
Pair these sentences with Ogilvie’s lyrics - “Lower me down, down, down, down” - and your neck prickles before you’ve even been introduced to Tran’s main character. And then, “The body becomes full of things it did not ask for.” “The house eats and is eaten,” writes Tran, a cancer survivor and former data analyst who uses they/she pronouns. 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.George Ogilvie’s moody song “Grave” sets the tone for the creepy opening page of Trang Thanh Tran’s debut novel, “She Is a Haunting,” which floated into the world on Feb. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house - the home they have always wanted - will not rest until it destroys them. Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves cryptic warnings: Don’t eat. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. The walls exude a thrumming sound while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.īut the house has other plans. When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring.



Angeline Boulley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Firekeeper’s DaughterĪ House with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic. Instant New York Times and Indie Bestseller!Ī riveting debut from a remarkable new voice! Trang Thanh Tran weaves an impressive gothic mystery in which Jade’s father is determined to restore a decrepit home to its former glory and Jade is the only person who feels the soul-crushing devastation of colonialism lingering within its walls. Horror, Suspense, Thriller, Young Adult Fiction
