson was the perfect creepy read to end October with. 

This novel intentionally hits the haunted house story beats with a family moving to a new town to live in the mysterious house that is the subject of local urban legends. I love how Jackson had her heroine Mari note this even as those typical conventions are turned on their head as the overall take away is that the true monster is systemic racism.

The strongest elements of this novel are the characters and complex relationships. Mari is an excellent protagonist to follow this horror mystery with. She is a teenager struggling with intense anxiety and drug addiction as well as the divorce of her parents and the blending of her family with a stepfather and sister. With all of that in play, it's actually realistic that she not come to the right conclusion with every clue and that those around her struggle to believe what she says. Even Mari, and therefore the reader, doubts what she's seeing and hearing as they could be impacted by her high anxiety and paranoia or her drug usage. 

I particularly appreciated the way Jackson depicted Mari's anxiety since that's something I struggle with too. So, I could relate with many of her coping strategies and the feeling of being triggered. This heightened stakes of the story for me as the tension escalated.

I do think that Jackson pulled some punches. But I can more easily get past that when it comes to a young adult novel than I could with an adult novel. Otherwise, the story, characters, and dynamics were very realistic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

kit_kat006's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Oufff, I really really want to love this. It was underwhelming. Clearly, do not read this if you have anxiety related to  bed bug. I had a lot of trouble getting into the story. Once a got into it, I just felt let down by the ending. What was this end? 

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Blood, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

pagelikebooks's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death and Kidnapping

brittonmc1221's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mzgeee53'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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Racism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Vomit, and Car accident

abeavs's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

Much spookier than I expected, Mari was annoying at times but she’s seen some shit so I gave her a pass. Would have been 5 stars with a little more resolve at the end and the weed obsession felt a little forced but again she’s a high schooler so I think it makes sense for her character. Overall this was really good and scary!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Racism

chellyfishing's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

torihbu's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense 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

4.0

this was an action-packed thrill from start to finish. there were multiple plots going on at once (some more developed than others), but between all of it, i never got confused. i thought the gentrification subplot was a bit under-developed—there's only so much you can fit in 350ish words. but the main character's PTS/anxiety subplot and the main "haunting" of the book were extremely well-written, well-paced, and compelling. everything totals up to present the horrors of reality. just when you think you know what's going to happen next, you'll be surprised by this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

Minor: Hate crime, Racism, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol