I still don’t have quite the words at the moment to eloquently explain what was so striking/compelling about this story, so much so that I couldn’t stop reading it once I’d started. The eerie (and certainly horrific) details, the complicated familial ties (especially between Jade and her father, the mysterious haunted house, the themes of colonization and queerness — it’s got a lot of stuff going on, that’s for sure.

I really enjoyed this book! It was creepy and dark. I loved the setting and could feel the humidity and the way the walls seemed to be closing in.

3.5

I really enjoyed the set up and Jade's investigation into the history of the house. I don't know if it was the pacing or something else but somewhere along the way I started losing interest. Would still recommend to anyone who enjoys horror or haunted houses.

Jade needs money for college, so she makes a deal with her dad to live in Vietnam for part of her summer while he fixes up an old home. Someone is haunting this house, and someone is trying to warn her. The scary dreams, sleep paralysis (where you wake up but CANNOT move), and seeing mysterious people just appear are all pretty creepy. However, it’s the bugs that really got my skin crawling.
Read for:
Family drama
Supernatural happenings
Queer love
Anti-colonial sentiment

The cover of this book is absolutely *stunning* - I couldn't wait to get my hands on it - and the story did not disappoint. I found myself sinking slowly slowly slowly into this dreamy almost-gothic novel, almost as though the humid heat of the book dictated the pace and tone of the story. This is a solid debut by a writer-to-watch.

Jade Nguyen is in desperate need of money for college, so when her estranged father in Vietnam offers to pay in exchange for her help with renovating an old French colonial home, she agrees. However, when she arrives, she soon realizes that the house is haunted and oh, so hungry.

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran is a chilling eco gothic that deftly explores diaspora and the horrors of colonialism.

Right off the bat, I want to point out that the writing style in this book is extremely poetic, which comes as a double-edged sword. At times, the writing is gorgeous and biting, but occasionally there are bizarre mixed metaphors that don't create a cohesive image and left me scratching my head, For instance, after accidently injuring her hand, Jade decides to dramatically open the window.

"I throw the window open, a guillotine in reverse. Cool air rushes in, drying my skin and cooling me down, but I am a flame. Rain splashes on the sill and mixes with blood."

I have so many questions. Why does the simple act of open a window merit being likened to an execution device? It's pouring rain and humid outside, so how does opening the window dry her off? Why liken herself to a hot flame while mentioning that she’s physically being cooled off? I feel like more could be done to show the contrast here--like saying something along the lines of: “The damp air cooled my skin, but I still seared from within.”

Nitpicking aside though, there were some genuinely creepy ghost and bug scenes that gave me the heebie jeebies, and if you loved the themes and atmosphere of Mexican Gothic or The House of Drought, you’d probably like this one as well.

After reading 20% of this book, I decided it wasn't for me. The pacing wasn't as brisk as I'd hoped. Based on what I did read, I enjoyed the setting and the rocky family dynamics that formed a good foundation for the story.

"'All houses have a little death in them, given time.' Ba says. 'There's no need for more, which is why we're going to settle this right now.'"

------------------

Jade is about to go off to college but knows she can't afford tuition. In exchange for spending the summer with her estranged father, he offers to pay her bill. All she needs to do is to stay with him as he renovates a home for future renting and help design the house's website. She is more than begrudging but her sister joins her and she forges forward. Quickly she learns that the house has a colonial history haunting it that has impacted her family for generations. She becomes consumed by understanding what has happened and how to end it.

This one had a creative take on the generational impact of colonialism, a bit like Babel, without being so obviously erudite... and much darker of course. I liked that it was mostly gothically creepy but toed the line of graphic horror as the story went on. I also really appreciated that you get answers and resolution, so much horror leaves it to reader interpretation, this story is not that.

Thanks to Bloomsbury for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

**3.5-stars**

She Is a Haunting is a YA-story following a girl named, Jade Nguyen, and her experiences at her father's haunted house in a remote area of Vietnam.

Jade, who lives with her Mom and siblings in the United States, is getting ready to start college and is concerned about money. School is expensive and she can't ask her Mom, who has sacrificed so much for them and works so hard, to contribute any more.

Thus, Jade is in a bit of a pickle. Her estranged father, who abandoned them and moved back to Vietnam, has the money. He offers it to her on the condition that she and her little sister, Lily, go and live with him for the summer. The thing is, Jade is really angry at her Dad, like really, really angry. After he walked out on them, they never dealt with that trauma. They don't even talk about. It's sort of pushed under the rug, the reality of it all.

Unfortunately, Jade feels like she has no other option. She can make this work. It's like 5-weeks. She can suffer through anything for that amount of time, or can she?

Along for the journey with Jade and Lily are their Mom and younger brother. Their Mom and younger brother are going to be staying with their Mom's family in a different city though, so it will just be Jade and Lily forced to stay at their Dad's place. His home is actually a French-style villa left over from the colonial era that he is currently converting into a B&B. The renovation is going strong when they arrive and their Dad actually expects their help.

Jade's assigned task is to get a sleek and modern website up and running for info and reservations. As you can imagine, she's thrilled to be doing her father's bidding. Helping her with the site, is the daughter of one of her Dad's business partners, a local girl named, Florence, who Jade is immediately intrigued by. Maybe this won't be so bad.

Then the weirdness kicks in. Strange happenings at the house, visions, dreams, sounds, sleep paralysis; Jade is convinced the house is haunted, but no one believes her. Perhaps with a little help from Florence, they can make them believe.

This is an intriguing story and I did enjoy Trang Thanh Tran's writing style. Jade was an interesting character. She is very angry, so being in her head isn't always a comfy, relaxing place to be, but she's certainly allowed her feelings. I respected the author allowing her to sort of live in the negative spaces in her mind, without trying to cure her of anything. She's been through things, she's allowed to hold that grudge, particularly against her estranged father.

I enjoyed the set-up, the reason for Jade traveling to Vietnam and the reason she needed to stay there. Additionally, some of the imagery, including descriptions of body horror, bug scenes and sleep paralysis were really well done, quite creepy. However, I did grow a little bored with it. It was just so slow. I don't mind a slow burn, and I would definitely classify this as one, however the payoff needs to be worth it.

Personally, I felt the ending of this got a little too chaotic and slightly confusing for me to necessarily consider the slow burn worth it. I did enjoy and appreciate a lot of the topics examined here, including the different relationships Jade had with her family members, the impact and repercussions of colonialism, Jade's family history and sexuality.

The brightest lights for me was the love and respect that Jade had for her Mom, as well as the investigation Jade started into the history of the house.

Overall, I do think this is a compelling, though slow paced, haunted house story. I did enjoy my time with it, even though it tended to drag in certain places. I appreciate the author's attention to detail, creativity and spooky imagery.

Thank you to the publisher, Bloomsbury YA, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I would absolutely be interested in picking up future work from Trang Thanh Tran!

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
Published: February 28, 2023
Netgalley Digital ARC
Genre: YA Gothic Mystery/Horror, LGBTQ+
Trigger warnings: Colonization, Racism, Body Horror, Insects, Rotten Food, Gaslighting, Panic, Sleep Paralysis, Fire
Rating: 5/5 stars for being uniquely dark and diverse – this is a fresh look at YA horror and gothic mystery

Summary (Amazon): This house eats and is eaten . . .

"A riveting debut from a remarkable new voice! Trang Thanh Tran weaves an impressive gothic mystery in which Jade's father is determined to restore a decrepit home to its former glory and Jade is the only person who feels the soul-crushing devastation of colonialism lingering within its walls." --Angeline Boulley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Firekeeper's Daughter

A House with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic.

When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She's always lied to fit in, so if she's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.

But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don't belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can't ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves cryptic warnings: Don't eat.

Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house--the home they have always wanted--will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house's rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.

Review: Jade’s presence at her estranged father’s house is completely transactional – she has offered this visit and her work to help him market the rental of the residence in exchange for the money she needs to continue her education. Her sister Lily accompanies her, and her father’s business partner’s niece, Florence, has offered to assist her on the web site design. Jade soon finds that there are underlying dark secrets within the house along with the secrets she shares with her Ba (father). The dark history of the house is entangled with Jade’s family history – we learn something about the history and colonization of Vietnam. I was doubly horrified not only by the house, but by its racist history – Jade is haunted by all the ghosts – the past of Vietnam, the past of the house and by her own family’s past. This is a gruesome horror story with substance – be forewarned there are many instances of food and insect horror.

Truth be told, there is a lot to love in this book. Jade is a relatable character with layered, complex feelings about her identity, her family, and the space she wants to carve for herself in the world. Tran made this book feel as though it was written from experience. The scenes between Jade and her father are particularly heartbreaking, and there was a sense of rawness there that made their every interaction painfully real. The narrative surrounding Jade’s diasporic experiences is as barefaced as it is informative. The point is not to present a comfortable account of past and present events, but to be honest in their portrayal.

The mystery had me hooked from the first page and dragged me willingly along until the very last. The way the author describes the house and everything that happens within its walls is both beautiful and deranged, and in a way, that is the perfect descriptor for this book. It starts off quietly, with a sense of discomfort and strange occurrences that can be written off by Jade’s father and sister. The reader is, perhaps, even more aware than Jade, as we are privy to chapters from the house’s point of view. As short as they were, I found these sequences particularly disquieting. There is nothing quite as chilling as realizing your house is alive and wants to consume you, body and soul.

In fact, much of this book is a slow descent into madness, growing ever darker with every step closer to solving the mystery. As someone who occasionally suffers from sleep paralysis, I found the moments in which Jade is unable to move while the house and its otherworldly inhabitants play with her mind particularly terrifying. Most of the thrills in this book are more disconcerting than anything else, but if you’re easily disturbed by insects or rotten food, proceed with caution. But if you can stomach it, the visuals will undoubtedly serve you exactly what you ordered. I’ll admit, this one gave me nightmares, though I found it was all worth it in the end.

She is Haunting was thrilling from the start. With a distinct ominous sense, this book allows the creepiness, the supernatural, to slowly rise. Beginning with the deal Jade makes to unlock her dreams, we already know her family is complex. Having traveled to Vietnam to secure the finances she needs, we can already sense that there are secrets. Destructive ones that just might tear the house down.

I was immediately drawn to Jade. How she's so protective of her sister, afraid of coming out to her father, and forced to confront the past settling in the walls. Her feelings as a diaspora child - coming back to Vietnam and feeling this disconnect - were an instant reason I empathized with her. This feeling where things are supposed to feel familiar, languages fluid on our tongue, but the reality is vastly more difficult.

I liked this book! It is slow, dark and eerie, and will definitely send shivers up your spine. Who wouldn’t be terrified if they saw the ghost of a murdered girl on their balcony, or a vengeful red-headed ghost in their attic, or some disturbing insects in their body? Major yikes! I want to love this book – I really do – and I like to give it a 5, BUT I find the writing style hard to follow due to the sudden shifts in language. It actually bothers me when I’m reading and a not-so-familiar word appears and I have to look it up on Google to understand it. Still, I’ll recommend this book because of the overall atmospheric horror it gives

I really liked what Tran did with this story.

Anything that leads with a haunting, a sentient or otherwise inhabited inanimate object, complicated father-daughter relationships, a self-aware, queer, motivated, complex, and confused main character will have me reaching for it. The malevolence that comes through as Jade learns more of the house's history and previous owners is a palpable thing, as are the marks left by French colonialism.

She Is A Haunting brings this and much more, the underlying sinister vibes, entangled familial and colonial history, identity, sexuality, and the need for acceptance are all wrapped around Jade as she tries to navigate her fraught relationship with her father in order to be able to pursue her educational aspirations.

I love that Tran has given us a look at how each child responds to the father in their way, based on their age and understanding of why he isn't home with them. It also speaks to their complex relationship with ther heritage and cultural identity. How you feel in the place of your parent's birth and history versus how you feel in your country of birth that finds many ways to make you feel Other.

But it is also the sacrifices that we can be led to make for those we love, while ignoring the damage such actions cause. It is learning and relearning, listening and understanding that there is always another story, another person who was also used and impacted by the need for power and longevity.

She Is a Haunting is a beautifully-written, powerful book. The themes of racism and colonialism add a depth that is often lacking in ghost stories and the inclusion of queer characters is much-appreciated. Highly recommended for YA horror fans.

Rating - 4.5 stars
When Jade Nguyen visits her father in Vietnam, she plans to pretend they're a happy family for five weeks while he restores the French colonial house they are living in. She has always tried to fit in and hopes that if she's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, and American enough, she can get the college money he promised. But the house has other plans. Every night, she has sleep paralysis, dead bugs everywhere, rot, and the ghost of a beautiful bride. Worst of all, her Ba doesn't believe her, so with the help of Florence, the niece of her dad's business partner, she sets out to discover the truth. This has a slow-burning tension with several creepy moments and the perfect atmosphere for a horror story. The writing is so poetic, and it perfectly contrasts the horror elements in it. Trang Thanh Tran reminds us that a haunted house is not just about ghosts but that its history plays a very huge role. Tran did a very beautiful job in weaving the gothic elements with the long reach of colonialism. I loved the lyrical writing and how the author handled JAde grappling with her identity as a bisexual, Vietnamese-American. This is definitely the perfect read for the fans of Mexican Gothic.

tws // internalized biphobia, body horror, systemic/interpersonal racism, colonialism, death of a parent, depiction of hanging, mention of domestic abuse, murder

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Whether you believe in the paranormal or not, ghosts haunt us. They may be ghosts of our past, apparitions of what is to come, or in the case of Jade Nguyen, spirits of those who had long since passed through Nhà Hoa. For Jade, she has long been haunted by the sins of her father, a man with generational trauma that, at times, presented in the form of physical or emotional abuse towards his eldest daughter. Things got more challenging for her family when her father left to return to Vietnam, chasing the home he had left and the dream of making a life there for himself and presumably his family. Jade watched as her mother worked herself to the bone to provide. As a result, when Jade's father offers her an opportunity to pay for college in exchange for spending the Summer with him in Vietnam, she jumps at the chance to relieve her mother of the burden she carries.

But the metaphorical ghosts of Jade's past are not alone at Nhà Hoa. Ominous messages, dead insects, and rotting food are just the beginning of the torment this home's past brings to the surface. As Jade battles against the paranormal, she must also contend with Vietnam's tumultuous history with the white people who colonized it.

Trang Thanh Tran's haunting tale of a girl who must combat her ghosts while fighting off the evils of colonization is moving and very well written. While the prose was gorgeous, it was sometimes difficult to follow. That said, her words were evocative and left me feeling nauseous, sad, and worried at times. I think books like Tran's are vital to the groups of marginalized people who have for so long suffered at the violent hand of white saviorism and colonization. Many times during "She is a Haunting," I was left wanting to physically climb into the book to help Jade in fighting back the ghosts of those that treated the Vietnamese people like parasites when it was abundantly clear that they were, in fact, the criminal, invading parasite, harming Vietnam and its people.

Putting all the beautiful and poignant metaphors aside, Trang Thanh Tran can write the absolute socks off a horror book. Including the bugs alone was enough to send my skin crawling, but adding in the twists and turns? Yeah, this one is sure to become a hit.

My only honest criticism was of the romance written into the book. It sometimes felt a little rushed and confused, leaving me wishing we had seen the relationship between Jade and Florence blossom a little more. Still, I felt connected to Jade in the confusion of figuring out who you are and where you fit in the world.

I look forward to reading more by Tran in the future.

This slow-burn of a YA horror novel really got me -- at several points, I had to put the book down and gather myself. The creepy, gruesome moments are intense! Loved Jade as a narrator; her voice is wonderful, a blend of snarky and scared, pulsing with the righteous anger of a teenage girl who has seen some shit. Clever take on the female gothic, particularly in its fury at colonialism. (The white neighbor-investors are such pitch-perfect villains.) Will 100% read this author's next book!

Normally I don't love young adult novels, but I liked this one. What made it unique was the setting (Vietnam) and its connection with French colonialism, something I really didn't know anything about. The idea of hauntings is pervasive---the house, the protagonist, and her father are all haunted by things in the past. The descriptions were creepy and the suspense made me want to continue reading to the end.

I received an e-ARC of this book on NetGalley for review purposes.

SIAH is a gorgeous novel, following Jade during her trip to Vietnam and staying with her father in the house he is renovating. There is a lot Tran is doing with this book: it’s a story of a haunting, a story of a fraught family, a story of empire and it’s aftermath, and a story of a teenager trying to untangle life’s messiness.

Jade’s voice is a treat to follow in the novel. She is a balance of both snark and aching that I felt acutely while reading. Her pain comes across the page, as does her fear in light of the creepy happenings with the house. I think the use of Mexican Gothic as a comp is apt, with the dread and skin crawling narrative woven seamlessly into the novel. It never feels heavy handed, but enough to keep you on your toes and reading on. I definitely recommend for fans of horror, and also those who love voicey stories that explore complex immigrant family dynamics and gorgeous prose.