Reviews tagging 'Classism'

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

14 reviews

plumdustsuns's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I had typed an entire review but my phone died SMHHH 
Anyway. So: 
- turned up being a page turner for me
- evocatively beautiful writing and language even with horrific content 
- horror wasn’t too distasteful or so which is good for a coward like me 

Plot wise: 
- by the 200/250 page mark, the plot/incidents began to feel a bit repetitive. Jade goes to sleep, bad dreams, Jade wakes up, fights with dad. I remember I was sHOOK when her dad was digging out the skulls. I wish we had more of that/his hauntings and her seeing him do insane shit instead of just fixing the house and being a stubborn asshat 
- lily’s sleepwalking and everything being utilized more would have been cool as well. Using them to go somewhere clue wise and story wise and her being a bit more conflicted about the haunting as she too was being seeped into would have made the stakes feel a lot higher 
- I like Jade and Florence but I wish their adventures added more to the story/tightened the plot. Cam being jealous of Florence? Where’s more of that? Why only at the last moment? That would have been so fun and interesting. And seeing Cam’s queerness too in the flashbacks like come onnnn please would have added more to the bad marriage. Maybe her parents discovered her queerness and married her off which is why they don’t talk to her anymore. It could have paralleled Jade’s own fears about coming out and fleshed out their connection, made it more believable and even something to root for in ways 

Yeah. There was a lot of interesting content but they all meandered a lot and/or weren’t used to their full potential. Alma being there by the end was blah, we already had a colonizer presence with Marion. Halle didn’t feel too much of a great addition either as we never quite see her or have her back in again. 
I wish ‘what did she show you’ to Ba came way before and he showed Jade and we got more of his motivations and it added to his complexities and just the immigrant symbolisms the book was going for. He had so much potential than being just the ‘we’re never leaving’ bad guy and would have brought a lot of cultural weight and justified Jade’s empathy and forgiveness almost of his actions even more. ‘He never spoke about his family before’ WHAT IF HE DID NOW. I like that this was all triggered by his loss of his mother/homeland. We could have went into it more. Him and Jade and Lily could have all had shared psychosis/dreams from the insane food. Sigh. So much lost potential. And if the mom did come in earlier and hadn’t been allowed to leave for a bit? And the escape felt more necessary as pressing as it was all very ‘yeah alright she’s gonna burn down the house now’ without it feeling very consequential to me. 
I thought this was a solid almost 3 star read but the more I wrote this review and realized how much more could have been done, the madder I got and realized this was a 2 star read for me at best. But I did enjoy it in ways still. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Body horror, Gore, Gaslighting, Murder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Confinement, Racism, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, and Slavery

clovetra's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

ok i had to pause to collect my thoughts on this.

i hate to say i did not have a good time.

look it feels illegal to give this a 1-star because;

a) the cover is too beautiful to rate it that low

b) i did enjoy the first 30% of this book!

it feels wrong to rate a book lower when i considered dnf’ing many times yet pushed through because i wanted to know how it ended & if it got any better. the fact i had that much interest is worth 2-stars to me. plus i really wanted to like this. REALLY wanted to like this. alas as u can see by my stars um…. i did not!

it was really hard to formulate my thoughts about this book simply because most of the time i had no fuckjng idea what was going on. like if you asked me for a summary i would probably skip a good 60% of the plot because i actually don’t know what was happening. i still don’t really know what happened by the end. like yeah i got what happened to ba but….. with cam & marion? lily? jade even? um. 😀

like even the chapter titles such as “heart”…. i assume it was the house? i cant even be sure.

i wouldn’t be surprised if it was a meta-commentary like “if you don’t understand this book it’s immersing you into being jade in this house” but…. cmon when i don’t even know what i don’t know i am not a happy camper.

that was honestly my main issue. i think if i knew what was going on i would’ve given this at the bare minimum an extra star. but like im gonna have to read other reviews to know what’s going on.

another gripe, which is a lot more minor mind you, is that this didn’t feel like a horror.  it’s more like a thriller. but like nothing was really horrifying to me. bro i need more than just some bugs. the more horrific elements may have been lost on me because i had no idea what was going on!!!!!

my final gripe is that this was such a slow burn oh my god????? storygraph said this was medium-paced…… WHERE. i’m sorry this is not medium-burn this is a snail’s-pace-burn. not even saying that’s a bad thing! it’s just not my thing and if i knew it was a slow burn i wouldn’t have even read it!

idk man im really sad cuz i wanted to love this! otherwise i wouldn’t have pushed past like 30%!!!!!!!

i am hoping that trang thanh tran irons out these “kinks” in her newest book because it looks good. granted i did say that about this book and look where that got me but. IM HOLDING OUT FOR YOU TRANG THANH TRAN!!!!!!!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Death, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death of parent, War, Classism, Car accident, Xenophobia, and Death

Minor: Homophobia, Slavery, and Biphobia

torismazarine's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide, Car accident, Classism, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cursing, and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcohol and Sexual content

ladylady's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring sad fast-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

5.0

a girl goes back ( eldest daughter of immigrant parents) goes to Vietnam to visit her dad for college money and they stay at the creepy house ( the house was built by colonial French couple). Like most gothic novels, the creepy house is secrets . 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Classism

Moderate: Abandonment

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

1.75

SO much going on all at once, and not balanced very well. I think I would have liked the different narrative elements individually or if they had been melded more effectively (because a haunted house that is so both literally and as a deeper allegory for the lingering legacy of colonialism -- if that is the intention -- is conceptually great), but it just feels like it's trying to be several different things mashed haphazardly into one. Super overwritten as well, and yet at the same time basically everything that should be shown is told and vice versa.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Racism, Suicide, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, War, Vomit, Homophobia, Biphobia, Bullying, and Sexism

Fungal/parasitic infection. Insects, insect death. Sleep paralysis.

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Body horror, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Classism, Colonisation, and Blood

Minor: Grief, Homophobia, and Murder

leweylibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I wanted to like this one more than I did unfortunately. I did like the spooky, LGBTQIA+ vibes and the fuck colonialism sentiments, but I just found myself having a hard time getting into the book and staying in it. I also wasn't crazy about most of the characters. Overall it fell a bit flat for me, but I do appreciate it and think there are others who will love it more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Murder, Misogyny, Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Racism, and Abandonment

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

Not my fave haunted house book but not bad. Things I liked - the setting, the exploration of complicated family, discussion of colonialism and the erasure (and trying to memorialize) of those who were colonized, the cover art . Things I didn't care for- jade as a character, all the freaking bugs (like I liked them as a horror element but I don't like bugs haha).
I would be willing to read more from this author even though I didn't love this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body horror, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Racism

Moderate: Grief, Gaslighting, and Xenophobia

carolined314's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Colonisation, and Body horror

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

Minor: Addiction

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.5

This is a pretty solid YA haunted house story. There are some really effective scares in here and I loved the Vietnamese setting, but sometimes feelings and character motivations got a bit lost in the flowery writing and the romance didn't really work for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

Moderate: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Abandonment, Body horror, Grief, Car accident, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cursing, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Slavery, War, Blood, Confinement, and Animal death

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