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

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

2.0

i really wanted to love this book. the premise sounded amazing and i’m always down for food/bug/haunted house horror, but it really fell flat across the board. the main character is a teen in a complicated situation
and i get that she’s meant to be an unreliable narrator once the house gets its claws in her
but it definitely feels like none of her decisions relate to her internal monologue or any characterization we get of her. speaking of internal monologue, there’s a LOT of it. i love scene setting and atmospheric books, especially horror, and it could totally just be the audiobook, but the way the description/prose/jade’s thoughts are weaved in with actual plot is very confusing and slows down the book a lot. there are lots of great plot elements here but way too many, so by the end it feels like none of them amounted to anything, and the central “mystery” also feels unresolved. because of all of that, the ending is completely underwhelming and doesn’t feel earned. also surprisingly disappointed by the romance, which feels forced and rushed though there are some  nice moments. the theme of colonialism is a super important thing to bring into the haunted house trope, and i do feel like it works well in regards to the business partner couple, but at other points it feels like like it gets lost in the confusing narrative rather than working as an actual force in the story the way the haunting itself is. overall really disappointing, unfortunately :(
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