She Is a Haunting

Product Information

Jade is forced to make a deal with her dad. He will pay her college tuition if she stays with him for five weeks over the summer. Jade reluctantly agrees, still harboring anger towards him for leaving her family. While staying at her dad's fixer-upper bed-and-breakfast, she sees ghosts and hears things. Determined to prove to herself and her father that something is haunting them, she enlists the help of the girl next door to get physical evidence, Only, things don't go quite as she planned... She Is a Haunting is a YA-story following a girl named, Jade Nguyen, and her experiences at her father's historic, and of course, haunted, house in Vietnam. Jade is haunted both by actual ghosts and the specters of colonialism, which take the form of not-so-subtly racist American expats and the crumbling French villas that dot the countryside around Nha Hoa. She is plagued by visions of ruined insects and decay, and she dreams of memories that are not her own, all while attempting to keep a lid on the resentment she feels toward Ba—and herself.

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. 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.

See a Problem?

The house juts upward, yellow and tangled in vines. Roots crisscross the body, grow into wood and drag it whole into the hill. Hydrangeas climb the crumbling walls beside tall and thin windows, their white blooms kissed with lazy bees. They’re the most loved thing here.

When I don’t know what I want her to say to me in return? Is there a word in Vietnamese for someone like me? Stubbornoverachiever. A stereotype. There’s one in English, but it catches on my tongue. Bisexual. Needy. Neither of us has the language or time to figure it out yet, and there’s a power in never being known because no one can use you against you. For my queer readers, though, and at risk of spoiler for the sake of emotional comfort, I will note that—despite missteps in Jade’s past—both her parents are ultimately loving and supportive of her bisexuality. Of course, this is a super subjective area but for me, at least, I really appreciated the way Jade’s bisexuality and her anxieties around it were handled. The pain of invisibility, and self-enforced passing, is just a difficult thing to articulate. And while coming out is always hard, there’s a specificity to Jade’s fears surrounding it—the way even this is embedded is handed-down trauma of being good, of fitting in, of hiding yourself—that felt very real to me, and spoke to me very deeply. The fact that Jade’s parents, for all their flaws, are able to move beyond some of this damage to accept their daughter for who she is does speak softly but firmly of future hope. 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. A House with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic. Also, at 60% in, we still don’t know why Jade and her ex best friend Halle are ex best friends, even with her new friend/potential love interest, Florence, in the picture.I loved the chilling atmosphere and eventual ghost sightings that made Jade question reality from the supernatural. I was also interested in the haunting history of her family that her dad refuses to talk about. 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. We’re thrilled to share the cover and preview an excerpt from Trang Thanh Tran’s She Is a Haunting—publishing February 28, 2023 in both the US and UK from Bloomsbury YA. He stayed in Saigon with Mom,” I say. Bren barely remembers Ba, or so he claims, so he’d rather hang out with our cousins on Mom’s side for the rest of the trip.