Welcome to Litsy!

Creepy, unnerving. Ghosts and a haunted house. But the real horrors are the inter-generational trauma, colonialism, and racism. There‘s also strained family relationships, the loss of a best friend, coming out, and more. It sounds like maybe too much…but it honestly wasn‘t in the adept hands/brain of Trang Thanh Tran.

“I‘m lost for words over the million little ways we can still hurt for family we hardly know.”

This one is kind of like a YA version of Mexican Gothic crossed with My Mother's House and set in Vietnam. I almost bailed a couple of times because it's so difficult to tell what's going on or why the characters react the way they do. It feels like the author is making the characters do things that don't line up with their personalities for the purpose of making a point about colonialism. And the haunting itself is very confusing.

Second book in a row featuring this name! (The other was The Push, which I finished in the wee hours this morning.)

I really wanted to love this one but, in the end, it was only ok for me. It‘s another story that‘s full of background and family dynamic and lighter on the horror. I tend to like my mystery/horror to be more thrilling and this just wasn‘t that. It is an interesting look at generational trauma and colonization and coming of age in a broken family. Not exactly what I was looking for but not bad. 🌟🌟🌟

Vietnamese-American teen, Jade, is spending a sweltering summer with her estranged father. In exchange for college funds, she‘s helping him turn a crumbling French Colonial house into a B&B. Caught between world & cultures, on the cusp of adulthood, Jade is faced with gruesome ghosts, creepy-crawlies, strange noises, sleep paralysis, & an ominous warning: “Don‘t eat.”

#10inmytop10

I felt for Jade who still was figuring out who she was. There was quite much about main character trying to find her place in the world and I am not sure if that was what I was expecting from this story. This was “a gothic horror“ book after all. Jade also had a love interest and that relationship lacked a good build up.

There were ghosts and strange scenes but I wasn't thrilled while reading them.

If bugs and parasites really creep you out, then this book will be your idea of horror. The house is also haunted, but the bugs really stood out for me.

It also gets into the history of the French colonization of Vietnam, which is often glossed over in American history classes.

I liked the main character, Jade. I thought she was bad ass. The book had some good coming-of-age LGBTQ themes and dysfunctional family dynamics.

“‘Love you too,‘ I mumble. Maybe this is why our parents never tell us anymore; it‘s too much like saying mud is dirty or the sky is blue.”

Nothing like a haunting story and a great deli sandwich for lunch on Halloween, especially after yet another medical appointment.

Sorry I've fallen off the radar again. Health issues abound and between work and doctor's appointments and tests, I have little energy for anything else.

On the bright side, I am on track to finish this book tonight, which is fitting, and hopefully I'll be back to share my thoughts on it soon!

This was a really spooky book, though some aspects were vague to the point that Jade‘s conclusions seemed to come out of nowhere to me—I don‘t know how she put it all together! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I generally prefer my horror to be faster paced so it took me a while to get through this Sapphic YA haunted house story, but I did enjoy the journey. Jade is spending 4 weeks with her estranged father in Vietnam at the colonial house he's renovating but strange things are happening. To convince her father the house is haunted, Jade teams up the niece of her father's real-estate partner to fake hauntings until the real thing becomes undeniable.

Coffee shop reading

Some YA horror and historical sapphic romance this weekend #WeekendReads

Nothing fun about 2 days of migraine in a row, but I did at least get to break out a new book I've been wanting to read and socialize my new little guy (Casper) for the first time

Another #backlogpost

This one wasn‘t bad! Buuut it super engaging either. A lot of it was very lyrical and purple prose-y that didn‘t land with me.

The story is fun though! It‘d got good gothic vibes for a YA audience. I just wish it kept the lyrical parts to one character instead of having them interspersed.

This Gothic Horror, set in Vietnam, centers Jade Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American girl on the cusp of adulthood. She‘s stuck between worlds on more than one level, and now she‘s being haunted by multiple ghosts. One, obviously malicious, another, baring an ominous warning, “Don‘t eat.”

As haunting as the title promises, this ghost story is a great book to kick off Summer with!