Remember when I said that Gothic horror was making a comeback? Well, Trang Thanh Tran threw their debut out into the world and proved me right, again. In this Young Adult Gothic horror, we follow Jade Nguyen, a closeted bisexual Vietnamese teen on her way to college at the University of Pennsylvania, as she visits her estranged father in Đà Lạt on the promise that he will pay for her freshman tuition. Ba, her father, is restoring a French colonial house that his father’s family worked in generations ago, and the house has stories that Jade has to discover in order to keep her family together.
She is a Haunting is true to its genre: the gradual increase in its terror and haunting, the haunted architecture that also presents as a character in and of itself, a distressed woman (or women)… The author takes the elements of the Gothic and applies it with a cultural lens that presents a fresh take on the genre. We see how Jade’s fumbling with her Vietnamese culture and history not only affects her character arc, but it also drives the plot of the novel to its climax and resolution. The haunts are unique to the culture, and it grabs the reader’s attention almost immediately as it pricks clues into the mystery of the story.
The subplots in the story are interwoven with the main plot instead of acting like as separate parts of the story. Jade’s difficult relationship with her father acts as the catalyst for the main plot, and its conclusion at the climax shows how vital the subplot matters. Her struggle with her sexuality affects how she moves with the people in her life, and it affects her actions throughout the haunting. Her broken friendship with her now ex-best friend, Halle (whose moments were lacking a little too much in the story, in my opinion), is also not a separate issue. The novel isn’t packed full of side stories that aren’t wrapped up or meaningless, and the author does a phenomenal job with keeping each piece together until the end.
Ultimately, this is a solid debut, and I’m interested in what Trang Thanh Tran publishes next. Will it be another haunting tale? Suspenseful mystery? Even if it isn’t horror, I’m up for checking it out. The writing in SIAH is spectacular, the main character is likeable, and the storytelling is unique; I’m thankful for the bonus chapter, and I want more from the author.
