She Is a Haunting

English language

Published May 6, 2023 by Bloomsbury.

ISBN:: 978-1-5266-5708-4

(2 reviews)

Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough – at least for this summer with her estranged father in Vietnam. Just five weeks of ignoring the quietly decaying French colonial house he's fixing up, then college and freedom are hers.

But soon Jade begins waking up every morning certain that something has clawed down her throat. . . from the inside. Then the ghost of a beautiful bride visits her with a cryptic warning: DON'T EAT.

When her father and little sister don't believe her, Jade decides to scare them into leaving by staging some haunting events of her own. She recruits Florence, the daughter of her dad's business associate (and more of a distraction than Jade bargained for) to help.

But the house has other plans. It's hungry. A home, after all, is only as powerful as those who breathe new life …

Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough – at least for this summer with her estranged father in Vietnam. Just five weeks of ignoring the quietly decaying French colonial house he's fixing up, then college and freedom are hers.

But soon Jade begins waking up every morning certain that something has clawed down her throat. . . from the inside. Then the ghost of a beautiful bride visits her with a cryptic warning: DON'T EAT.

When her father and little sister don't believe her, Jade decides to scare them into leaving by staging some haunting events of her own. She recruits Florence, the daughter of her dad's business associate (and more of a distraction than Jade bargained for) to help.

But the house has other plans. It's hungry. A home, after all, is only as powerful as those who breathe new life into its bones. And this one is determined never to be abandoned again …

2 editions

Alex Cabe reviewed She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

Fun Horror that Seems Caught Between Categories

4 stars

Overall a very solid, spooky read. It was enjoyable to have a slightly prickly protagonist, and her struggles with family and the legacy of colonialism were well presented and thematically resonant.

I think it was a mistake to market this as a YA book. It's a coming of age story about a teenager coping with her family, but I think it's too challenging and slow burn to really connect with teenage audiences.

The motifs were obvious (food, insects) but well used throughout the book.

I would rate this solidly four stars until about 85% of the way through, but the ending was a bit of a letdown and put in on the three/four star border for me. Horror endings are hard to get right, and I think the secondary antagonist muddled things.

chaos_angel

rated it

Aug. 29, 2023

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Asian Diasporic Novels