A moving, suspenseful story about love, family, trust, and what it means to take care of each other. Honor's father is loving but suffering from severe PTSD, and her mother has essentially abandoned the family, so when Honor learns that her family's in a dire financial situation, she believes she's the only one who can tackle the problem. With her greenhouse experience, growing marijuana seems like a natural choice. She soon gets in over her head, while also dealing with a bullying situation at school. But in the course of trying to go it alone, she discovers allies she didn't know she had, complexities she hadn't counted on, and a boy who gives her some new perspectives on love. The action is suspenseful, but for me, the relationships were the heart of the story, and I found them compelling, convincing, and wise. And for all the trauma in this book, it left me feeling full of hope.

Honor's grit, grace, and determination to do whatever it takes to protect her family will make you root for her from the very beginning. Darcy Woods deftly handles deep topics like PTSD, bullying, and trauma, in a way that doesn't feel too heavy. She mixes humor with pathos in a winning combination that is sure to spark conversations between teens, parents, and librarians across America.

I thoroughly enjoyed this fast-paced and emotionally-intense coming of age novel about a teen who, when faced with adversity, digs in and does what needs to be done to take care of her family. 

Honor is such an interesting and complex heroine. She’s certainly intelligent and, up to this point in her life, has been a rule-follower; but she’s more than that. She’s also a caretaker, burdened with the need to fix whatever problems she can. Like many teens, she is developing a deeper understanding of her flawed parents. 

Honor’s greatest strength is also her fatal flaw. Her unfailing loyalty and love of family drives her every decision. She worries constantly about her father who is plagued with PTSD due to his military experience. Their relationship is layered and complicated and provides and authentic study of inherited trauma. For she too is burdened with chronic anxiety—which leads her to make questionable choices, but all with a definite and relatable motivation.

In addition to mental health issues, Honor has also inherited her father’s work ethic, pride, and loyalty. I think many readers will be able to related to their family’s economic circumstance. Their entire family knows they are lucky to have some resources to draw on, but they are also one bit of bad luck away from losing everything. Their struggles are that of many other working poor families--despite the unique and fascinating specifics of their situation. 

This story features a strong cast of rich and compelling characters! Woods is a master at lively and amusing dialogue. I especially appreciated the complicated but enviable relationship between Honor and her brother, Knox. But Honor’s interactions with all the other characters (especially their surprisingly charming co-worker, Asher) as well as her own world view add a deft touch of humor to balance the gritty danger of the situation. Although Honor’s relationship with Cole is not the most important issue of this story, the growth of that new romance provides another layer of tension, emotional intensity and hope, too.  

Beautifully written, exquisitely crafted; at its heart, this a story about love. Love of family, love of place, love of hard work for a family business.

I enjoyed this book as an adult but I'm not sure that teens will get the heaviness of some of these situations.

This book is unique, a real thought provoking experience will probably get so many different and mixed reactions! The story telling style is riveting, hooking and intriguing as usual because we have real experienced author on board who also reflects real life stories in this novel!

  But there are too many triggering and sensitive issues include in this reading such as PTSD ( the author did a marvelous job at those parts of the book: my spin tingled when I read the parts about Honor’s father and his fight against his struggle day and night. ) , child neglect, a sweet A grader teenage girl’s turning into Heisenberg to make deals with drug lords, betrayal, bribe, lies etc. 

  Quick summary of the story: Honor is good hearted, sweet 16 years old girl who starts weed growing business to help her family get rid of the bankruptcy. The weed also helps her father’s treatment who deeply suffers from combat related PTSD. 

Honor is truly honorable, dedicated girl, an avid reader who can quote from Robert Frost, a recycler, valedictorian. But now she moves to the dark side, changing to deal with criminals to achieve her business. 

  Some of the readers may think to discuss the author’s MC choice: white privileged girl who already has a brilliant future ahead of her. If the teenagers from different race or backgrounds committed the same crime as she did, their punishment will be harsher and they never get away with it! 

  But in my opinion the thing that bothered me about this book is beyond races, criminal backgrounds, inequality, injustice verdicts. 

I can binge watch Weeds and witness a suburban mother turns into drug lady or a chemistry teacher turns into a vicious man who is not in danger because he’s the danger. But from the beginning witnessing Honor to help her father to deal with his demons by getting into Marijuana breeding and selling business irritated me a lot! 

The entire idea truly bothered me! Because it was one of the worst child neglect I’ve ever seen! Why Honor has to take care her father by herself? I think the villain of the book is not drug lords but mother of Honor! You cannot put that kind of burden on your own child that she cannot handle! 

  Too many times I got more agitated to witness how Honor crossed the lines by putting her friend in danger by asking to commit a felony, meeting with drug dealers at unfamiliarity locations by herself. I found all of these situations so wrong. It was hard to digest and connect with. 

  There’s nothing wrong with the writing style. I finished this book at one sit. I enjoyed the realistic, heart wrenching depictions of PTSD but author’s subject choice to put an underage girl walks into criminal world was not ethical for me! 

  I’m giving three stars for the creative writing but I still have problems with character choices. 

I have to add this book’s cover was one of the stunning works that I’ve lately seen which earned half more star to its grade. 

Special thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children’s / Crown Books for Young Readers for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

I like the cover. I liked the descriptions very vivid. Honors dad has PTSD from Iraq war. I felt smoking was an escape for honor. Iike the names honor and Knox. I like reading about PTSD.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of SMOKE by Darcy Woods in exchange for my honest review.***

Honor Augustine lives in fear not of, but for her father due to his out of control, combat related PTSD. Smoking weed helps Honor’s father, to an extent, though it doesn’t prevent his sometimes violent nightmares. When she discovers the VA will limit his benefits, she comes up with a plan to use the family’s gardening business for marijuana.

Sophomore writer Darcy Woods drew upon her own experiences with her dad’s PTSD and as a veteran herself (minus the marijuana farm) to create a realistic portrayal of traumatic PTSD. Woods’ gorgeous, almost poetic writing creates a sympathetic portrayal of Honor and her dad.

SMOKE made me angry for Honor, angry that her mother left her in the care of her father, when his PTSD sometimes made taking care of himself difficult. In my role of child psychologist, I saw many kids who were parentified and took on the responsibility of caring for their parents’ needs. Sometimes children were directly told it was their job, mostly their love made them willingly embrace the task. The unhealthy role reversal creates psychological issues for the children, which if not addressed can affect present and future relationships into adulthood. Reading SMOKE made me angry at Honor’s mom for allowing this. 

SMOKE addresses a number of important societal issues, but it’s not an Issue Book where lessons are rammed down readers’ throats under the guise of fiction. Woods weaves the issues into the fabric of the characters and plot in a manner than didn’t seem like lessons until after I finished reading and wrote this review.

SMOKE is an important book that belongs in all libraries and classrooms. It would be a great book for class discussion as many have strong feelings about medical marijuana and legalization for recreational use. I have a few conditions that could benefit from medical marijuana and will probably try some day, though it’s cost prohibited in my state to do so legally.

As an educator, I’m all for YA books with the courage to explore topics such as drugs, sex, alcohol, and mental illness. These are tough subjects that shouldn’t be ignored or tiptoed around for the sake of puritanical beliefs. When publishing is brave enough to publish these books, it’s a statement: “Hey, we see you. We hear you. We stand with you.”  However, this isn’t the case for SMOKE. 

SMOKE is about a straight-A responsible girl who decides to run a weed-growing business to save her family from bankruptcy. The official synopsis goes in-depth about how she, the resident booksmart good girl, comes to this decision: by reading a line from Robert Frost. Of course. The official synopsis, also, uses coded language to let us, the audience, know that Honor Augustine isn’t like other drug lords: avid rule-follower, never set out to be a felon, academic, all-star, avid recycler, dedicated daughter, literal embodiment of her name. It isn’t just trying to sell to us that this desperate sixteen-year-old girl only wants to start a weed-growing business to save her family. It also gives us a spoiler of how she’ll do it: by using white privilege. 

When you open up the ARC, you’re hit with an author’s note explaining the themes of the story and the author’s inspiration behind them. In the last paragraph, the author mentions the unfair incarceration of Black and Latinx people in states where weed is illegal AND legal. If the whole story is the idea of this innocent smart responsible white teen becoming a “felon” to save her family, surely the author will explore race, privilege, and drugs, right? The answer is no. This book doesn’t explore white privilege and drugs meaningfully. In fact, it weaponizes it like a toddler with a switchblade. It proves that white teens can get away with doing illegal things because society must cradle them instead of giving them consequences when they break the rules.

After Honor discovers her family’s greenhouse business is going bankrupt, we spend the first 150 pages watching her, an honor-roll student, making stupid choices. Before you say “but she’s a teen and teens make stupid choices”, don’t. If you market this as a YA Weeds, if you push down my throat she’s one of the brightest kids in her school, if you want me to believe she’s gonna be a minor drug lord then I expect her not to make clumsy silly choices. Not mistakes. CHOICES. 

Examples: 

*asking your best friend to commit a felony that’ll cost both your futures at a crowded lacrosse game

*researching about weed on a public library computer...even though you have a cellphone

*meeting up with a known highschool drug dealer to ask them to take you to their grower then grabbing them, begging them, and bribing them with $40 to cough up the info to which the drug dealer threatens to break her fingers and tells her asking that could get her killed

*going to an unfamiliar location alone to meet a supposed weed grower

*finding a group of on-school-campus stoners, bribing them with your lunch, and asking them where their grower is then going to said grower ALONE once again

Honor stumbles from plot point to plot point not using any lick of common sense. She puts herself in dangerous situations and uncleverly bunny-skips out of them somehow. Everything goes her way. How? Because we’re continuously told that she’s a smart good girl, but in actuality, she’s a smart good white girl. Her white innocence is her ticket to getting what she wants. When she finally meets a grower, the big climactic moment is just ill-placed comedy. 

He’s a typical silly-guy stoner, a wannabe surfer, and apparently a mechanical engineering genius. So genius he developed a device that makes the output air of his grow-room smell like spring meadow. No longer, we are in contemporary fiction. Now, we’ve ventured into sci-fi because you can reduce the smell of your grow room’s output air, but you can’t CHANGE it into something else entirely like a spring meadow-scented Febreeze. 

After stoner-genius and her older brother agree to help her run her weed-growing business, we get little random tidbits of how it’s working out sprinkled in a soup of melodrama regarding sexualized rumors, gaslighting, bullying, and literal tormenting. As a love interest, Cole didn’t impress me. After repeatedly taking a minor antagonist’s side for the sake of friendship, he lost his luster. Woods tries to buff him up and make him shine as the love interest Honor deserves, but by then, his reputation was tarnished to me. 

She even tries to redeem the minor antagonist, Xander, who threatened to assault Honor, got aggressive when she turned him down for a date, gaslighted her, and ridiculed her every chance he got. Generally, I enjoy a good redemption arc, but the public library scene where he escalated to a budding rapist, turned any future enjoyment into ash. 

Straight from the source: “Cole might not see you for what you are, but by the time I’m finished, he’ll realize what I already know. That mouth of yours is only good for one thing.” 

So, that’s a no redemption arc for me, dawg. 

The plot twists and red herrings were decent. The identity of the major antagonist surprised me, but didn’t impress me. At first, I couldn't understand why until I remembered it’s literally the same plot twist in the movie, 21 Jump Street. 

There were so many anachronisms that took me out of the story. A story that’s supposed to be set in the present day. Ding-a-lings, dinguses, yo mama jokes, guys with hair spiked by porcupines, and so much more. You have a MODERN teen with a cellphone and her first instinct is to go to a public library computer to research weed. The dialogue was either outdated or trying too hard to sound modern. For instance, teens don’t hashtag anything in a handwritten note. So, while the #onetruth moments are cute, it isn’t what teens do. 

Whether she believes it or not, Honor comes from a privileged background even though the author actively tries to make it attempt like the girl is poor. Even with a family in bankruptcy, they own a farm with acres of land, a greenhouse business, multiple cars, and though Woods attempts to make Honor money-conscious by worrying about her personal savings account. This character trait becomes null and void when a teen literally says having nearly 4-grand in her savings account is “meager.”

But once again, Honor is different. She’s a well-off girl but she’s “poor” because of bankruptcy. She isn’t like other mean evil drug lords. She’s friendly and innocent and she’s doing it to save her family. Something law enforcement takes into account at the very end of the story. You see, even though Honor and her crew sold thousands of dollars of weed. Even though she repeatedly reminded you that she’s a drug lord. Even though she's a felon. Even though what she realizes from the beginning what she’s doing is illegal-illegal-illegal, law enforcement assures everyone involved they’ve recommended LENIENCY to due to the ages and motives for running an illegal weed-growing business.

A quote from a detective: “Mr. Augustine, understand that we are still very early in the investigation. However, given the unique circumstances of this case, coupled with the kids’ ages, motives, and state laws, I’m strongly recommending leniency.” 

A quote from Honor: “Well, we have to do some community service--highway and public garden cleanup, that kind of thing. But we got really lucky.” 

But another teen drug dealer, an enemy of Honor, goes straight to juvie for trafficking, possession, and selling. This character is a BAD kid. Honor and her crew are GOOD kids, her father defends and the detective over the case agrees. To top things off, even though their weed business went up in flames literally, our resident comic relief secretly stashed the drug money until it was convenient to reveal as such.

Not only does Honor get leniency because she’s a good kid. Not only does Honor get only community service because she’s a good kid. Honor, also, gets to keep the drug money to help rebuild her family’s greenhouse business. All is good with the world. Hip-hip-hooray! So, what’s the lesson to be learned? For Honor, nothing. For us, white privilege is the perfect weapon to commit a crime with. 

At this point, it only proved to me that the last paragraph of that author’s note was an afterthought bandaid to conceal the fact Woods wrote this only for white people in mind. I don’t see Black teens taking away anything positive or empowering from this story. She speaks on the historical wrongs of Black and Latinx people being imprisoned for weed charges, but writes a story like a guilty confession as to why white teens are oftentimes treated with kid gloves when it comes to crimes big and small.  

You see how the media paints these “good kids” who only made a “mistake”; who misguidedly only tried to help; they are so young with lots of learning to do. And we all know what “bad kids” look like; the ones who “deserved” that prison sentence; the fifteen-year-old Black kids who get sentenced as adults; Black people who get gunned down for selling weed to take care of their family; the Black people who get trapped in a headlock by a police officer because their car smelled like weed smoke. 

The only thing the author does well is the plotline regarding the MC’s father dealing with PTSD. As someone with PTSD and the daughter of a war veteran with PTSD, I connected well with the scenes between the MC & her father. It was the only time she felt human to me which makes sense because it’s directly inspired by the author’s life. This is the sole reason I’ll add an additional star to my rating. 

All in all, this story isn’t for Black teens. Period. 

2 out of 5 stars