Item: Black Water Sister
Rating: 4.00
Author: quirkycat

by Zen Cho

'A sharp and bittersweet story of past and future, ghosts and gods and family, that kept me turning pages into the dark hours of the night' – Naomi Novik, author of Uprooted

This mischievous Malaysian-set novel is an adventure featuring family, ghosts and local gods - from Hugo Award winning novelist Zen Cho.

Her grandmother may be dead, but she's not done with life . . . yet.

As Jessamyn packs for Malaysia, it’s not a good time to start hearing a bossy voice in her head. Broke, jobless and just graduated, she’s abandoning America to return ‘home’. But she last saw Malaysia as a toddler – and is completely unprepared for its ghosts, gods and her eccentric family’s shenanigans.

Jess soon learns her ‘voice’ belongs to Ah Ma, her late grandmother. She worshipped the Black Water Sister, a local deity. And when a business magnate dared to offend her goddess, Ah Ma swore revenge. Now she’s decided Jess will help, whether she wants to or not.

As Ah Ma blackmails Jess into compliance, Jess fights to retain control. But her irrepressible relative isn’t going to let a little thing like death stop her, when she can simply borrow Jess’s body to make mischief. As Jess is drawn ever deeper into a world of peril and family secrets, getting a job becomes the least of her worries.

‘This may be Zen Cho's best work yet’ – Karen Lord, author of The Best of All Possible Worlds

‘A compelling and deftly written ghost story' – Kate Elliott, author of Cold Magic

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

Black Water Sister

by Zen Cho

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on Jul 19, 2021

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