She Is A Haunting: List 3

by Trang Thanh Tran
Needing money for college tuition, seventeen-year-old Jade Nguyen agrees to spend the summer in Vietnam with her father, who is restoring a house that is still under the control of its former French owner.

This list covers "Brain"–"Dermis."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 10 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ordain
    order by virtue of superior authority; decree
    “How about a tour upstairs while we wait?” I ask, with the precise enthusiasm of someone whose distant father ordained them as Guide of This Blessed Evening in a House They Still Don’t Want to Be In.
  2. vanity
    low table with a mirror where one sits while dressing
    Arcs of light bounce from the star chandelier to the walls, but what’s got the couple’s attention is the antique vanity table with a three-paneled mirror.
  3. charismatic
    possessing an extraordinary ability to attract
    He’s charismatic in his own way, when he wants to be, so the fact that he’s carrying three bowls of hot soup doesn’t detract from the image of businesslike sophistication.
  4. pergola
    a framework that supports climbing plants
    After daintily swallowing a spoonful, Alma adds to the reno conversation, “I would definitely go for holly or even koa for the pergola. Both look more expensive.”
  5. bureaucratic
    of or relating to unnecessary procedures and red tape
    What I mean is, bureaucratic rules about who can own what, and travel visas. Our lawyer fussed for months over the paperwork alone.
  6. tepid
    moderately warm
    It doesn’t take a long time to send them off afterward, once the soup grows tepid and the conversation one-sided.
  7. slough
    cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers
    I wake drowning in sweat, sloughing layers like a second skin.
  8. synapse
    the junction between two neurons
    Every synapse in my brain wants a rational explanation for our experiences.
  9. mandible
    either of the mouthparts used by arthropods to bite food
    Where before there were a few ants stuck to the leaves, now there are dozens. A thin brown webbing hugs them close, but it’s unneeded. Their mandibles have already attached to the green.
  10. unobtrusive
    not undesirably noticeable
    I shove aside hangers in the hallway closet. At the rear, sure enough, are the thin lines of a door. Smartly hidden and unobtrusive.
  11. scuttle
    move about or proceed hurriedly
    The attic is large and coated in a thin layer of dust, undisturbed except for Ba’s footprints, drag marks leading to several plain brown boxes, and the scuttling of furry rats.
  12. visceral
    coming from deep inward feelings rather than from reasoning
    A visceral dislike rips through me.
  13. parse
    analyze in detail in order to discover essential features
    It doesn’t take a genius to parse that word from the handwriting on the photograph.
  14. incidental
    minor or casual or subordinate in significance or nature
    Bà Cõ and Cam are incidental relics.
  15. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    The racism is not subtle once you start to look.
  16. impromptu
    with little or no preparation or forethought
    Our impromptu meeting after the attic adventure yesterday had been interrupted by her uncle calling about a late lunch appointment and Ba tasking me and Lily with rooting out “irregularities” (aka small chewed-out holes) in the house.
  17. gaunt
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    Cam looks much more gaunt and blank-eyed, body swallowed whole by an ivory nightgown.
  18. gait
    the rate of moving, especially walking or running
    Conviction seizes her gait again, and she continues downstairs through the pale room and into the kitchen by the same drawer where we store our knives in real life.
  19. malleable
    capable of being shaped or bent
    Attached to the hand is a pale woman whose forehead stretches like the white of a malleable egg, deep-set eyes pressed in the shape of thumbs.
  20. threshold
    the entrance for passing through a room or building
    Her head is the last thing to leave, slinking through the threshold with a wild, stunning grin.
  21. masquerade
    pretend to be someone or something that you are not
    She, like Ba, wants this house to masquerade as a home lovingly passed down generations.
  22. discernible
    perceptible by the senses or intellect
    As we crowd together, as my brain struggles to explain this away, all the lights flicker in no discernible pattern.
  23. macabre
    shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
    Blood dots my bandage, forming a macabre constellation that foretells misfortune.
  24. ply
    keep offering or supplying something desirable to someone
    Although I’m exhausted, I ply myself with herbal teas and melatonin and clean sheets—just in case.
  25. commune
    share or interact intimately with
    The last night and day have been one unending nightmare. And yet my greatest wish now is to commune with a ghost.
  26. devise
    arrange by systematic planning and united effort
    Some small part had hoped that they were really there, devising ways to save us, that I might eventually see them in a dream or in this limbo space.
  27. volatile
    liable to lead to sudden change or violence
    This memory is different from the last—more volatile, earlier than anything she shared before.
  28. paltry
    contemptibly small in amount or size
    She was sick. Marion suffering and making Cam suffer too, draining what paltry fat she had and addling her mind.
  29. addle
    mix up or confuse
    She was sick. Marion suffering and making Cam suffer too, draining what paltry fat she had and addling her mind.
  30. prevail
    be larger in number, quantity, power, status or importance
    I have a girls’ story of my own too now: girl caught in an unwanted marriage, then haunted by the woman who prevails over a stolen house.
  31. iridescent
    varying in color when seen in different lights
    Fish scales are at their iridescent best, flashing and intriguing passersby, and clothes with glitter and sequins catch light like diamonds.
  32. oppressive
    weighing heavily on the senses or spirit
    I could spend my entire night here, away from that oppressive house and what I saw.
  33. metaphysical
    without material form or substance
    I don’t need more baggage leaving Vietnam than I had coming in. I’ve capped it on the metaphysical already.
  34. modicum
    a small or moderate or token amount
    It’s so strange sharing with someone that I sit, minutes later, dazed and terrified that I’d shown a modicum of human emotion in a very public space.
  35. sluice
    pour as if from a conduit that carries a rapid flow of water
    Her thin mouth turns upward in a grin as she demands everyone’s attention, lemon sluicing from the gray shell in her palm to hardwood.
  36. subvert
    undermine or hinder normal operations
    Every trick we did, the house—Marion—subverted it. Made it bigger. Made it real.
  37. collateral
    accompanying; following as a consequence
    As long as he gets what he wants, Ba has never cared about collateral damage.
  38. convulse
    move or stir about violently
    A moth convulses in front of me, in the last throes of death, and outside the earth is pierced again.
  39. bile
    a digestive juice secreted by the liver
    Bile burns my throat as my brain fires off plans.
  40. spindly
    long, thin, and often weak or fragile
    She’s hooked into him as she was in Cam, making her de-head hydrangeas in the night, shoving spindly legged bugs down her throat.
Created on Thu Mar 28 15:02:01 EDT 2024 (updated Fri Mar 29 15:37:49 EDT 2024)

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