Marigold (Mari) Anderson-Green is anxiety prone, and because of a drug overdose and a recent stay at Strawberry Pines Rehabilitation Center, her mother, Raquel, accepts a Grow Where You’re Planted (GWYP) Residency in a new midwestern city. The GWYP provides a free house for three years, and Mari feels guilty about the circumstances that have made money tight, so she doesn’t complain too much about this search for a “fresh start.” However, Mari will now be a resident of Cedarville during her junior year, and she has no marijuana supplier to provide the weed that helps her take the edge off her anxiety and make her “a functional human.” But she adopts the mantra “Change is good. Change is necessary. Charge is needed” (20).
Once enrolled at Kings High, Mari meets Yusef Brown, an attractive young man in whom she takes a mild interest. At his suggestion, she joins the garden club. But something seems off, not only in the neighborhood but in the house. As oddities mount, Mari’s anxiety escalates, and soon she can think of nothing beyond a potential bed bug infestation and a yearning for weed.
Add those issues to the situation with Piper, the ten-year-old that joined the family when Raquel married Alec ten months ago. Piper “listens, stores information, and plots.” When Piper begins to talk about Ms. Suga, her parents think she has acquired an imaginary friend. Meanwhile, Mari wonders if the house is haunted. Their dog Buddy whines at things unseen, an odd smell emanates from the basement, doors open and close on their own, and Mari sees shadows and continually awakens to some presence in her room at 3:19 a.m.
Mari, who was raised “to ask questions, be curious, and speak [her] mind” (138), starts sleuthing. As she learns more and her suspicions mount, her dad tells her to investigate by following the money. What she discovers shocks her to her core, and soon she finds herself in the middle of a horror movie. Her only stabilizing force is Yusef. From him, Mari and readers learn that change isn’t always a good thing; in fact, it can “take the whole soul out of something” (216). Change doesn’t have to mean a full scale overhaul, however; it can mean renovations.
Before Tiffany Jackson’s psychological thriller White Smoke ends, readers will experience a shocking epiphany, not only about change but about prejudice and the tools of conquest. Through Mari, readers will likely be inspired to activism after learning the truth about how a group of men with money use their power to destroy a neighborhood, sending them on a frightened search for a scapegoat. We also come to realize more fully what it means to be haunted.
- Donna