She is a Haunting Book Review

I’ve read plenty of horror stories, but not much with a haunted house setting. How did this get away from me? I don’t know. Despite that, I’m glad that I started reading this horror subgenre. There are so many books that use that classic trope, so authors have to find ways to stand out. One such author Trang Thanh Tran did that with their debut novel She is a Haunting. It’s a good young adult gothic horror book set in Vietnam with a memorable location, critiques on French colonialism, and a multi-layered protagonist.

She is a Haunting is about a Vietnamese-American teenager who experiences hauntings in the French Colonial home her father is restoring. When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam to visit her estranged father Ba, she has to survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in a French colonial home he’s renovating. She has always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, and American enough, she can get the money she needs for college from her dad. However, the house has other plans. Each night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls make strange noises, and bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. In the meantime, she finds interesting traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended to. At night, Jade can’t ignore the ghost of a beautiful bride who gives her this warning: don’t eat. Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe her when she tells them strange things are happening. With the help of Florence – a delinquent girl, Jade tries to expose the rotten appetite of a house that doesn’t want to be abandoned again.

Tran does a great job with making the house a well-defined character. The home Nhá Hoa may look beautiful on the outside, but it’s decaying on the inside and will rot the people in it. I love the ways that Tran paints the home in all of its glory, especially how the house shakes, makes the food go bad in a new fridge, and the hydrangeas climb up on its vines. The beauty and history make it appealing, especially to those unfamiliar with its colonialism backstory, but once Jade gets to know it, its ugliness becomes obvious. 

At times, it was not an easy read. Tran is very good at terrifying readers with how the house behaves and tries to warn Jade. I was especially freaked out when she discovers larvae on Lily’s head. I was rooting for Jade to get out of the home as soon as she could. In addition, parts of it focused on how Jade suffers under that roof, especially with the sleep paralysis and with her dad and sister not believing her. Luckily, she tries to find ways to outwit the house with Florence’s help.

Furthermore, since the novel takes place in Vietnam, it makes a lot of sense to dive deep in how French colonialism impacts the house. Not only was it built in the French Colonial style, but it also exemplifies the cruelty associated with colonization. Through the ghost Cam, Jade finds out about the original owners – including Marion aka the Lady of Many Tongues. Jade’s ancestors worked for Marion, and she was awful to them, constantly reminding of their “savage” state. It also doesn’t help that Cam – a Vietnamese woman – was Marion’s sister-in-law. All of that resulted in the toxic environment the house emits. On top of that, American couple Alma and Thomas are interested in seeing the home get turned into a bed and breakfast. This is especially true for the former since she wrote her dissertation about the house and the French colonization of Vietnam – a point that Tran brings up a few times throughout. Some readers have expressed annoyance about how repetitive that could get, but I didn’t mind. After all, Jade is trying to convince the people around her that the house is haunted, so she has to hammer in those points in not-so subtle ways.

The book holds together well because of Jade. Jade is a complex character. She is full of insecurities. She’s Vietnamese American and bisexual, so she never felt like her true self in one place. On top of that, she lies to the people she loves because she doesn’t want to let them down even though some of them have already done that to her. And now, barely anyone believes her about the house being haunted. Her relationship with Ba is frustrating. She hates him since he left their family years prior to the events in the novel, and yet, for tuition money and approval, she comes to him in Vietnam to help him get the house ready for its opening. There’s even a scene, in which he gaslights her into believing that she made him leave. He’s as terrible as Jack Torrance from The Shining.

I was rooting for Jade with her scenes with Florence – the niece of one of the investors. At first, Jade doesn’t care that much since she believes Florence is ditzy, but her walls come down when they spend more time with each other, especially when making elaborate pranks to show how haunted the home is. With Florence, Jade felt the need to be truthful. I’m glad that Florence believed her about the house. 

The novel is a textbook definition of the word slow-burn. The plot takes its sweet time moving from one point to another. It’s filled with Jade having the night terrors and seeing the flashbacks, then it switches to Jade doing something about the house. But, then no one believes her, and it goes into scenes, where she analyzes everything that led her up to that point, and repeats. However, the finale is insane and will burn into readers’ minds. 

She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran is a good YA gothic horror novel. Having a haunted house story set in Vietnam offers so many possibilities, and Tran uses quite a lot of them. The home is equally beautiful and eerie, and I wondered what other things it could do. In addition, they do a wonderful job with critiquing French colonization by integrating in the histories of both the house and Jade’s family. As for Jade herself, she may not be the most likeable teenager, but many teen readers will certainly identify themselves in her. It’s not as easy to read because of how slow and intense it can get. I would recommend it to those who love gothic horror novels, especially Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and stories involving Asian-identifying and/or LGBTQ+ characters. It will haunt you in the best way possible.

Before I go, I want to let everyone know that I have recorded the latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast. Guest and book lover Hadley and I talk about how we would adapt this novel into a miniseries. Keep an eye out for the link.

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