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A review by ember_is_gay
She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
i did enjoy this, however around the 3/4 point i started getting lost with what was happening and it just got confusing. jade and florence were very cute and the ending did make me happy
very shortly after i read 'a house with good bones' which is such a similar book but i think done a little bit better which then made me reflect more on 'she is a haunting'. i originally gave this 4 stars but moved it down to 3.5. i really wanted to like this, but i think the commitment to making it horror (even YA) wasn't there, the love storyline seemed more important. the moments where the horror came in and was well written did captivate me, but the ended to soon and suddenly i was reading a different book. i genuinely think that either focusing on the horror theme more and leaving the love storyline would have been better. it felt like once jade and florence were together suddenly there was a half-horror storyline that needed wrapping up but with no way to do it, hence my confusion mentioned. if that love storyline had been left out and the focus was on horror it would have been a lot better. or even if it was just a YA romance/contemporary it would have been better. the two just didn't fit well here.
very shortly after i read 'a house with good bones' which is such a similar book but i think done a little bit better which then made me reflect more on 'she is a haunting'. i originally gave this 4 stars but moved it down to 3.5. i really wanted to like this, but i think the commitment to making it horror (even YA) wasn't there, the love storyline seemed more important. the moments where the horror came in and was well written did captivate me, but the ended to soon and suddenly i was reading a different book. i genuinely think that either focusing on the horror theme more and leaving the love storyline would have been better. it felt like once jade and florence were together suddenly there was a half-horror storyline that needed wrapping up but with no way to do it, hence my confusion mentioned. if that love storyline had been left out and the focus was on horror it would have been a lot better. or even if it was just a YA romance/contemporary it would have been better. the two just didn't fit well here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail