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kingsteph's review
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Racism, Suicide, Car accident, and Death of parent
lunitareads's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
5.0
At its core, the story reminds us of the remnants of French colonization in Vietnam. The house, a relic of colonial power, symbolizes how the past keeps its grip on the present through haunted rooms & the cultural scars left behind. Jade feels the pressure of this history as she struggles with her identity. She doesn't feel "Vietnamese enough" when she's in Vietnam & doesn't feel "American enough" when she's in the U.S. Not only is she grasping that identity dilemma, but also about her sexuality. It's like being stuck between worlds, much like the spirits in the house.
Body parts serve as interludes, keeping suspense. Food plays a magical role; it's not just about meals but links to her culture. Traditional Vietnamese dishes carry warmth and a strange fear, reflecting the spirit's hunger and the hunger for belonging that Jade herself feels. Ugh... but you smell, at times, the rot and feel the parasites crawl.
This book is perfect if you love ghost stories with deep meaning, creepy, eerie atmospheres, and the idea of belonging to more than one world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Abandonment, and Colonisation
Moderate: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Blood, Gaslighting, and Classism
Minor: Suicide, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
alavenderlibrary's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
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? Yes
4.75
This book is for the first & second generation children, oldest born daughters, daughters with complicated relationships with their fathers, burntout overachievers, and anyone who has ever questioned the validity of their identity. Whether that be race, sexuality, or anything else for that matter.
Jade is a Vietnamese American girl who just wants to escape the shame that has followed her around since even before her father left. All she has to do is survive five weeks in the French colonial house her Ba is restoring— playing the happy, helpful daughter—and he'll give her the money she needs to cover what her college scholarship won't.
But the house is alive. And it eats, it thrums, and infects, and Jade is begining to realize that something—someone doesn't want her to leave. And that if she isn't careful, she won't want to leave either.
I really loved this book! It was hard for me to get into at first, since I don't particularly like first person perspective that much, but the story and it's elements drew me in so well. Bugs and rotting food play a huge part in the horror of this story, especially the idea of parasites—which I wasn't expecting but really enjoyed the inclusion.
I also appreciated the focus on colonialism and it's effects, told through the haunting and anthropomorphism of the house, Nhà Hoa. Part of the book is focused on the dead French matriarch, who hated the Vietnamese people and is a ma đói: hungry ghost. But as Jade learns more through the memories of another Vietnamese girl who died there, the house is ultimately the one in control and wants to be full of people forever, no matter how it happens.
I did find a lot of similarities between Jade and myself, so I connected a lot more with this book and that's why it was such a great read for me. The only reason it doesn't quite get 5 stars for me is because I really did not like that writing style of first person and her inner monologues for majority of the book. But the author's prose and story really made up for it.
Jade is a Vietnamese American girl who just wants to escape the shame that has followed her around since even before her father left. All she has to do is survive five weeks in the French colonial house her Ba is restoring— playing the happy, helpful daughter—and he'll give her the money she needs to cover what her college scholarship won't.
But the house is alive. And it eats, it thrums, and infects, and Jade is begining to realize that something—someone doesn't want her to leave. And that if she isn't careful, she won't want to leave either.
I really loved this book! It was hard for me to get into at first, since I don't particularly like first person perspective that much, but the story and it's elements drew me in so well. Bugs and rotting food play a huge part in the horror of this story, especially the idea of parasites—which I wasn't expecting but really enjoyed the inclusion.
I also appreciated the focus on colonialism and it's effects, told through the haunting and anthropomorphism of the house, Nhà Hoa. Part of the book is focused on the dead French matriarch, who hated the Vietnamese people and is a ma đói: hungry ghost. But as Jade learns more through the memories of another Vietnamese girl who died there, the house is ultimately the one in control and wants to be full of people forever, no matter how it happens.
I did find a lot of similarities between Jade and myself, so I connected a lot more with this book and that's why it was such a great read for me. The only reason it doesn't quite get 5 stars for me is because I really did not like that writing style of first person and her inner monologues for majority of the book. But the author's prose and story really made up for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Xenophobia, Blood, Abandonment, and Colonisation
Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcoholism, Suicide, and Violence
devynreadsnovels's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Biphobia, Child abuse, Slavery, and Lesbophobia
margaretwaltemath09's review
dark
mysterious
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
plumdustsuns's review
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism
vanessamariebooks's review
dark
mysterious
slow-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? Yes
2.5
I wish I could say I loved this, but it just wasn't for me. Way too much description and the writing tries to be lyrical/poetic, but it just ends up making things more confusing (and the story was already pretty confusing to begin with). I do think that for the chapters that start with a body organ (kidney, liver, brain, etc.) the lyrical/poetic writing works well with these chapters, but I wish it would have been used for those chapters only and not Jade's chapters as well. I appreciate the topics/themes it tries to tackle (colonialism, intergenerational trauma, bisexuality), but it fell a little flat to me and didn't feel fully fleshed out. As for the characters, I honestly didn't care about any of them, even Jade, our MC. I didn't hate them, but I didn't love any of them either; I was really indifferent. This was also a really slow read, and I was bored throughout most of it. If it wasn't for the audiobook, I definitely would have DNF in the beginning. On the plus side, the cover of this book is gorgeous (and one of the reasons I wanted to pick this one up)!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Grief, Abandonment, and Colonisation
itzbrianna's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
She is A Haunting is a bug horror novel set in modern day vietnam. The protagonist, Jade Nguyen, and her sister visits their father at their family’s ancestral home and the house is haunted.
This book contains a very detailed father daughter conflict dynamic that resonated with me. And throughout this book we learn of Jade’s family history and the colonial impact on their family by the french.
Throughout the novel there are poetic snippets revealing parts of the house and the haunting. And there are incredible scenes and descriptions detailing the different ways imperialism has impacted vietnam. The use of bugs and infestation in this book is pure genius.
Jade is a complicated character and her relationship with her father is no different. We get to learn a lot about Jade through interactions with her family, with the house, and other characters in the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and though it dragged on for a little too long I still think it’s worth a read if you love haunted horror. Thanh is very descriptive and has beautiful imagery throughout this book. Not to mention the cover is GORGEOUS. I highly recommend!
This book contains a very detailed father daughter conflict dynamic that resonated with me. And throughout this book we learn of Jade’s family history and the colonial impact on their family by the french.
Throughout the novel there are poetic snippets revealing parts of the house and the haunting. And there are incredible scenes and descriptions detailing the different ways imperialism has impacted vietnam. The use of bugs and infestation in this book is pure genius.
Jade is a complicated character and her relationship with her father is no different. We get to learn a lot about Jade through interactions with her family, with the house, and other characters in the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and though it dragged on for a little too long I still think it’s worth a read if you love haunted horror. Thanh is very descriptive and has beautiful imagery throughout this book. Not to mention the cover is GORGEOUS. I highly recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Murder and Lesbophobia
Bug horror and detailed fire injury.raynbowkitty's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book made me feel physically ill several times. Tough, but intriguing story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, and War
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation
Minor: Alcoholism and Death of parent
uncreativeoops's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The vibes were immaculate, which is pretty important for a gothic horror novel, and the author managed to create an eerie and tense atmosphere while also describing everything so aesthetically. The descriptions felt very... indirect? I sometimes had to reread parts because I wasn't sure what was actually happening but that is by no means a criticism; I adored the language. Plotwise however, I struggled a bit. Haunted houses only work if the characters have a good reason to be in them and not leave once, you know, they realize they might die. In this case, there were reasons for the main character not just going home, but they weren't strong enough for me. I got her motivations and I liked how her struggles with her family and her identity played out, but her behavior in the house was just ridiculous. And some of it seemed like it only happened to set up conflict between characters, the main thing that didn't work for me. Nearly every thing that characters got angry about was so obviously only there to create a shocking reveal and lead to an argument and some of the "dark secrets" I just straight up didn't consider as bad things. The romance also suffered from this.
My favorite thing however were the shorter horror chapters and how horror as a genre was used to discuss colonialism, racism, and sexism. Gothic horror has always been used to portray societal issues with supernatural metaphores and this was done so well here. I also have never read YA horror before and was pleasantly surprised how well these two can be mixed.
My favorite thing however were the shorter horror chapters and how horror as a genre was used to discuss colonialism, racism, and sexism. Gothic horror has always been used to portray societal issues with supernatural metaphores and this was done so well here. I also have never read YA horror before and was pleasantly surprised how well these two can be mixed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Biphobia, Bullying, Homophobia, and Car accident