Holding Smoke: A review by Zakiya Venable

Holding Smoke by Elle Cosimano is overall a good mystery suspense book. The hook and the description of the book caught my eye. This is the story of John “ Smoke” Conlan, who’s serving a sentence in a juvenile rehabilitation center known as Y for murder of 2 people. Unlike the other inmates, Conlan can leave Y by astral-projecting. Other than the eye catching hook and description, the character development, and theme/plot of the book are amazing.

From GoodReads a reviewer wrote John Conlan is a very "real, identifiable character, with all his strengths and flaws. On the inside he's a good guy. His protective shell that he has built around him is not the real him, but an artificial shell built for the purpose of self-preservation,” and I agree with this review about John's character. Given what Smoke has been through, he is a great example of a strong character that you hear about in books, those characters that keep going on no matter what happens or what they've been through. Elle Cosiman did a wonderful job writing John’s backstory. Every detail really helps explain everything about Conlan. I wish the author had gone into a bit more detail with the characters Candy, Haggett and Rickers. I hoped to know a little more about their backstory too.

The book's setting was a little confusing. I felt like they should have been in prison rather than juvenile detention. The crimes that were talked about and how some of the inmates were portrayed was making me think that the setting should have been a prison or that some of the characters should be in prison. Then again, it could be a part of the plot that a certain character should be in prison, but they were able to pull a few strings and get themselves into Y.

The plot and theme of Holding Smoke was so attention grabbing. A boy that can astral-project after dying. After dying he is now in a juvenile center for murdering 2 people, one of the victims being his teacher. Later in the book, on one of Smoke's trips, he meets a girl that can actually see him. After they met, the girl discovers that Smoke is innocent in one of the murders and wants to help clear his name. Manipulation, corruption, and lies fill the lives of the characters. “Who do you trust? How do you tell who is genuine and who’s in it for their own gain? Protect yourself or protect others?” Are just a few of the questions Smoke and many other characters asked themselves. The Biggest question of all, “ How will this end?”