Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

5 reviews

margaretwaltemath09's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lunarexorcist's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

i thought this was a new adult book until like twenty pages in my bad. i was so let down jade was 17 and not... like... 22.

i cried at the last forty pages but then went "what. what? what???" until the end. unhinged. i cant decide if it was unhinged in a genius or stupid way, but i will say that

being horny for a ghost that is horny for you also in a toxic yuri way and also a "wow you are so repressed colonialism slash misogyny slash queerphobia is a hell of a thing huh"

is one of the more unique interpretations of "this house eats people" ive seen. 

i think the fact everyone sucks so bad throws people off but that just made my chest ache with how real it felt. that was my dad. thats my eldest daughter trauma. im gonna lose it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Car accident

uncreativeoops's review

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

3.75

The vibes were immaculate, which is pretty important for a gothic horror novel, and the author managed to create an eerie and tense atmosphere while also describing everything so aesthetically. The descriptions felt very... indirect? I sometimes had to reread parts because I wasn't sure what was actually happening but that is by no means a criticism; I adored the language. Plotwise however, I struggled a bit. Haunted houses only work if the characters have a good reason to be in them and not leave once, you know, they realize they might die. In this case, there were reasons for the main character not just going home, but they weren't strong enough for me. I got her motivations and I liked how her struggles with her family and her identity played out, but her behavior in the house was just ridiculous. And some of it seemed like it only happened to set up conflict between characters, the main thing that didn't work for me. Nearly every thing that characters got angry about was so obviously only there to create a shocking reveal and lead to an argument and some of the "dark secrets" I just straight up didn't consider as bad things. The romance also suffered from this.
My favorite thing however were the shorter horror chapters and how horror as a genre was used to discuss colonialism, racism, and sexism. Gothic horror has always been used to portray societal issues with supernatural metaphores and this was done so well here. I also have never read YA horror before and was pleasantly surprised how well these two can be mixed.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Biphobia, Bullying, Homophobia, and Car accident

carolined314's review

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

3.75

Food and love and ghosts and control all intertwine in this book, which I found almost revolting and yet fascinating. The main character's queer journey kept me grounded even as the situation got worse and worse and then... wow.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Cannibalism, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Classism

Minor: Addiction