Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

22 reviews

hobbithopeful's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.75

Sapphic colonization horror!?? LIKE WHAT! This was such an engaging and creepy read. I couldn't put it down, even as I had goosebumps from the suffocating imagery. I don't think there are many authors that can pull off writing about race and colonisation for a horror book, but  Trang Thanh Tran NAILED it! I am a grade A weenie, so this wasn't too scary for me to read. I was guessing the whole time, and I loved the twists and turns. 
I absolutely loved how race was talked about, it was just done so well and seamlessly. Honestly still cracking up about the line "this woman has a PHD in colonization.." . Jade feels so out of place in Vietnam, like a banana she mentions, and honestly I relate so much to her with my own race struggles. 
Also this book is sapphic!  
A truly creepy and tense tale about a hungry house, and too many bugs!
If you like thriller books you will definitely like this one! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death

pey333's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Violence and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Biphobia, Sexual content, Suicide, and Murder

evelynyle_88's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Car accident

shadowspinner's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Moderate: Biphobia, Racism, Suicide, Blood, and Grief

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

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

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

Bugs

bitesizedbeet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Violence, Blood, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

motaki's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

A nice concept ruined by an absolutely stilted rythm, not many things were happening plotwise and most of them were so confusing I almost DNF.
I really liked the parts focused on how white colonialism is the worst and the world is still full of racist POS, would have loved more mother/daughter quality time. 
And I get that Jade is an angry teen but she wronged and hurt everyone that loved her, it wasn't the best choice as a narrator IMO. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Xenophobia, Car accident, Murder, and Classism

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

3.0

Bug-centered horror isn't really my cup of tea, which is a lot of this book. Which, I guess, I should have guessed from the cover. I honestly almost skipped through some of the bug scenes because nope nope nope. Feels a little too realistic to me.

There are undertones to the horror story that I thought were interesting, like the history of the house that Jade's father buys, the way it's intertwined with Vietnam history. Jade also has a very complex relationship with her father, and there's a lot of anger there. For good reason, honestly. Her evolving relationship with her sister was also well written and probably one of the best aspects of the book overall.

The writing is well done, even if the story itself is a little slow moving and gets a little muddled towards the end. Not sure if I would read another horror of this nature, but I can see other horror fans loving it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Car accident

paronomaniac's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Colonisation

Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

meaghanelizabook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit