A review by ravensandlace
She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

2.0

Title: She is a Haunting

Author: Trang Thanh Tran

Genre: YA Horror

Format: paperback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 2 stars

tw: parental abandonment, homophobia, blood, potential murder, injury, racism, car accident, bugs, assault on a child, human burning, body horror

I wanted to like this book so badly. According to the description, it seemed spooky and creepy. But I struggled with it and spent most of the book confused. It wasn’t for lack of trying. The sequence of events that were happening was just way too much.  

There were some positives about this book. First, I enjoyed the Vietnamese history throughout the book. I confess I don't know much about Vietnam or its history so it was lovely to learn a little more about the country. Vietnam seems to have such a rich history and I’d love to learn more about the country as a whole. 

My second positive was how realistic Jade was as a teenager. Jade drove me also a little crazy but she was a teenager and teenagers drive me a little nuts. I had to constantly remind myself that she was a teen so therefore she was going to be irrational and do things that made no sense to me, an adult. 

But holy cow, I was so damn confused the whole time. After a third of the way through the book, I had no idea what was truly going on. There were things Jade was doing that made no sense to me. There was her home being haunted but then she was doing things to make her house haunted so her dad would believe the house was haunted? I have no idea what was truly happening. 

The history of the house in Vietnam also confused me. I think it belonged to Jade’s family. But there were so many names and Jade was finding out things extremely slowly. I was honestly so confused almost the entire book as I mentioned above. I still have no idea whose house it truly was and who it had originally belonged to. I don't even know what happened to the original owners.

Also, a shout out to the worst parent ever goes to Jade’s dad. This may be considered a spoiler so read this at your own risk. So Jade's dad left the family because Jade, who was 13 at the time, told him too. I’m sorry but what kind of crappy adult listens to the whims of a child and then blames her. Yeah, you read that right. He says it's her fault that he left the family. Like no sir, you are the one who chose to listen to a child. My son tells me to go away all the time but you think I’m going to listen? No, because he’s a damn child. 

Overall, while this was an okay book, I was just disappointed and mostly confused. There were some good points to it but overall, this was just a miss for me. I think others might like it, especially since Jade is queer and it takes place in Vietnam. But honestly, this book was not for me.