I decided to give She is a Haunting a try because it sounded like it might be spooky, and because it has been compared to Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which is a novel that I liked (except for the bizarre turn it takes towards the end). But I saw some reviews that also linked it to Wilder Girls by Rory Power, and I did not like Wilder Girls. So, I went against my instinct and read She is a Haunting, and of course I ended up let down.

She is a Haunting is about seventeen-year-old Jade Nguyen, American born but of Vietnamese descent, who agrees to spend six weeks of her summer with her dad in Vietnam in exchange for his paying her college tuition since her financial aid fell through. Her dad is a Grade A a-hole who left his wife and three children four years earlier so he could go back to Vietnam. He is only too willing to take advantage of Jade’s need for tuition money, but not for the reasons that she thinks, and he gaslights her into believing that she is responsible for him leaving his family behind in America.

Jade’s father is restoring Nhà Hoas, a French colonial house that Jade’s great-grandmother worked at when she was just a child. The history of Nhà Hoas, and the history of Vietnam, which was colonized by the French, is rife with racism, but Jade soon discovers that Nhà Hoas is also haunted by two ghosts: Marion, who was the French mistress of Nhà Hoas and racist AF, and Cam, who was a young Vietnamese woman forced into an unwanted marriage with Marion’s brother-in-law. But it is not the ghosts who control the hauntings at Nhà Hoas. It is the house itself, which is anthropomorphised in interluding chapters throughout the novel, that controls things and “consumes” its inhabitants.

Sounds interesting, but it turns out not so much. The author at times writes in an abstract and almost lyrical language that my tired brain had difficulty comprehending. I would have preferred they had gotten to the point instead of dancing around what they are trying to say in this novel. Ultimately, I found the so-called haunting and gothic aspects of the novel to be boring, albeit disgusting with too many mentions of insects.

What I did find interesting about She is a Haunting is the colonial and post-colonial history of Vietnam. I will admit that I do not know that much about Vietnam (besides the infamous war). My interest was piqued by Jade’s struggle to feel like she belongs in her ancestral country as apparently the Vietnamese look down upon those of Vietnamese descent who cannot speak the language. Jade also encounters racist American expats who seem to be recolonizing the country. And on top of all that, she is hiding her bisexuality from her parents, because if her dad was not already bad enough, he is also homophobic. It is a shame that She is a Haunting is disappointing in its haunting, because otherwise I would recommend this novel.