Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

112 reviews

kiracat13's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Violence

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, and Colonisation

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

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Car accident

rosiesbookshelf's review

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Racism

Minor: Vomit

moh_reads's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Xenophobia, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Racism, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Medical content and War

_p0ssum_'s review

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Colonisation

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Car accident

steppenfreak's review

dark emotional tense medium-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

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

disnelyse's review

dark mysterious 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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, and Colonisation

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

Minor: Vomit and Car accident

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.

---

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

zimmermanrl15's review

emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

I really enjoyed this book! The themes around self discovery, colonization, and how we handle feeling like a foreigner in our own culture or home country were laid out in a way that I think is very digestible to an audience willing to understand or relate to those concepts.

I don't have any particularly major gripes with the books overall plot, writing or tropes used, but I will say that I was left with a bit of longing for more. What that 'more' would look like, I'm still unsure of months after I've initially read it and some time to think about it. Possibly higher stakes throughout the whole story, but that would have ruined the slow burn intentions of the house. 

I do think Trang has a great skill for writing thriller/horror and would love to see more from them in the future!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Body horror