Reviews with content warning for Racism - She Is a Haunting

i really wanted to love this book. the premise sounded amazing and i’m always down for food/bug/haunted house horror, but it really fell flat across the board. the main character is a teen in a complicated situation

and i get that she’s meant to be an unreliable narrator once the house gets its claws in her

but it definitely feels like none of her decisions relate to her internal monologue or any characterization we get of her. speaking of internal monologue, there’s a LOT of it. i love scene setting and atmospheric books, especially horror, and it could totally just be the audiobook, but the way the description/prose/jade’s thoughts are weaved in with actual plot is very confusing and slows down the book a lot. there are lots of great plot elements here but way too many, so by the end it feels like none of them amounted to anything, and the central “mystery” also feels unresolved. because of all of that, the ending is completely underwhelming and doesn’t feel earned. also surprisingly disappointed by the romance, which feels forced and rushed though there are some nice moments. the theme of colonialism is a super important thing to bring into the haunted house trope, and i do feel like it works well in regards to the business partner couple, but at other points it feels like like it gets lost in the confusing narrative rather than working as an actual force in the story the way the haunting itself is. overall really disappointing, unfortunately :(

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anna_23's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense 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? Yes

4.5

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_teoeo's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Racism and colonialism as very important topics! But the writing was confusing (it felt like it jumped between actions and thought instead of flowing, yk?) and overall I would rate it as an "okay" read

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evelynyle_88's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What a journey following Jade Nguyen and her imperfect family. There were so many things going on, She Is A Haunting really gave me creepy gory horror disturbing type of book. But, although this is quite disturbing, the whole story was perfect.

How she engaged with every ghosts and facts about the house, her relationship with Florence Ngo, Lily and her estranged father... it all captured in a perfect way. This book gave me chills from the very first chapter until the end.

The feels of it, the way Trang Thanh Tran described every situation in the house in detailed way... I love it! What an amazing debut, Trang! I love every second of it when I deep dive to Jade's story. Wish I could see the bonus chapter though! But, all okay. I love this book as a whole. My best read this month!

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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I read some horror books, but this one was too gross. Especially the first body horror part! If you HATE spiders don't read this book it'll give you nightmares! Other than that the book was good.

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modernmatilda's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.5

Things I love
-female character who aren't perfect and who's flaws and mistakes are a struggle
-books with covers featuring girls faces with flowers growing out of their mouths
-explorations on topic like what parents owe their children, what older siblings do to project their younger siblings and is it good, first vs second generation kids, cultural identify, belong/not belonging

This book was a wild ride with cottageGORE vibes that I treasure. But more than that, it was this gorgeous exploration of families, parents, multigeneration trauma, colonization, and ghosts. I don't think I understood everything, but I loved everything.

The dream/not dream scenes were wonderful because I did not know which parts were real and which ones weren't. The sleep paralysis creeped me the F out. The bug scenes were fantastically gorey but I think I needed more explanation.

I feel like this would make a fantastic book discussion choice and I'm so thankful to my local bookstore employee for recommending it.

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