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A review by ferdireads
She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
well...what to say abt this one...? *sigh*
the plot was very slow to build, and a lot of situations kept getting hashed out but never resolved. the issues jade started with never get resolved or discussed, so there's no satisfaction there. at one point of the story, it felt like the plot was starting to deviate from what was intended and it just felt really odd. a lot of scenes also felt very out of place, and like a mishmash of ideas. so much was just not clicking; adding onto that the slow pace and buildup, the book starts to disinterest you halfway through.
trang thanh tran did an amazing job with the gothic horror elements of the story, and using bugs/spiders and other creepy crawlers, and parasites, to push the horror aspects was absolutely genius. even if you're someone who isn't squeamish or afraid of these things, reading certain scenes will absolutely make you dry-heave a little and cringe is disgust and fear. im already horribly afraid of all those things, so you can guess how i felt lol.
either way, it was a good gothic horror that utilizes vietnamese cultural elements perfectly, but a lot of it falls flat very fast and jade's poor character development definitely doesn't make things any better. the ending also felt pretty unsatisfying :/. idk if this was the author's debut novel, but it certainly felt like it was.
(one thing im very glad abt tho is that jade is bisexual :') there's very little bi rep out there, so it's very nice to see it)
the plot was very slow to build, and a lot of situations kept getting hashed out but never resolved. the issues jade started with never get resolved or discussed, so there's no satisfaction there. at one point of the story, it felt like the plot was starting to deviate from what was intended and it just felt really odd. a lot of scenes also felt very out of place, and like a mishmash of ideas. so much was just not clicking; adding onto that the slow pace and buildup, the book starts to disinterest you halfway through.
trang thanh tran did an amazing job with the gothic horror elements of the story, and using bugs/spiders and other creepy crawlers, and parasites, to push the horror aspects was absolutely genius. even if you're someone who isn't squeamish or afraid of these things, reading certain scenes will absolutely make you dry-heave a little and cringe is disgust and fear. im already horribly afraid of all those things, so you can guess how i felt lol.
either way, it was a good gothic horror that utilizes vietnamese cultural elements perfectly, but a lot of it falls flat very fast and jade's poor character development definitely doesn't make things any better. the ending also felt pretty unsatisfying :/. idk if this was the author's debut novel, but it certainly felt like it was.
(one thing im very glad abt tho is that jade is bisexual :') there's very little bi rep out there, so it's very nice to see it)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Colonisation
Minor: Alcoholism and Car accident