Black Water Sister

by Zen Cho

A finalist for the 2022 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel
One of BookPage's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2021
One of Tor.com Reviewers' Choice Best Books of 2021
One of Book Riot's Best SFF Standalones of 2021

“Ghosts. Gods. Gangsters. Black Water Sister has it all…a wildly entertaining coming-of-age story for the twentysomething set, with a protagonist who is almost painfully relatable at times.”—Vulture

"A twisty, feminist, and enthralling page-turner."—BuzzFeed

"A sharp and bittersweet story of past and future, ghosts and gods and family."—Naomi Novik, New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education

A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy.

  When Jessamyn Teoh starts hearing a voice in her head, she chalks it up to stress. Closeted, broke and jobless, she’s moving back to Malaysia with her parents – a country she last saw when she was a toddler.

She soon learns the new voice isn’t even hers, it’s the ghost of her estranged grandmother. In life, Ah Ma was a spirit medium, avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she’s determined to settle a score against a business magnate who has offended the god—and she's decided Jess is going to help her do it, whether Jess wants to or not.

Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business, but dealing with her grandmother is just as complicated. Especially when Ah Ma tries to spy on her personal life, threatens to spill her secrets to her family and uses her body to commit felonies.  As Jess fights for retribution for Ah Ma, she’ll also need to regain control of her body and destiny – or the Black Water Sister may finish her off for good.

• ISBN10: 0425283437
• ISBN13: 9780425283431
• Publish Date: 11 May 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Ace Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780425283431

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Zen Cho's Black Water Sister is not a novel for readers to miss out on, especially not if they enjoy fantasy, LGBT, and paranormal themes!

Jessamyn Teoh has not been having the best time lately. She's flat broke, deep in the closet, and to make it worse: she's moving back home to Malaysia. Naturally, she assumed the voices she was hearing were a sign of stress and tried to move in with her life.

Only, the voices didn't go away. Or rather, voice. As in, singular. The voice of her grandmother has been very insistent, trying to teach her how to follow the path of becoming a Medium and doing so safely.

“Their approach to religion was to leave the gods alone, in the hope the gods would return the favour.”

There are a lot of reasons why I've been looking forward to reading Black Water Sister. The cover, the description, all that promise! Plus, Zen Cho's tweet: "A stressed zillennial lesbian fights gods, ghosts, gangsters & grandmas in 21st century Penang."

I mean, seriously! Who could read that tweet and not want to rush out immediately and grab the book? I know I couldn't resist, as evidenced by my review here (duh). Was it worth that rush? Yes. A million times, yes.

Black Water Sister is a thrilling read, one that twists a pretty common trope (finding out one is a medium) and turning it into something completely new. I loved reading about Jessamyn's adventure and would happily have read another thousand pages of it.

Thanks to Ace Books and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks