Jess starts hearing voices and quite sensibly thinks she’s going mad which would be understandable given that her father has just recovered from cancer only to be crippled by medical bills after losing his job and is now having to uproot his family back to Malaysia. The pressure is on for Jess to get a decent job to pay back her family and there’s also the small matter of her being very firmly in the closet. So her dead granny talking to her and taking over her body for time to time is the least of her problems.
There’s a lot going on in this story (perhaps too much) there’s Ah Ma’s quest for revenge against the man who done her wrong, there’s a vengeful god and there’s the myriad problems of life in general. This was good but I felt it got bogged down in the domestic stuff at the expense of the supernatural stuff. There wasn’t that much of Ah Ma and the god just hung about in a menacing way quite a lot. I’m sure however it’s all a metaphor I’m just not getting for Jess’s coming out an whatnot. But I came here for the gods not girlfriend drama. One thing I did like however was how the most of family got in on the show by the end, especially the Christian aunt who sticks to her religious guns despite seeing her niece being possessed by a god/spirit.

This was my first book by Zen Cho and it will not be my last, a thoroughly enjoyable read that I flew through. Excellent writing and really engaging, can not recommend this enough if you are looking for a fast paced, entertaining story.

What a fantastic book and one where I was hooked immediately.
It follows the trials and tribulations of Jessamyn, an Ivy League grad who moves with her parents back to their homeland of Penang, Malaysia as their lives are over in the States. She ends up angering relatives, gods and gangsters alike. This results in her becoming a medium for both her dead grandmother and Black Water Sister, a very powerful and exceedingly angry god whilst fighting the local criminal gang which is headed by the most successful and ruthless businessman in the area.

It’s hard to categorise as it has a bit of everything but would probably straddle the fantasy/LGBTQI+ genres if you’re intent on pigeon-holing what is an all-encompassing enjoyable read. Fab stuff.

Oh she's so relatable, almost too much so. Really well done low fantasy, wonderful dialogue and prose, it worked for me, can't say mad.

Jess, who grew up in US, is moving to Malaysia - her family’s home. Then she starts hearing a voice in her head and it turns out it’s her grandmother’s ghost. From there on she gets dragged into a world of gods and ghosts, buried family secrets and grudges, and even local gang scuffles while hiding the relationship with her girlfriend from her overbearing family.

“Black Water Sister” was a fun read. It was quite ploty and intricate at points, with a focus on the mystery and intrigue, at the cost of the character development. We did get to spend time with Jess and her family, but I wish we have explored her family dynamics and inner conflicts more deeply. Sometimes I also lost track of who it was that was attacking her this time and why..
On the other hand, I did like the female characters in this novel - they were often strong, determined women who made some questionable choices in order to survive (or to take revenge) and were all in all quite badass. The godly aspect of the plot was also interesting, we got to explore it a bit as we met a couple of different deities, each with a different temper and personality. This closeness of the ghost realm and mediums, as well as the constant threat (verging on the possibility of death many a time) gave this story a darker, more atmospheric quality that I really appreciated. Add in some anxious queer vibes and you’ve got yourself a solid, fantasy read.

This is the first book that I have read by Zen Cho, and I really really enjoyed it! It was beautifully written and I could really imagine the scenes that she was describing. It has made me really want to visit Malaysia one day! For me the plot was also quite unique as I have never read anything about based on the idea of spirits, ghosts and gods, and I really enjoyed all the characters and the twists and turns that happened.

Overall this was a great book and I will definitely be checking out more of the authors work. I have already ordered the physical copy of this book too as it is just stunning and definitely deserves a spot in my growing collection!

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for this ARC.

I received a NetGalley eARC in exchange for an honest review and had only ever read Zen Cho’s short fiction/novella writing before this.

This is a different kind of ghost story. It’s almost YA but that little bit older with a recent graduate unable to get a job and struggling, with parents relocating back to where the family came from but not where she grew up. Jess has never seen spirits let alone gods before her dead grandmother starts talking to her and possessing her at random hours of the night. She’s got enough to deal with hiding her secret girlfriend and generally supporting her parents.

It’s not fast paced, I thought it was going to be 3 stars and then everything came together and the resolution was the right one. Forget what you know about ghost stories and superstition - the Monkey King makes an appearance but not really how I’ve ever seen him before and that might clue you in… Zen Cho sets the scene and the atmosphere of living with relatives after not succeeding in America and Jess is very real and makes logical decisions. Something other stories might have struggled to hold firm on but this is precisely the story Zen Cho wanted to tell.

This was the first book I read by Zen Cho, but I'm pretty sure it won't be my last! Black Water Sister was a blast to read and easily earned its spot as one of my favourite reads in June this year.

Black Water Sister is a perfect blend of original storyline, engaging prose, fascinating lore, and of course "ghosts, gangsters and grandmas" (as the author defined it on Twitter). Now, who can resist a premise like this? Definitely not me... And I'm super glad the book not only met, but really surpassed my expectations.

I loved the characters, especially Ah Ma. This snarky, nagging ghost grandma really stole my heart! I particularly enjoyed Ah Ma's banter with Jess: they're both quick and witty and work so well together, definitely pushing each others' buttons but ultimately pushing one another to be a better version of and true to themselves (you know, as much as ghosts can get better). Jess's multiple struggles, having to deal with a ghost while coping with "normal" young people's struggles such as unemployment, family issues and being closeted in a society that's not really gay-friendly, made her feel incredibly real and were quite touching at times.

The whole cast was really memorable though, and I loved how deliciously complex and morally grey some of them were. From the gangsters to the gods to Jess' family members, each character brought their own unique personality and history to the game, as well as the painful memories and the past that were haunting them. Of course, some characters were haunted more literally than others, but even so...

A special mention goes to the setting. I can't recall having read any other books set in Malaysia (at least, not recently), so I was immediately intrigued by that. And the author does an amazing job of bringing the setting to life. I swear at times I almost felt like I could have been there myself the descriptions were so vivid. I also had a lot of fun googling pictures of places and foods mentioned in the book, which is something I often do to help me feel more involved in the setting - plus I get to learn something new! I really liked being thrown in Malaysian culture with Jess as she returns from the US and trying to pick things up and come to grips with local customs.

The author published a really interesting blog article [LINK] on the challenges of writing about non-Western culture and explaining why she chose to adopt this approach. I really recommend reading this in general if you have the time. I, a white, European reader, personally found it very helpful to help me reflect on existing disparities in expectations when reading books by non-Western writers / set outside of Western countries, something which I've probably been guilty of in the past and that I'll try to keep in mind in the future as well.

The only, minor issue I had with this book was I personally found the pacing to be slightly off at times, with some sections I flew through being really packed and others feeling like they were very slow and dragging a bit by comparison. This is entirely a personal feeling though and may have had something to do with my own tiredness levels rather than the book!

Black Water Sister was a fantastic read, with charming, unforgettable characters, an engaging plot and a vivid setting like I hadn't seen in a while. Definitely one that will stay with me for a long time. Highly recommended!

I'm not sure what exactly it was about this novel, but I loved it so so much. I very nearly rounded up to 5 stars.

Maybe it was the way Cho masterfully evoked Malaysia, from the soup-like heat to the chatty gatherings of aunties to the local deities. Or maybe it was Jess' own character arc, balancing post-university joblessness and an unsurety of where to go next with being a lesbian unsure how to come out to her parents.

That said, this novel was also very dark in places, there is a fair deal of violence (death, physical abuse, one (?) incident of near sexual abuse), so heads up to anyone wanting to read.

I really enjoyed reading this and zipped through it. A queer American-Malaysian twenty-something deals with dead grandmas, gangster, gods - and coming out? Perfection.

Cho has such a knack for writing that inbetween feeling you get as a child of immigrants and is so good at dialogue, I'm envious. The plot is brilliant, with organic twists and turns that you don't see coming but feel completely natural when they happen. There are so many nuanced characters here that you can love and feel for and the whole world is immersive and clearly rendered.

Such a heartfelt, utterly readable novel.

I just really enjoyed this it was a damn good book, Zen Cho did a very, very good job! Reads almost like a thriller, but with so much more emotional pay off and relatable lovely characters and immersive culture. But damn I want more Sherng. Full RTC.

I really enjoyed this book. Writing style was engaging, a little slow at first, but pace picked up later.
Immersive and entertainting.

Jess has recently moved back to Malaysia with her parents. She’s dealing with trying to find her purpose - life as a Harvard graduate isn’t going as expected. Her family are living with her aunt and uncle and feeling the pressure of family, expectations, and disappointment of life not going as planned. To top it off she has to hide the fact that she’s gay and has a secret girlfriend she wants to move to Singapore to be with.

With all this going on Jess is hearing a voice that says it is her grandma and is taking her body for walks at night. This leads to an adventure involving ghosts, gods/deities and gangsters. She learns more about her family, culture and life in Malaysia. This book is really interesting as we thrown into the deep end like Jess. The language and dictum of the characters is fascinating. The characters are fleshed out and relatable even as you find them annoying, irritating, or even morally questionable. Ah Ma is not your typical doting grandma and has her devious side. Jess also goes from naive wide eyed girl to driven, somewhat blood thirsty (she’s driven to it) badass, as events unfold. The gods we meet are a little disconcerting if not downright terrifying.

I guess this falls under Urban Fantasy but it feels very real and relatable. In fact the only bit that felt a little far fetched was the bit with the gangsters lol. I dare anyone to read this and not get swept away in this story. 4.25/5 stars

If you are tired of the usual urban fantasy tropes and want to imerse yourself in another culture then do read this book. Set in Penang, Malaysia we follow Jess and her parents return from the USA to warm embrace of family in Penang,. The description of chinese family life is spot on and spoke to my heritage, I have those uncles and aunties (not necessairly blood related) always willing to gossip and give advice, I understand the familial ties and the reader is deftly brought in to this world.
Jess's mother has always been secretive about her family, so it is with some disbelief and dismay that Jess finds she is haunted by the ghost of her grandmother Ah Ma. Jess discovers her links to the spirit world and is drawn into contact with the Black Water Sister - a woman who was brutally murdered 100 years ago and whose spirit has evolved into a god.
The main themes of this story revolve around coming to terms with gender, self-identity, family forgiveness, letting go of anger though it sometimes take a cathartic moment to break ties with the past.
A gem of a story - my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this ARC..

I found this book slow to get into at the start but once I become immersed I found the writing style beautiful and the story flowed flawlessly. Definitely recommended

This was great! It had many 5 star moments too, but not quite consistently enough. In my opinion Zen Cho’s preferred method of delivery should always be Urban fantasy as this is her best to date (of the three I’ve read). The female characters knocked the ball out of the park- the writing was funny we learned quite a bit about the superstitions that permeate Chinese and Malaysian culture. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Black Water Sister was such a surprise for me. I went into it expecting danger and angst, and while both these things make appearances, my absolute favourite part was how it deals with family and how your relationships can change with the people you love. And it’s funny, so funny. There were so many moments that I wanted to share with people because they made me laugh, and there were so many moments I have marked purely because Zen Cho knows exactly how to write a single line that just emotionally knocks you out. This is one of the first adult fantasy books I have read that takes place in a contemporary setting outside of Northern America and it was fascinating to see the Malaysian setting, especially with how it intertwined with the plot through interactions with secondary characters and Jess’ struggles of feeling like an outsider after being born and living in the USA for so long. It was amazing and I have already ordered Cho’s debut novel to read, her easy to read but beautiful prose being my favourite type of writing.

The novel starts so strong as we’re immersed immediately within the world of the story, hooking me within the first few pages. As a main character, Jess is incredible; she’s funny, relatable and reacts to ghostly situations in varying degrees of hilarity. Throughout it all though, her struggle with having to live a double life as she has not yet come out to her parents as a lesbian was portrayed sensitively, and her worries as to how they would perceive her differently was affecting. As if she doesn’t have enough on her plate with moving to Malaysia and trying to get a job, Jess starts hearing the voice of her deceased grandma, Ah Ma. Restless and pestering Jess to help her get revenge on a businessman who offended the local goddess she worshipped, Ah Ma was a great character and the relationship she developed with Jess was heartwarming.

The whole cast of supporting characters fit in really well with the story and it was especially insightful to see how Jess interacted with everyone considering she felt so out of her depth. I could tell that a lot of research had gone into Chinese popular religion and spiritual mediumship, something that is mentioned in the acknowledgments. Because of this, it was fascinating to read and there was an authenticity to the writing that made it really shine. Trying to navigate with this new knowledge of spirits and deities, Jess struggles with the responsibility she has to her living family and the vengeful grandma she never knew, and the way both influence each other.

Additionally there was a nuanced exploration of trauma told through the story of the deity Ah Ma used to worship, Black Water Sister. Her story is both sad and horrifying, and her role in Jess’ story balanced the funny with the frightening. Secrets and old grudges stack up and Jess has to navigate every tumultuous thing that comes her way, which though inconvenient for her, gives us some great character development throughout the book as she struggles with coming out, gangsters and cultural differences.

I enjoyed Black Water Sister so much more than I initially expected and I am so excited to keep reading Cho’s books to experience more of her fun plots and great writing. I’m having trouble picking anything else up because it was that damn good, so definitely pick this one up if you love ghosts, a contemporary setting that is still immersive, a very stressed lesbian main character and annoying grandmothers.

Black Water Sister is an absorbing story. It is firmly set in the modern world, taking place on the bustling island of Penang, yet blends that with a sympathetic taken on magic, mythology and indeed, deities.

Jessamyn ("Jess") and her parents are Chinese Malaysian. They have lived in the USA, where her parents went to work, since she was 5. After her father loses his job and suffers a health scare they have returned to Penang and are living with relatives (Jess's aunt Kor Kor and her husband). Jess's dad is carrying out pretty menial work for her uncle, and she and her mother feel he's being taken advantage of.

Playing out in the background is a fascinating story of Jess's numerous family, its hopes and fears, preferences and prejudices, something she navigates on a daily basis. The fact that Jess has been brought up abroad is a superb alibi for Zen Cho to explain cultural references that the Western reader may not quite get - as well as creating a layer of friction for Jess since she's, ever to slightly, out of step with everyone else. (There's a nice description, a kind of photographic negative, of the effect of exile when Jess sees her parents who she's previously regarded as quite reserved people, suddenly becoming very social - and realises that's who they really are, at home and relaxed).

We know two things from the start of this book. Jess is gay, and she's being haunted by a ghost who is, she soon learns, that of her grandmother. Granny drags Jess into a complicated feud involving a businessman with criminal connections, rival Chinese deities and the history of that sprawling family. Jess is, of course, resistant at first and thinks she's losing her mind but she eventually has to accept, reluctantly, the reality - and, even more reluctantly, that Granny will get her into deep trouble unless she helps out.

The story gets rather thrillery from there on, with plenty of action, characters who are distinctly morally unclear and Jess desperately trying to work out exactly how this strange world she's entered - a world of mediums and endlessly bickering Chinese gods, of hoodlums, of downtrodden building workers - actually works. It would be so much easier if she could depend on Granny, who, however, turns out to be a somewhat mercurial person (while, I think, subtly educating Jess rather).

What isn't easy to combine with all this is maintaining a long-distance relationship with girlfriend Sharanya (especially as Jess isn't out to her parents, and is desperately afraid that they will reject her).

It's a well written book that draws the reader further and further in, exploring so many cross cultural themes - not only Western (US culture) contrasting with this part of Asia, but also the position of the Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia, the accommodation of the ancient (and not so ancient) gods with the modern world, the place of Christians (Jess's aunt is a Christian) and much more. There are also some sharp contrasts even within cultures: such as the way those traditional gods came to be - the male gods often being reverend and holy men, the female ones, unfortunate woman scarred by violence and so raised to the status of deities. Part of Jess's quest is to discover the truth about a particular god, the Black Water Sister of the title, presented by some as a violent and vengeful spirit (and accordingly, used for that purpose) but who actually has a rather more interesting history. Jess needs to understand, and quickly, if she's to outwit gods, her grandmother, the mobsters and other sundry dangers.

And at the end of the day, she also needs to work out her relationships with her family and Sharanya.

And find a way to earn a living.

So - there is a LOT going on here, but Zen Cho shapes this material into a sharp, readable and fun book. I'd strongly recommend Black Water Sister.

Black Water Sister is the beautiful and haunting story of female rage and revenge. The story is set in Malaysia and the detailed and evocative writing brought the setting to life. The use of dialect and language added an element of realism to the story and immersed the reader further into the rich culture of Malaysia. Zen Cho has explored Malaysian religion and culture within the story by incorporating various gods and spirits and their relevance to the characters of Black Water Sister.
The main character Jess has plenty of problems, she’s had to move to Malaysia after living in the US for nineteen years, she’s hiding her identity as a lesbian and her long distance relationship from her parents and she’s also unemployed, but her problems don’t end there as her dead grandmother, Ah Ma, is seeking vengeance and has decided to use Jess to get it. I loved the pairing of Ah Ma and Jess, they argued constantly but they each also formed a grudging respect for the other. Jess is the floundering twenty-something year old character that I desperately need in books, Black Water Sister is a coming of age story of sorts at a more realistic age and I love it.
A lesbian heroine fighting gods, ghosts and gangsters while being haunted by her grandmother in a beautiful modern Malaysian setting, what more could you possibly want in a story?

Black Water Sister is a richly woven, captivating contemporary fantasy set against the backdrop of Penang, Malaysia, aka The Pearl of the Orient, with a distinct feminist supernatural slant. Former Harvard graduate of only a few months, Jessamyn Teoh is now unemployed and struggling financially because of that. This prompts her to move back to her home country of Malaysia with her ageing parents for a fresh start after spending 19 years of her life growing up in the United States. It certainly seemed that the American Dream had officially come to an end. Despite having not been back to Malaysia since becoming a toddler many years ago, she feels she has nothing to stay in the US for now that she has a solid education under her belt but she is dreading her relationship with her girlfriend becoming a long-distance one. Not that anyone knows she's a lesbian as she's pretty nifty at staying closeted. She's seriously torn between living her own life and looking after her increasingly elderly parents. Stuck living with her family in the city of Penang, hiding her sexuality and aimlessly hunting for jobs, Jess starts to hear a disembodied voice in her head, which she initially chalks up to stress. It's the ghost of Ah Ma, the dead, estranged grandmother she never knew and a medium.

Ah Ma is the type to hold a grudge and refuses to rest in peace until she has meted out her revenge on a local gangster and real estate tycoon Ng Chee Hin who has threatened to demolish a temple of her god: the malevolent Black Water Sister. And Jess must help them get even if it's the last thing she does. This is a compelling, unique and thoroughly bewitching paranormal fantasy peopled with fascinating, multidimensional characters who are so easy to warm to and the relationship between the often cantankerous Ah Ma and Jess is both wholesome and endearing. It's beautifully plotted and written with a sassiness to it often missing from fantasy novels, and I feel that the Malaysian setting added a wonderful exotic sensibility to it all, which I adored with the cultural references seeping into the storyline adding an authentic richness. There's humour interspersed through and twists aplenty as Jess tries to stay on the right side of the gods during her mission. It's a fast, fun urban fantasy featuring Malaysian spirits and immersing you in the secrets, lies, trauma, deities and belief systems of both Jess’ country and her family with a simply wonderful sense of time and place. Highly recommended.