Black Water Sister, by Zen Cho

[sophia_sol]

Zen Cho is brilliant at writing difficult older relatives who think they know what's best for you, and she takes it to new heights here with Jess who is haunted by the strong-minded spirit of her dead grandmother, not to mention all the OTHER relatives in town who have their own ideas for Jess's life.

Cho is ALSO brilliant at writing stories imbued with magic that feel terribly grounded in mundanity, which feels like it should be an insult but it's not, her characters are just all running around having extremely understandable reactions to things whether they're magic things or not.

Anyway this is the story of a worried lesbian zillennial who grew up in the US but has to move back to Malaysia with her parents, and is trying to figure out what she's going to do with her life, but her dead grandma needs her to help out with some revenge first. It's GREAT.

Also lots of content about religion and the various ways people choose to engage with it to different levels and in different ways. Loved all the different gods in this book, the ones that showed up in person and the ones who didn't. Including of course the titular Black Water Sister. The way Cho wrote the emotional reaction of people to her presence was really effective at making her vibes come to life for the reader!

Comments

[dolorosa_12]

Zen Cho is brilliant at writing difficult older relatives who think they know what's best for you

This — and the way she writes about food — are my absolute favourite things about Zen Cho's writing!

[michelel72]

This sounds super engaging and I have now requested it from my library network!

[chestnut_pod]

Cho just goes from strength to strength; this book was such a fabulous, fun ride with real stuff under the surface! I definitely agree with Dolorosa; this book make me terribly hungry too :)

I also think its ending was very suitable and tied the book together well, making sure all us readers knew where the emotional heart was. (I have to say, I feel like the girlfriend was maybe not going to last all that much longer, though… Not sure if I was meant to have that takeaway!)

[lirazel]

I'm looking forward to this one! Everyone I've talked to has loved it!