She Is A Haunting Is So Much More Than Just A Gothic Queer Ghost Story

Who doesn't love a good ghost story? Trang Thanh Tran’s debut novel, She Is A Haunting, delivers this and more, while placing a queer Asian protagonist in a role historically reserved for cis white women.

The novel tells a haunted house tale centering around the protagonist Jade, a bisexual Vietnamese American teen and recent high school graduate. Desperate for a way to pay for college and begin a life where she can live openly, Jade is forced to spend five weeks with her estranged father in Vietnam after he offers to pay for her tuition if she stays for the summer. Soon after arriving at the house, Jade is beset with sleep paralysis, horrifying dreams, piles of dead insects, and a compelling ghost bride.

This book is a slow-burn horror show that creeps under your skin with every turn of the page. It provides the well-loved paranormal horrors of things that go bump in the night, alongside the more real-life horrors of colonialism, racism, and homophobia. The balance of real and supernatural horrors is very well executed, in that a well-educated white woman romanticizing the French colonization of Vietnam is somehow just as terrifying as a home that quite literally wants to consume her.

This story is complex and nuanced, particularly for the young adult genre. There are plenty of gruesome horror elements, along with struggles of personal identity, family connections, generational trauma, and juvenile pranks, and that only begins to scratch the surface. In a story that has so much going on, it would be easy for lines to get crossed, tangled, or even lost along the way. Such is not the case in She is a Haunting, and the overall effect gives the impression of a pervasive sort of threat which is deeply unsettling and incredibly effective in tone.

Overall, She is a Haunting is a must-read for lovers of ghost stories and social horror.

She is a Haunting is available today on bookstands.