Dear Reader,

I have been training to be a Final Girl all my life. I started watching horror movies way too young and gained a number of weird, morbid interests over the years. I thought I’d be prepared to face the scariest monsters but when I sat down to write this book, I realized that my biggest fear came in a different form.

I was scared of visiting Vietnam and being told that I don’t belong. I was anxious about coming out as bisexual. I was afraid I would never be enough, that my family would never really know me or me, them. My Final Girl training didn’t prep me for this because so few people like me are shown to make it until the end.

So, here’s my version.

This is a story about family and all the ways it can be haunted: missing pieces in your history, unsaid conversations, and the persistent hunger to find a place you can truly call home. At the center of it is Jade Nguyen, an angry but soft-hearted teen who’s only trying to survive as her parents did. That’s all complicated when a lonely house comes to play and of course, two girls who, to Jade, are both dream and nightmare.

I hope you’re scared—really scared!—as you read She is a Haunting, but I also hope the teenage antics within these pages make you laugh.

Welcome to Nhà Hoa. Enjoy the feast!

Trang