Blackout (Tiffany D Jackson) Books in Order

The Blackout books are companion novels built around shared disruption. Six authors, including Tiffany D. Jackson, move between viewpoints and hand characters off to one another, so the books feel busy, social, and full of overlap. You are not following one couple through a long series arc. You are moving through a crowd of teens whose nights keep colliding, with romance, friendship, awkward timing, and last-minute courage all packed into the same citywide event.

These stories run on chain reactions.

Blackout takes place during a summer power outage in New York City. Trains stall, blocks go dark, elevators stop, and carefully planned evenings fall apart. That forced detour is the whole engine of the book. A subway ride becomes a confession, a walk home becomes a second chance, and a random delay becomes the reason two people finally talk honestly. Because the characters keep brushing past one another, the novel feels linked even when each thread has its own tone, from sweet and funny to quietly messy.

Whiteout keeps the multi-character setup but changes the weather and the mood. A rare snowstorm shuts down Atlanta just before Christmas, and the book leans less on chance meetings and more on a group mission. Teens crisscross the city trying to help a friend deliver an apology that really matters, so romance shares space with teamwork, loyalty, and the small chaos of holiday plans gone sideways. The snowy setting makes this one cozier, but the emotional stakes are still immediate.

The weather is a plot device, but the real story is about what happens when young people stop dodging their feelings.

What should you expect across both books? Multiple points of view, interlocking scenes, and Black teen love shown in lots of forms, including queer romance, first crushes, old feelings, and messy almost-missed connections. The stakes are personal rather than world-shaking. Someone needs to say sorry. Someone needs to tell the truth. Someone needs to admit that the person beside them matters more than they planned.

If you are deciding on order, start with Blackout and then move to Whiteout. That is the cleanest way to see how the collaborative format works and how the second book remixes it. Think of these as sister books, not sequels in the strict sense. They share a spirit, a structure, and a belief that one strange night can change everything.