WHITE SMOKE

Narrator Marcella Cox's warm voice draws listeners into the story of Mari, a Black teenager getting a new start along with her blended family in a creepy Midwestern town. Mari has anxiety, and Cox skillfully portrays her overwhelming panic at the possibility of bedbugs. She seems to be the only one worried by unexplained creaks, missing objects, and confusing stenches in their renovated home, which her mom's new employer, the Sterling Foundation, offered them for free--on a street surrounded by partially burned-down houses. Mari tries to find proof that it's being haunted and digs up secrets the Foundation would rather keep buried. Cox amplifies the terror as horrors unfold, and listeners will be riveted as the truth about what's going on comes to light. E.E.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2021]