"Mountains rise from the mist like candles in an uneven buttercream. I want to smash them down with my thumbs. It's ridiculous that Da Lat is so beautiful when I am this angry." Perfectly written.

Trigger warning: Gross

Cover Story: Flower Power

It’s certainly an evocative cover, and the flowers in the mouth thing isn’t just a metaphor. It really happens in the story (and other, less pleasant things, come out of her mouth as well, just warning you).

Also, remember that the title is She Is a Haunting, not SHE’S a Haunting. If you type in the latter, your library’s catalog will say they don’t have it.

The Deal:

Jade Nguyen is the daughter of first generation Vietnamese immigrants. She can’t afford college, and if her mother ever found out, she’d take out a ruinous loan to send her daughter to school. But Jade’s father, who abandoned the family and returned to Vietnam, has a deal for her: if she and her sister Lily will spend the summer in Vietnam helping him work on the French colonial house he’s restoring, then he’ll pay for her college. Not a bad arrangement, eh?

Except it’s not. For starters, Jade can barely stand her absent father, and resents this attempt to pretend to be a happy family. And this French house, with its American backers, really smacks of colonialism. Plus…there’s something in this house. Something unclean and angry. And Jade worries that the thing has an insatiable apatite. If not for her, for her sister.

Drinking Buddy: Mot, Hai, Ba, Yo!

Jade isn’t thrilled about playing a China doll for the American backers, with their condescension and fake tans. And she’s worried about her sister getting sucked into this world. Still, a bargain is a bargain. Plus there’s Florence, her father’s webmaster, who wants to work with Jade on building the website. And the flirting is pretty obvious. But Jade isn’t out to her family, and what’s the point of getting involved when she’ll be headed stateside soon?

Talky Talk: Ugh

So this was one of the grossest books I’ve read in a long time. I mean, really disgusting. Lots of parasites, skin growths, ghosts rubbing maggots on their nude bodies, insects crawling out of Jade’s mouth…it really took away form her blooming romance with Florence and her love for her little sis.

I have to go floss now.

Anti-Bonus Factor: French Occupation of Vietnam


So the house Jade’s father wants to turn into a bed and breakfast is a relic of the French Indochina days. Long before American got involved in that quagmire, the French ruled Vietnam, and treated the locals with the same courtesy and respect as they did with their African colonies (unfortunately).

Jade realizes there’s something unresolved from that era. Maybe something involving one of her ancestors. But this house wants a sacrifice, and it might be Jade. Or worse, Lily…


Anti-Bonus Factor: Dan Scott Award for Awful Parenting

Evil Dan Scott from One Tree Hill
So Jade’s father is using her economic distress to blackmail her into spending time with him. But it doesn’t seem to be out of any sense of loss or regret for leaving (and those nightmares about him digging up corpses are just dreams, right?). Even worse, when the inevitable blowup happens, her father blames Jade for him deserting his family.

Sorry, if you ask your preteen daughter if you should leave, don’t use her snippy ‘Maybe you should’ as permission to hightail.

Bromance Status: Maaaybe…

The ghost story was gross, the plot was convoluted, and the resolution unsatisfying, but I think I’m in for another round. On an empty stomach.

Literary Matchmaking

The Magic Fish
For a much more cheerful book about Vietnamese folklore, try Trung Le Nguyen’s The Magic Fish.


Holly Horror
Michelle Jabes’s Holly Horror is another book about a cursed house and the sins of the past.


Saint Juniper’s Folly
Or Saint Juniper’s Folly, by Alex Crespo.

FTC full disclosure: I received neither money nor a night in a haunted mansion for writing this review.

“I'm lost for words over the million little ways we can hurt for family we hardly know.”

Ahh, I really liked this! Where to start! She Is a Haunting is so captivating and atmospheric that there were times that I forgot to breathe. Tran masterfully blends horror with an exploration of identity, colonialism and family secrets with writing so poignant, lyrical and chilling that makes it so hard to put the book down. I was hooked from the get go and pretty much read this in one sitting.

I think my only criticism was that at times the pacing would lag a little, but that is a very small imperfection for what I got in return. The tension, the eerie atmosphere, the themes surrounding how much you're willing to sacrifice yourself for family... I mean, Tran knew what she was doing and she damn good at doing it.

f you're into gothic horror with a rich cultural twist and a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat, you need to read this! I'm so going to be looking forward to future titles from Tran.

I enjoyed the twist of the main characters returning to an ancestral land that they do not really recall or feel a ancestral land. Juxtaposing it with family drama and a haunted house makes for a rich story that keeps drawing you back to it.

She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran is a layered horror story. A new take on the haunted house trope, where a girl experiences a haunting and then has to fake the haunting so others will believe her. It is queer, creepy, and comments on the colonialism in the past of Vietnam. Thank you NetGalley, for allowing me to read this book and discover a new favorite author.

My Thoughts:

This is not really my genre, but I would like to read only indigenous and diverse (non white) authors so this one caught my eye. I also got a copy of this at the National Council for Teachers of English conference a few years back and quickly gave it away to one of my former students who are now teaching English just because of the gothic horror and beauty of the cover. When I was able to get my own digital copy to read from NetGalley, I must say it took me a while to start it. Again, horror and especially indigenous and Asian horror is not my cup of tea. If you have not delved into Asian horror movies or tales, take my word for it. These are more psychologically horrific than any Stephen King novel. Usually people should be afraid of real people more than ghosts, but in Asian horror, the ghosts enter your dreams and leave traces of their presence in the waking hours.

This story about a Vietnamese American, Jade Nguyen, who makes a deal with her estranged father. If she goes to Vietnam for the summer, he will give her money for college. Jade is used to faking it and she thinks that the five weeks in Vietnam will be an easy way to get money and get out. But the French colonial house that Ba is trying to restore is somehow alive. It reminded me of the movie Amityville Horror with the weird dead insects and insect parts. In addition, there is a beautiful bride ghost that comes to her and that Jade is strangely attracted to. Most scary, perhaps, is the racist, settler colonial neighbors that Ba tries to kowtow to. Yuck.

Jade seems crazy as all gothic horror/mystery protagonists are want to be. That is what makes this so good and horrific.

From the Publisher:

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.

Publication Information:
Author: Trang Thanh Tran
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA (February 28, 2023)
Length: 352 pages

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

I loved this! So spooky and very unsettling. I love this current trend in horror where authors are using systems of oppression as a metaphor for the horror experienced by the characters. Set in Vietnam and featuring a Vietnamese American protagonist, this book explores the past history of white colonialism.

A deliciously dark and haunting YA horror that will have you turning on the light in the middle of the night.

I wanted to like this book a lot. The premise sounded incredible and even as I read, I was pleased with the incorporation of Vietnam history, colonialism, systemic oppression, and family trauma into an intense horror drama with a climactic ending. The descriptions on paper are exactly what I want. Unfortunately, this book just never really locked in for me. I wanted to like it more than I actually did. There were elements and phrasing that I found confusing or distracting. I wasn't sure I liked the main character and had a hard time getting behind her. I never felt swept up in the story despite how engaged I was in the premise. There is a ton here to work with and I will definitely still purchase this book for my library for the representation alone, but this book simply wasn't a great fit for me personall.y.

An unsettling YA horror set in Vietnam. Jade has to visit her estranged dad in Vietnam during the summer while he is fixing up an old house to get the money she needs to go to college. Strange things start happening and Jade starts to uncover the history of the house.

I generally prefer my horror to be faster paced so it took me a while to get through this Sapphic YA haunted house story, but I did ultimately enjoy the journey. Jade agrees to spend 4 weeks with her estranged father in Vietnam at the colonial house he's renovating in return for helping cover her college tuition. It's an arrangement she's already wary to take on, but as stranger and stranger occurrences disrupt her stay in the house, she begins to suspect there's something more sinister going on here. To convince her father the house is haunted, Jade teams up the niece of her father's real-estate partner to fake hauntings until the real thing becomes undeniable. But are not at peace, and they're determined not to let anyone else find peace here either.

This book is actually so scary. Trang Thanh Tran wrote a piece of horror that will creep up under your skin. I literally threw up while reading/listening to parts of this novel because I was so freaked out. I haven’t had that reaction before to any book.

But what I loved about this book was how it ingrains Vietnamese culture and history with this dual citizenship with the US that leaves a very Americanized way of life for its main character, Jade. It touches on the difficulties of family dynamics, especially when younger siblings are involved.

The book is sapphic and touches on topics like coming out, but also incorporates ghosts, historical (and current-day) racism, and body horror.

I just really (for lack of a better word) enjoyed this book as one of the terrifying novels I’ve ever read and will never read again. Perfect for the upcoming spooky season.

This review has 2 parts.

The book itself was very good. It could have been a bit creepier and maybe has less focus on the personal drama in Jade's life but overall, it was a good YA horror book.

The audiobook, on the other hand, oh man. I tried to listen to the audiobook 3 times before I finally MADE myself sit down and deal with it. People have said they had problems with the narrators dry, tonelessness. I didn't have that issue, I think the narrator did a very good job. BUT, no fault of the narrators, she slurred her "s's" and it drove me absolutely batty.

In the end, my advice would be to forgo the audiobook and physically read this yourself.

I spoke about this book on a bookhaul video and I really appreciated this take on horror. There didn't need to be a lot of blood for it to scare me...enough *creaks* and dead insects were enough to do it. I've definitely recommended this book to friends who I know are into horror!

I've tried reading this 3 times and on this third attempt, I made it to about the 60% mark before I gave up for the last time. There's just nothing about this book to hold my attention.

I was really looking forward to this book and the gothic horror that it offered. I was sucked into the story at the start but then felt it meandered and struggled to come to a conclusion. I had to put this book down a few times when I lost interest.

This is a nicely creepy novel.

The mix of colonialist-horror, teen angst, identity and just pure ick of bugs and scares works extremely well.

I loved Jade & her sister, wanted them to find their happy and wanted them to RUN!

I also enjoyed Jade's cultural confusion - the girl who is very much American, but sometimes feels very much not.

Happy I read this and looking forward to whatever the author gives us next!

Certainly different from your standard ghost story. First we have the foreign setting and thus the different depiction of ghosts. These are the friendly ghost/poltergeist types of western fiction but more along the lines of Hungry Ghosts. Wanting consumes a spirit, twisting it over time. Even more interesting is the exploration of our relationship to our parents and culture. Our protagonist is between two cultures: too American for her parents and too foreign for her peers. Add in relative privilege and racism and there's plenty to explore here. There are plenty of visceral details, some of them strange and moderately gross. Compelling to be sure.

This is such a creepy story that willy definitely get under your skin.

I feel like I’ve read quite a few haunted house stories in recent months, and I constantly talk about the haunted house as metaphor, because it is such an effective metaphorical vehicle for so many different ideas. The haunting of a place can open up discussions about trauma, generational divides, feelings that we trap within ourselves, things that remain unspoken and how they fester over time, and I feel like the haunting in this story is absolutely addressing all of those things.

Here, the haunted house represents a perversion of everything an ideal home is supposed to represent: safety, shelter, family, control, stability, refuge. As the spirits haunting this French colonial estate slowly start invading Jade herself through disturbing dreams, loss of body control, intense discomfort and distortion of reality, there’s a thematic transference as the body itself becomes haunting grounds.

What does it mean to be haunted if not to feel the past violently, desperately trying to make itself known in the present? What is a haunting if not unspoken secrets or pain forcing themself into the material world where they can finally be witnessed?

The synopsis makes no secret of the fact that this story is using ghosts as a way to address colonial trauma, specifically. I think it does that so incredibly effectively, especially in exploring how the characters feeling divided between homeland and cultural experience.

Jade and her sister are Vietnamese-American, so they don’t feel Vietnamese enough—especially since they're not comfortable with the language, the mannerisms, the norms, the landscape. But, surprisingly, their father also doesn’t feel like he belongs.

Having left Vietnam for America, a lot of Vietnamese people consider Jade's father to be a cultural “traitor” who abandoned his home without a second thought. That’s why he’s so desperate to pour so much work and so much of himself into restoring this French colonial house, because he wants tangible proof that he is contributing to his country—that he has license to belong in this place.

But of course, you come to see that this place—this representation of the colonial legacy, this place where their ancestors were mistreated and oppressed—is not something worth saving. Is that legacy of pain, suffering, and colonial trauma something this family really wants to claim for themselves?

Again, that’s why this house is such an effective metaphor, because you can replace the floorboards, you can paint over the walls, you can try to hide the painful history of this home from unsuspecting visitors by dressing it up in all these different ways. But the foundation of that place never changes.

So this book really gave me a lot to consider with all of those complex topics, especially considering the thematic intersections with sexual orientation, estranged family, immigration, and isolation.

I do have to admit, is a bit of a slow boil, and there’s one or two minor subplots that I don’t think added to the story in any sort of meaningful way. However, once that final act hits, things get so incredibly intense and, in my opinion, the pay-off that the story is building towards is wildly satisfying. Definitely one of the most impactful endings I’ve read in recent memory, especially within the horror genre. So even if only for that alone, I would say this book is definitely worth the read.