Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

32 reviews

heatherinthenether'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? 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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

adragoninspace's review

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

---

Content Warnings

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

jessicanb93's review

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Vomit

evelynyle_88's review against another edition

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!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, and Colonisation

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

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Car accident

megj23's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Colonisation

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Blood and Vomit

booksthatburn's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, and Colonisation

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

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Car accident

meaghanelizabook's review

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

---

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

mandkips's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, and Colonisation

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

Minor: Vomit and Car accident

displacedcactus's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

This book was almost impossible to put down. I tore through it, even though I rarely read horror and there was some disturbing stuff on the page. I really found Jade an instantly relatable character. While I, as a white woman, cannot directly relate to her experience as a Vietnamese-American teen who doesn't feel wholly at home in the US or in the country of her parents' birth, I can definitely remember being on the cusp of 18 and angry and at odds with my family. Jade's emotions feel so real and well-portrayed, giving me a lot of empathy for what it must be like to be in diaspora and have to deal with the legacy of issues like colonization and being the child of refugees.

This very complex human character serves to anchor a story that can otherwise feel a bit like a fever dream.

If you're not a big horror reader, make sure to check the content warnings to decide if this is a good book for dipping your toes into the genre!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Biphobia, Homophobia, Racism, and Vomit

In addition to general spooky ghost vibes, a lot of the horror in this book revolves around food and insects. Some of the reaction to food horror could read similar to disordered eating. Keep this in mind if you have a special ick around food or bugs, or if you are concerned about ED.