Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

25 reviews

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.

winter_loves_cookies's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Grief and Alcoholism

Minor: Colonisation, Racism, Physical abuse, and Vomit

Lots of bugs

lots of eating bugs

sammy_nor's review against another edition

3.25

i liked the book, but i also found the writing confusing at times. i hadn’t a clue what was going on half the time

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, and Gore

Moderate: Car accident, Slavery, and Colonisation

Minor: Homophobia

heatherinthenether's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

This is a delightfully unsettling thriller that explores family and love, societal expectations, culture and history, colonization and generational trauma. It's a powerful and truly haunting story that stays with you long after you finish the book. For anyone with a bug phobia, this is not the book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Abandonment, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Biphobia

Moderate: Death, Alcoholism, Blood, Colonisation, and Confinement

Minor: Animal cruelty, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Car accident, and Animal death

adragoninspace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Violence, Vomit, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Blood

jessicanb93's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

While I enjoyed the story overall, I did struggle a bit with the writing. I found it a little difficult to follow sometimes (I feel like there were random time jumps in the middle of a paragraph). 
On the side of horror, this is the most I’ve read about bugs or food in a story, and it really grossed me out. I would recommend checking trigger warnings, and if you have any sensitivities to subject matter dealing with food and long descriptions of food being eaten, please proceed with caution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Homophobia, and Biphobia

Moderate: Vomit

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, Colonisation, and Racism

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

Minor: Car accident, Vomit, and Suicide

megj23's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Violence

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Vomit and Blood

booksthatburn's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Colonisation, Body horror, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Vomit, Sexism, Animal death, and Emotional abuse

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: Racism, Body horror, and Colonisation

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

Minor: Vomit, Car accident, and Suicide