This was so fun and so delightful while still navigating complex and difficult topics. Loved the characters and the interactions between them.

I'm finally giving up on this ARC. I've tried to read it a few times and I've put aside each time around the 30% mark. I loved the premise of this story but I just can't get into the book. The writing is good. I just can't get my brain to focus on the story.

I liked the premise for this one and enjoyed it for the most part but there were times my attention waned. I'm not sure if it was because of the age of the main character, who felt at times younger than a college graduate. The story was well written though and I can see myself recommending this to a friend.
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Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

"…everything would be different after tonight. Nothing would ever be the same again. But she knew she’d survive it."

This book was so much more than I was expecting. BLACK WATER SISTER is an action-packed novel about a post-grad lesbian who moves from the US back to Malaysia with her parents, ends up a medium for her dead grandmother, and gets embroiled in a complex web of gangsters, gods, and long-held family secrets. It's such a rich story. In addition to managing the wild underbelly of Penang life she falls into, Jess is struggling with staying connected to her secret long-distance girlfriend, her fears of coming out to her family, and her shifting relationships with her parents and extended family. I loved how the dynamics between her and her parents were represented: the mutual protectiveness at the cost of emotional intimacy, the ways immigration changed things for them individually and as a family, the parallel withholding complicated by a generational divide. It’s such a sensitive, loving portrayal. Cho also dives into the complexities of feeling not fully American and not completely at home in Malaysia either, and immerses us in the nuanced layers of language, religion, culture, and economics in Penang. My favorite aspect was the banter between Jess and her grandmother who by turns haunts and possess her, and the respect Jess gains of her grandmother’s backstory - and that of the god who grips them both. It’s also just fucking fierce! So much more badass back alley fighting than I expected. I really think this novel is mislabeled as young adult; in tone and themes it seems more adult, or at the very least new adult. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Catherine Ho, does an excellent performance that really enriched my reading experience. Thanks to Berkley/Ace books for the eARC!

Content warnings: physical violence/beating, kidnapping, attempted sexual assault, marital rape, domestic violence, homophobia

If you love stories that reflect on past generations, family expectations and the pressure of being a young person in a culture so steeped in history and tradition that it can feel smothering then this is a great book for you.

I loved the writing style and appreciated that this is the kind of story that you need to pay full attention to. The details and delicate phrasing reminds me of an artwork. The supernatural, mystical elements enhanced the generational relationships and coming into one’s own side of the story.

The story was intriguing, although there were definitely some parts that were slow. I liked how the book was set in Malaysia, and I also liked how the book introduced the Black Water Sister.

I really loved Sorcerer to the Crown, the first book I read by Zen Cho. I knew that this book was modern urban fantasy going in, but I was looking for the same sort of cleverness that I'd found in her first series. This book was not quite what I expected.

For one thing, the book wasn't as funny. There were some humorous bits here and there, but the tone of the book was actually pretty dark. It also didn't have a protagonist quite as appealing as the other Zen Cho books I've read. A lot of this book was about a young woman finding herself and learning to fight for herself too. It might just be that I'm long enough past that part of my life that I didn't relate quite as much to Jess. But Jess, frankly, wasn't a great girlfriend to her wonderful partner Sharanya. Jess dodged all of her girlfriend's questions, wouldn't open up to her, wouldn't put any work into finding a job in Singapore so the two of them could be together, wouldn't admit that Sharanya existed to her parents.

Really, Jess was caught between a lot of worlds. She had grown up in the USA feeling like an outsider but she didn't fit in when her family moved to Malaysia either- she was obviously a foreigner. Jess was gay but closeted to her family, not her friends. Jess had earned a degree but had not figured out how to use it. And finally, Jess ends up being a conduit for her grandmother to come back to the world of the living to resolve some unfinished business.

The family dynamics were one of the most interesting and complicated parts of the story. Everyone is trying to emotionally manage everyone else, everyone is keeping secrets supposedly to prevent other family members from getting hurt, no one can communicate honestly, everyone is keeping track of years-worth of resentments and slights. Felt pretty real.

Jess's grandmother was a monster by any standards, though. She lied to Jess, put Jess in great danger, wouldn't give her information, expressed nothing but disappointment in her- she was really the grandmother from hell! One of the less realistic parts of the book, I thought, was that Jess continued to trust her and called upon her for help (although I suppose that Jess was pretty desperate by the end of the book).

The book is really about cycles of pain and revenge and how it's easy to get stuck in them and how continuing those cycles will never allow you to be free. It's a powerful theme and Zen Cho is really good at tapping into the darkness in our world. I wished that I'd felt more transported to Malaysia and that Jess hadn't been so frustrating, though, which is why the book doesn't get a higher rating from me.

BLACK WATER SISTER is a contemporary fantasy novel with an action-packed plot and a web of family secrets. Jess moves back to Malaysia with her parents and while job-searching and maintaining a long-distance relationship with her girlfriend, begins to hear the voice of her deceased grandmother, Ah Ma. Although there are ghosts, gods, and a gang boss, Jess’s perspective was so relatable and Ah Ma was a snarky delight. I loved this fun read, but there are some content warnings to be aware of, like gang violence and sexual assault. This is the first book by Zen Cho that I've read and I'm looking forward to reading more!

An excellent supernatural urban fantasy about a recent college grad moving back to Malaysia with her family, only to start hearing voices. What she assumes is stress turns out to be the voice of her late grandmother, Ah Ma. If she wants a moment of peace and quiet ever again, she'll have to stop a local temple from being destroyed and seek revenge for the angry god her grandmother served, putting herself in the line of fire against some very dangerous people and spirits.

TW: assault, attempted rape, possession, murder, and homophobia

A delightful book full of adventure, action, and thrills. Fun to read, engrossing world building, and very descriptive imagery made it feel like it was cinematic. It's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. Would recommend.

I've never read anything like it since, and I adore it. I have it in hardback now - Zen Cho is a huge talent.

Well written story with fascinating lore and queer representation. The book is strong but it wasn't quite for me.

This ended up not being a book I loved but I do think others might enjoy it. Premise was intriguing but didn’t keep my attention.

A vivid depiction of life in Malaysia and living under the pressure of living up to your parents expectations. I absolutely adored exploring the spirituality of Chinese Malaysians. The spirits/Gods were my favorite characters .

I recommend this one. It's a good book and everyone should read. Of course I would love to have this book in my bookstore.

TW: violent murder, graphic description of attempted sexual assault

I heavily enjoyed BLACK WATER SISTER - this contemporary fantasy centering around a closeted American-Malayisian who hears her dead grandmother is incredibly fascinating. I love seeing how Jess views the world around her, even as she is surrounded by a semi=familiar culture. My only real complaint is that the queer storyline, which is touted up a lot in the summary, is barely touched on.

BLACK WATER SISTER is the first book by Zen Cho I've ever read, and I absolutely couldn't put it down. It follows Jessamyn Teoh, a broke college grad who moves back to Malaysia for a fresh start only to be haunted by her estranged grandmother and thrust into deity drama. Cho's writing beckons the reader deep into a world of modern cities, ancient ghosts, magic and monsters, and Chinese/Malaysian lore and culture. I loved the exploration of Teoh's sexuality, of the cultural clash between her life in the States versus her ancestral/cultural roots in Malaysia, and of her journey to uncover the ties that connect her to the place she never thought to call home. It's such a lovely story of self-identity and perseverance.

I liked Jess as a character and related to her sense of uncertainty after graduation and her struggle with balancing different parts of her identity. I also appreciated the way the spirit world was woven in, the elements of traditional culture, and Jess's struggle with her own identity. However, I felt like she often lacked agency and was simply dragged into the action. The book itself was very fast paced, which kept me engaged for the most part, but some of the action scenes came on so abruptly that they gave me virtual whiplash.

With a move back to Malaysia, a country she has not been too since she was a small child, no job prospects there, and a girlfriend she cannot tell her parents about, Jess Teoh expected that the voice in her head was a result of stress. Stress made sense. Her long estranged grandmother’s ghost did not. At least, her grandmother’s ghost did not make sense until her complaints and demands got oddly specific. About the shrine to a mysterious goddess, the Black Water Sister, that has to be protected from a businessman who wants to tear it all down to build condos. Ah Ma served as the Black Water Sister’s medium in life and sees no reason not to drag her grand daughter into a world of of gods and spirits, to use her body and secrets to force her into dangerous circumstances and, maybe, even her own servitude to the Black Water Sister. If Jess wants to keep her life her own she will have to balance finding retribution for her grandmother with fighting for control of her body and mind, lest the Black Water Sister take everything and leave Jess destroyed.

Zen Cho’s Black Water Sister is another one of those books that I enjoyed quite a bit, but find myself not entirely sure how to go about talking about it. For long spans it feels like the plot is pattering about not really doing much, but that does not feel like wasted page space. Black Water Sister feels as much like a story about being an outsider as it does a story about dealing with a pushy ghost and an angry goddess.

Jess is absolutely an outsider throughout the book. She was raised in the United States speaking mostly English, so she finds herself adrift amongst her family and with out much ability to connect with new people and with serious difficulties finding a job. Jess cannot talk to her family about the problems she is having for fear of seeming ungrateful, or to her parents about her problems for fear of adding to their stress. She cannot even begin to talk about her girlfriend, Sharanya, something that said girlfriend is continually frustrated by. And no one, except her erstwhile uncle, would understand if she tried to talk to them about Ah Ma’s voice in her head. It leaves the reader only slightly behind Jess in trying to figure out what was going on while also ensuring that the reader gets an explanation of how the spirits and gods work as Jess struggles to figure things out.

There are layers to Jess’ problems. So much of what happens to her is the result of Ah Ma or her uncle, Ah Ku, not telling her important details of what is happening to her or their plans for dealing with the developer who had angered the Black Water Sister. It is all very well done with a sort of looming sense of doom as Ah Ma’s plots land Jess in deeper and deeper trouble both with mortal humans and the goddess herself. There were points were it really felt like there was no possibility of a good ending for Jess and others where it felt like she would be lucky to survive as herself. It was brilliant and by turns something that I could not put down and something that I just had to step away from because of how well Cho built that atmosphere, that sense of inevitability.

A lot of the writing is like that. The side characters, Jess’ parents and her other living family members, felt well rounded and very human. The Black Water Sister was by turns a mass of anger at those who might threaten her shrine and possessive of and protective of Jess, but always in a way that left a clear through line to her as a character. She was more than human, but still bound to what she had been and her history despite that. The city feels unfamiliar but alive. Jess feels so very like some of the people I went to school or worked with, it is really easy to identify with her. The danger feels solid. Again, like Jess might not be able to make it out as herself. It all adds up to a book that I have a hard time talking about but also wish that I could read for the first time again.

That is, ultimately, the big thing with Black Water Sister. I have had a really hard time figuring out how to talk about it and rambled far more than I would have liked in doing so, but it is one of a hand full of books I wish I could read for the first time again. And that makes me really want to go back to Zen Cho’s earlier books and see what she writes next. For me, Black Water Sister more than earns a five out of five.

*

As a final note, full spoiler alert, but this was one of the bits where I needed to put the book down and I figured that might mean that a trigger warning was warranted. There is an attempted rape scene late in the book that is fairly harrowing, the scene leading up to it starts when Jess is forced into a car after talking to the developer.