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srcreads1's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Colonisation
Moderate: Racism
weirdassfanta's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.75
Beautifully written. This book gives you slight chills while showing that you are allowed to be angry and make mistakes. Also deals with colonization and struggling with your identity. It’s a great read for body horror lovers who are looking for something diverse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Body horror, and Colonisation
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Alcohol and Alcoholism
I will also warn people about the detailed and common talk of bugs in places they shouldn’t be, such as skin and food, as this is a trigger for me. So please be conscious of that if you decide to read this book.sarah_shelf's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Colonisation, and Racism
Moderate: Death, Gore, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
Minor: Car accident
Body horror involving bugs & worms/larvae Parasitesqueer_bookwyrm's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
4 ⭐ CW: body horror, sleep paralysis, death of a parent, immolation, racism, cursing
She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran is a YA horror about a Vietnamese-American girl struggling with identity and family reconciliation amid a haunted house.
We follow Jade, who is visiting her father with her younger sister in Vietnam, as he fixes up an old French Colonial house. Jade's father has been estranged from the family for a long time, but has made a deal that if she stays the summer, then he will give her the money she needs to go to college at UPenn. Then Jade realizes that the house is haunted by a racist, French colonizer who is tormenting her as she did another Vietnamese girl who lived there.
Jade is a bit of an angsty teen girl, angry at her father and making not great decisions. But we soon realized that her father put too much on her when she was young instead of taking responsibility. Jade carries the weight of being the oldest daughter, as well as trying to navigate her Vietnamese-American identity. Throughout the book we see her struggle with not feeling Vietnamese enough. Jade is also coming to terms with being bisexual.
I liked Jade's relationship with Florence and the juxtaposition of their two very different personalities. The hauntings are really visceral and creepy! The interplay between dreams and real hauntings makes reality hard to parse out. A lot of disturbing descriptions. We get themes of how colonialism is a rot upon a country. The racist ghost, Marion, rotted from the inside when she died in the house, so get plenty of imagery of rotting food, parasites and dead bugs. It's ironic that Marion always referred to the Vietnamese people as parasites, when she herself became a parasite of the house after death.
This was a super creepy read and perfect for spooky season. I'm really enjoying all this diverse horror! This would make for a great horror movie.
She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran is a YA horror about a Vietnamese-American girl struggling with identity and family reconciliation amid a haunted house.
We follow Jade, who is visiting her father with her younger sister in Vietnam, as he fixes up an old French Colonial house. Jade's father has been estranged from the family for a long time, but has made a deal that if she stays the summer, then he will give her the money she needs to go to college at UPenn. Then Jade realizes that the house is haunted by a racist, French colonizer who is tormenting her as she did another Vietnamese girl who lived there.
Jade is a bit of an angsty teen girl, angry at her father and making not great decisions. But we soon realized that her father put too much on her when she was young instead of taking responsibility. Jade carries the weight of being the oldest daughter, as well as trying to navigate her Vietnamese-American identity. Throughout the book we see her struggle with not feeling Vietnamese enough. Jade is also coming to terms with being bisexual.
I liked Jade's relationship with Florence and the juxtaposition of their two very different personalities. The hauntings are really visceral and creepy! The interplay between dreams and real hauntings makes reality hard to parse out. A lot of disturbing descriptions. We get themes of how colonialism is a rot upon a country. The racist ghost, Marion, rotted from the inside when she died in the house, so get plenty of imagery of rotting food, parasites and dead bugs. It's ironic that Marion always referred to the Vietnamese people as parasites, when she herself became a parasite of the house after death.
This was a super creepy read and perfect for spooky season. I'm really enjoying all this diverse horror! This would make for a great horror movie.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Racism and Cursing
khakipantsofsex's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Body horror, Racism, Colonisation, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide, Slavery, Homophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
beaubaggins's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Colonisation
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Grief
Minor: Alcoholism, Grief, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, and Alcohol
sknappy1's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation
Moderate: Racism, Death, and Murder
Minor: Vomit
kingcrookback's review against another edition
dark
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? Yes
This book would probably fit into the niche of creeping Gothic horror with generational themes of the likes of Mexican Gothic and What Moves the Dead. When Tran's writing was effective, her imagery was genuinely and viscerally unsettling. Ordinarily, the themes of generational trauma, queerness, colonialism and diaspora, and father-daughter relationships should have kept me hooked from page one.
The problem is, I found that Tran's writing was often not effective. Much of the time the figurative language and syntactical choices lacked the necessary undergirding of substance, which resulted in a murkiness that did not seem intentional and consequently just felt confused or unfocused. I understand that sometimes the intention was slipperiness and disorientation, and while that sometimes came across, its success was inconsistent. In fact, what this book did well - the creepy-crawliness, the imagery, the way it taps into the experiences that many American-born Vietnamese people share - made it even more of a frustrating read in the face of its shortcomings, including the underdeveloped side characters and the (occasionally) less-than-natural dialogue.
The problem is, I found that Tran's writing was often not effective. Much of the time the figurative language and syntactical choices lacked the necessary undergirding of substance, which resulted in a murkiness that did not seem intentional and consequently just felt confused or unfocused. I understand that sometimes the intention was slipperiness and disorientation, and while that sometimes came across, its success was inconsistent. In fact, what this book did well - the creepy-crawliness, the imagery, the way it taps into the experiences that many American-born Vietnamese people share - made it even more of a frustrating read in the face of its shortcomings, including the underdeveloped side characters and the (occasionally) less-than-natural dialogue.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Colonisation, and Racism
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Death
Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, Vomit, and Car accident
introvertsbookclub's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
3.75
I don’t enjoy being scared so I was a little apprehensive about reading this, but it was so much more than a scary story.
The novel is so rich, it is difficult to summarise – a closeted daughter, an overworked mother, a father who has left his family behind while he searches for belonging in his birth country, a closeted daughter resenting him for leaving and trying to protect her siblings from further pain and disappointment while navigating her own relationship with a country, culture and language she feels distanced from. Oh, and a legacy of racism that has invaded the present in the form of colonialism-romanticising neighbours and an old house haunted by a racist ghost.
It is incredible how much emotion and tension is packed into this novel. The story is driven by self-doubt and a fear of revealing your true self, but also a desire to belong and to protect the people you love; to earn their approval and avoid the pain of rejection. It explores the trauma that legacies of racism and colonialism continue to inflict in the present day. It was vivid and intimately written, but the ending, while satisfying on some counts, was a little lacking on others. Overall, it was an amazing read and I definitely want to read more from this author.
The novel is so rich, it is difficult to summarise – a closeted daughter, an overworked mother, a father who has left his family behind while he searches for belonging in his birth country, a closeted daughter resenting him for leaving and trying to protect her siblings from further pain and disappointment while navigating her own relationship with a country, culture and language she feels distanced from. Oh, and a legacy of racism that has invaded the present in the form of colonialism-romanticising neighbours and an old house haunted by a racist ghost.
It is incredible how much emotion and tension is packed into this novel. The story is driven by self-doubt and a fear of revealing your true self, but also a desire to belong and to protect the people you love; to earn their approval and avoid the pain of rejection. It explores the trauma that legacies of racism and colonialism continue to inflict in the present day. It was vivid and intimately written, but the ending, while satisfying on some counts, was a little lacking on others. Overall, it was an amazing read and I definitely want to read more from this author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
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.
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.