She Is a Haunting

November 14, 2022
In Tran’s hair-raising supernatural horror debut, Vietnamese American 17-year-old Jade Nguyen travels to Vietnam with her younger sister Lily to visit their father, Ba. Jade and Ba haven’t been close since he left their family four years prior. Though she’s initially opposed to the trip, she agrees to go after Ba promises to pay her university tuition. In Vietnam, the sisters stay with Ba in an old French colonial house called Nhà Hoa, which he has been renovating with plans to open a bed-and-breakfast. There, Jade experiences sleep paralysis and is plagued by nightmares featuring the Vietnamese wife of the white colonist who originally owned Nhà Hoa. When attempting to persuade her family to leave doesn’t work, Jade enlists Florence, the niece of Ba’s business partner, to set up a fake haunting to drive them out. As Jade endeavors to protect her family and uncover Nhà Hoa’s secrets, she struggles to hide her growing feelings for Florence from Ba, whom she believes will rescind his offer of tuition help if he learns she’s bisexual. Tran smartly weaves Vietnamese culture and real horrors of French imperialism to deliver an eerie tale overflowing with deeply unsettling atmosphere. Ages 13–up. Agent: Katelyn Detweiler, Jill Grinberg Literary.

January 1, 2023
Grades 9-12 In exchange for help with her college tuition, Jade Nguyen is reluctantly staying with her estranged father in Vietnam as he transforms an old French colonial home into a bed and breakfast. Heavy feelings of guilt and anger about her family, her closeted identity, and a recent fight with her best friend have Jade's head spinning when she moves into the house, and it soon becomes clear that the house itself has a dark agenda for its residents. Real hauntings, fake hauntings, infestations, dreams that might be visions, and visions that might be real swirl together in Tran's dreamlike debut about complicated families, generational trauma, the long-fingered effects of colonialism. Jade's hazy narration fits the dizzying hold the house has on people, but it might leave readers unsure as to whether they missed some details along the way. Clarity ultimately comes in the sweet and sure-handed romance between Jade and a local girl. An opaque and delicate ghost story for strong readers.

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August 4, 2023

Gr 8 Up-A possibly haunted house, an angry teen, and paranormal elements join forces in this dark debut novel. Jade Nguyen was born and raised in Philadelphia to immigrant Vietnamese parents. When her dad leaves the family, and her mom struggles as a nail technician, Jade becomes discouraged as the possibility of college moves further away due to finances. Now that her dad is renovating an old colonial house in the Vietnamese countryside, he asks Jade and younger sister Lily to spend the summer together. But there's a catch: if Jade makes amends with her Ba and stays for five weeks, he'll pay for her college tuition. Resentful and hurt, she tries in vain to get out of the deal, but strange things start happening around the old house which make Jade's desire to leave even greater: dead bugs, ghosts, and sleep paralysis. When she talks to her dad and sister, they shrug off her concerns. How can Jade survive this summer when the house seems to be haunting her? This novel is a slow-burn, dark tale of identity, immigration, colonialism, and sexuality (Jade is bisexual). The atmospheric creepy things that happen all around the house's inhabitants are eerie and beautifully written, giving readers a tingle in their spines. Though the ending may be confusing to some, this story will be well received by teens looking for representation and empathy. VERDICT Recommended for all libraries, especially for those serving readers seeking Asian and Asian American voices.-Carol Youssif

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Starred review from November 15, 2022
A French colonial house in Vietnam threatens to devour its modern-day occupants. If Jade Nguyen can leave her Philadelphia home with her younger sister, Lily, and last five weeks with her estranged father in Đ� Lạt, he'll help pay for UPenn, the dream school her nail salon employee mother cannot afford, even with Jade's scholarship. Ba is restoring a house from 1920 to be used as a bed-and-breakfast, and he tasks her with creating its website with the help of Florence, his business partner's niece, who went to boarding school in the U.S. and is just a little too attractive to bisexual Jade. Jade plans to keep her head down and get through the summer until she starts noticing strange, eerie things around the house, to say nothing of the ghosts appearing in her dreams. As she learns more about the house's dark past, which is entangled with colonialism and her own family's history and their reverberations in the present day, she finds herself drawn to the ghosts--even as she struggles to protect her family from them. Atmospheric descriptions and sharp plotting combine with slowly escalating danger from both supernatural and terribly real forces. Examinations of Western influences and past atrocities in Vietnam and their effects on the diaspora work in harmony with the novel's uncanny elements, making for a satisfying blend of traditional horror with modern themes and concerns. Both the ghosts and the humans in this richly layered work are alluring and deadly. (Horror. 13-18)

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