Whiteout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk & Nicola Yoon @brownbookworm @WriteinBK #NicStone @angiecthomas @AshWrites @NicolaYoon @HarperAudio @librofm

the setup…
High school senior Stephanie (Stevie) Williams is a science genius but she has a lot to learn about love. She and her girlfriend Sola, her best friend since they met in the 6th grade, had planned for her to meet her Nigerian family and announce their relationship. However, Stevie not only blew it with the family, she hurt Sola so deeply that she’s threatened to end their relationship if she doesn’t deliver a meaningful apology by midnight. Stevie’s come up with a great plan and enlists her friends Kaz, E.R., Jordyn, Jimi, Ava, and Mason to help. Unfortunately, Atlanta is in the middle of a snowstorm, not much by northern standards but it creates chaos in a town not used to this kind of weather.

the heart of the story…
This is so much more than Stevie and Sola’s story, which was pretty wonderful on its own. Each of her friends have their own relationship woes going on and we get their stories as well. All of these teens are really smart with a plethora of skills represented in addition to science acumen. I got wrapped up in all of them and loved how their issues were realistic with just the right teenage angst. They were all pretty interesting and there was a diversity of relationships, too, that just made this a richer story. The challenges the weather presented added a lot more flavor to their efforts to help Stevie as they had to work with their partners, sometimes reluctantly, to pull off the plan.

the narration…
Oh, this was a listening delight as multiple narrators were used to tell these stories and it was fantastic! If you can choose the audio version for this story, do so. These performances just elevated the reading experience.

the bottom line…
I rarely read anything in the YA genre but something about the description and the wintery holiday setting reeled me in. Thankfully this turned out to be so much more than my expectations. Even though separate writers were used for each of the stories, they all fit together seamlessly. They all felt like the same “voice” was in charge. It was also a breath of fresh air to listen to a story about Black teens who have high aspirations and focused on achievements. Everything about this was lovely…the characters, the audio performance, the relationship issues and the plot. I’m very happy I stepped out of my comfort zone.

Book Info

• Release Date: November 8, 2022
• Narrators: Danielle Shemaiah, Shayna Small, Bahni Turpin, Alaska Jackson, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Kevin R. Free, James Fouhey & Korey Jackson
• Audio Length: 7 hours, 17 minutes
• Publisher: HarperAudio

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(Thanks to HarperAudio and Libro.fm for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)