Reviews

She Is a Haunting, by Trang Thanh Tran

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fabledfolklore's review

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

cozyinthenook's review

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

probablyjenna's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

3.5

She is a Haunting is a haunted houses ghost story that takes place in Vietnam, exploring concepts of colonialism & its lasting effects on a place and its people.

Reviewing this one is difficult because there were so many elements that I found fascinating, and I loved the focus on how a haunting could be influenced by elements like colonizing. The haunted house itself was really interesting - French-style architecture in a small Vietnamese town - and carried painful history that was ripe for angry spirits.

The main character, Jade, was difficult for me; I felt like we were told a lot about her, but it didn’t feel as if I saw those things developed in the story. There was also a lack of fear - despite her claiming to be scared - that made it hard to feel the horror of what she was experiencing. There were some truly grotesque things that happened, yet they were typically glossed over or moved on from really quickly with little effect on Jade; it took a story that could have been really scary/disturbing, and sort of blunted its edges.

Lastly, the writing was a little hard to follow in some places due to vague pronouns or abrupt transitions. I found myself rereading certain passages 1-2 times simply because I wasn’t fully understanding how things were described. It made reading feel a bit like a chore, and I wish the prose flowed a bit more seamlessly.

This was not a bad book by any means; I think some people will really enjoy it, and as I said, the concept was fantastic. But for the reasons states previously, there were just some things that held me back from loving this as much as I expected to.

Thanks to the author & publisher for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

senkahawke's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

xangemxv's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

THIS. This is Gold-Tier Gothic Horror. A beautiful house surrounded by a suffocatingly fragrant garden, hiding the rot that you can only see if you choose to look. A tragic and powerful history that returns to haunt the living. Never truly knowing if what you're seeing or experiencing is something real. The flawed protagonist who struggles and desperately claws to escape and freedom while slowly losing their sanity.

Perfect.
This is the story I was looking for this past Halloween season.

And this is also the story that reminds me WHY horror is such a wonderful vehicle for discussing social themes and issues like racism and colonialism. Because it IS horrible. And those sins against humanity fit perfectly into a house that wants to devour everything alive.

fiendfull's review

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4.0

She Is A Haunting is a young adult horror novel that combines romance with haunted house horror and colonialism, as a Vietnamese American girl on the brink of going to college faces a building her family has history with. Jade doesn't feel like she's anything enough, has fallen out with her best friend, and wants to tell her mum she's bisexual, if it wasn't for the worry of how her mum will react. When her and her younger sister stay with their estranged father in Vietnam for the summer doing up an old French colonial house into a guest house, Jade is meant to be dealing with it, but instead, the house seems to be warning her and things feel very wrong. Her sister and dad don't believe her, so with the help of Florence, who Jade has just met, she sets about making the house seem haunted, but the house has other plans.

The book is told from Jade's point of view, with interjections focusing on the house, and you don't quite know what is going on. There's ghosts, there's a romance with Florence, there's Jade managing all her anger and family issues, and there's a lot of dead insects around. Jade has plenty of complexity, a teenager about to go to college who has to face up to how she feels whilst also dealing with a haunted house with a dark past, and it's interesting how she sees the other characters, particularly her dad. The story is tense and is creepy, with a claustrophobic feeling and a scary sense of not knowing if you're in control of your own actions, though the ending doesn't feel quite a resolution.

Queer horror is a great genre and She Is A Haunting combines a coming-of-age, caught between cultures story with an unsettling ghost tale that explores how a place can turn people against each other. For a young adult book, this is genuinely a pretty spooky horror novel that has very menacing undertones and some creepy bug moments.

honeysbooks's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

onasunbeam's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

michellelouise's review

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

marywahlmeierbracciano's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Jade’s first visit to her ancestral homeland in Vietnam is not exactly how she’d envisioned spending her last summer before college. Having agreed to stay with her sister in the historic house her estranged father is obsessed with restoring, Jade expected to face family drama, but what she finds is much more sinister. Death and decay creep around every corner, and the unease of day and night are only partially countered by time spent with a rebellious and magnetizing local girl. Woven with body horror, ghosts, and the violence of colonialism, I’d definitely recommend this YA crossover to fans of Mexican Gothic.

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