Though I’m undecided on whether or not I believe in ghosts, I do enjoy a good ghost story every now and then. Usually, the book I end up choosing is YA or middle grade fiction and is pretty low key. The new YA book She Is a Haunting fulfilled my craving for something a bit on the spooky side for a while and also had some more mature themes, most of which just added to the creepy vibe.
Little known fact about me: I love big, old houses. So, books that are set primarily in a big, old house are always something I look forward to reading. If the houses happen to be haunted, that just comes with the territory sometimes.
Jade and her sister, Lily, are staying with their father for several weeks in Vietnam. The deal is: spend some time with her dad and sister at the old house he’s finishing up restoring and collect a nice little sum of money to go towards college tuition. Sounds easy enough. But Jade can’t help remembering some of the last moments she shared with her dad before they became estranged. She blames herself for how things played out and though she doesn’t say it, there are lots of moments in the book where it’s clear Jade is dealing with some complex emotions.
Jade is trying her best to ignore the nightmares and eerie things that are happening to her and around her, but eventually it’s no longer avoidable. Something is different about the nightmares she’s been having, and it has something to do with the house. Though Lily is young and gullible, even she tries to poke holes in the haunted house theory, accusing Jade of trying to escape her time with their dad. What if Lily is right and Jade is just seeing things?
As the story continues, Jade confronts her father about the bad spirits she senses and sees around the house, but unsurprisingly, her explanations are futile, her father is focused on finishing up the house project and making sure everything is perfect so he can show off all of his hard work.
Things started getting a little bit more complex and harder to follow at this point in the book. Jade’s nightmares and reality started to blend, and it was difficult for me to keep track of what was and wasn’t really happening and what was Jade having a vision. The last half of the story was pretty intense, lots of confrontations with characters both real and ghostly. For all of the buildup about the house being haunted, the story ended quite abruptly and I found myself reading the last few pages over again just to be sure I was getting it all. If you’re looking for something that will make your skin crawl and might give you nightmares or a bit of trouble falling asleep at night, consider giving She Is a Haunting a try!
Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy from Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 3 mild obscenities; 7 religious profanities; 5 derogatory names; 50 scatological words; 4 anatomical terms; 26 F-Word derivatives.
Violence/Gore: Minor has nightmares throughout the book that are very realistic, in one, she sees a woman in the kitchen eating out of the fridge and realizes the woman is eating noodles with maggots; a minor slices her hand open with a knife and some blood is mentioned; a mention is made of a story about a girl who was murdered and thrown down a well, another story about a girl who appears in roads in front of cars and causes accidents; a brief scene occurs where a woman is reported to be found hanging from the rafters, her eyes are described to be open and bulging; a brief scene occurs where a minor sees a woman eating a centipede which is described in detail; a light fixture breaks and shards of glass are reported to fall onto the protagonists younger sister; a brief scene occurs where a man finds human skulls buried in his yard, later his daughter finds old pictures depicting soldiers standing beside bodies of men they have killed and they wonder if the picture and skulls are connected; minor has a dream where a woman is angry at the man she was forced to marry and throws oranges at him, verbally threatening him; a girl sees legs dangling from the fireplace chimney in their house and realizes her sister somehow got stuck, she rushes to rescue her, hoping her sister is alive; a man is reported to slap his daughter; a brief scene occurs where a woman runs away from her husband, it is mentioned that she trips on her skirt, crying out in pain, some blood is mentioned; a brief scene occurs where a woman hides a knife in her bed and kills her husband, blood is mentioned; a couple is reported to get into a car accident, drunk driving is suspected; a girl investigates a sore on her sisters head which results in an abscess being punctured and some sort of larva being extracted, this is described in detail, some blood is mentioned; a rumor about a man falling from the roof of a house he was working on and dying is mentioned; a brief scene occurs with a woman having an encounter with a minor and accusing her of causing the car accident that resulted in the death of her husband, the woman attacks the girl with a wooden board and hits her several times, the girl fights back and ends up punching the woman and causing the woman to fall and become unconscious; a woman knocks her ex-husband over the head with a pan in a brief scene; a character decides haunted house needs to be burned down and douses the house with gas and eventually the house starts to burn, a character walks back into burning house, implied death.
Sex/Nudity: A minor sees a woman in a revealing robe in a dream; a minor’s sexual preferences are referred to; virginity is referred to as a morality issue; minor girls who are implied to be attracted to each other hug; a girl kisses another girl on the forehead in a platonic manner; a brief scene occurs with the protagonist and her friend (same sex) touching each other and kissing, the protagonist describes her skin feeling hot.
Mature Subject Matter:
Girl experiences her first period without her mother, ghosts and haunting, same sex romance, racism.
Alcohol/Drug Use:
Adults drink wine; an accident is mentioned to be caused by drunk driving; a woman smokes cigarettes; drinking is referred to.
