Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Black Water Sister

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Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

70 reviews

ode_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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liliakwolf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I think that Black Water Sister was very well written and I found the plot interesting. I loved the way that Malaysian culture was told in this book and felt that I learned a lot as someone who has very little experience with Malaysian culture, and all of the other cultures inside of it. I thought that this book also addressed generational curses and trauma very well and it felt very realistic, though it is a light-fantasy book. I would have given this book a higher rating, as I felt it hit all things well logically, it's just that for the majority of the book I wasn't super invested in the plot. That isn't to say that I didn't connect with the characters, I just wasn't super intrigued to find out what happened next, so it fell a bit flat there for me. I think that someone else could definitely find it more interesting in that regard though! There is a bit of heavy stuff in this book, so I recommend looking at the trigger warnings.

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simon_toast's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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luckykosmos's review against another edition

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emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've been a sucker lately for stories about finding one's place in family legacy as a member of diaspora, and this is a very specific take - Jessamyn is literally haunted by her grandmother as an aspect of their legacy, with her autonomy at risk. The opening line is a threat to out Jessamyn, which sets a tense tone for Jess's place in this narrative, always trying to maintain herself but unable to find that compromise. There are answers I would have liked to had, but it feels right to not have them.

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bookreadingelf's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was a spur-of-the-moment grab at the library on my last shift before heading out for vacation. Not like I needed any more books to bring, as I had a stack of like 7 (for a week-long vacation) already set aside. But, thus are the downsides of working at the library I suppose. Haha. And I guess I'm glad I went for it because it honestly was the perfect beach/poolside standalone fantasy for the mood I ended up being in!

When her parents decide to move back to Malaysia, Jessamyn, having graduated college but not really sure what her next steps are, decides to go with them. On top of her stress about her parents' health, where her life is going, the girlfriend she is too scared to tell her parents about, and the cultural/lingual separation she feels being back in Malaysia after so long in the United States, she starts hearing voices in her head. Well, one voice. And that voice is telling her that it's her dead grandmother Ah Ma, who has unfinished business in the living world involving a business magnate/gang boss who has offended a god called the Black Water Sister that Ah Ma acted as a medium for. And they've decided that Jess is going to help them settle their score.

Wow. This was a nonstop, page-turning adventure from beginning to end. There was so much going on! Jess' struggle with identity-finding, her tense interactions with her long-distance/secret girlfriend, the pressure from family/girlfriend to apply for jobs, and the general overbearing realities of intertwined family complexities and cultural readjustment create the "real life" setting for this novel. And at the same time, there is a story just as rich unfolding within Jess' head, as she speaks with and learns from her Ah Ma about why the ancestor is visiting her and what she wants from her. As each unfold, the real life and internal realities Jess is trying to balance come to a clashing meeting, and the ghosts speaking to her, interference from mediums and gods, straight up gang bosses/hit-men, and myriad [darks] secrets of family and deities, threaten to overwhelm her already on-edge mental state. It's a tense and mysterious ride, entertaining and well-paced, and the dual coming-of-age/self that Jess experiences, along with the culmination of Ah Ma and Black Water Sister's plans, makes for a fantastic denouement.

In addition to the plot, there were a few other aspects of this novel that I was really into. I love (like love) reading about other culture's beliefs/traditions/folklore, so the deep dive into Chinese gods, prayers and offerings to them, the way their mediums function, and just generally the place of import they hold in both traditional and popular culture (in contrast with a more modern or Christian POV that some people have developed) was fascinating and absolutely one of my favorite things about this novel. Also, although it was tough to read about at times, this story highlights in spectacular (read: unique and affective) fashion the enduring fury and helplessness of violence against women over/through generations. Related, I just loved the story of the Black Water Sister, the way it wove into Jess’s own and gave her the gift of strength she always had but wasn’t aware of through the trials she was forced into (paralleling both the god’s and Ah Ma’s trials as well). And with that, I want to mention Jess's character growth too. I appreciated the insight into cultural limitations and the “prisons” we make for ourselves because of them, as well as the complexities of each generation trying to "do better" or "break from" previous ones. The ending on this front was spot on for me, under the circumstances: hopeful, but with an open-endedness that wasn't too neatly wrapped up. It fit the "starting new but still bittersweet" vibe of the rest of the plot. Finally, of the strongest aspects of this book, I felt, was the immersiveness of the setting. Cho's writing captured such a deep feeling of people and place. And on a personal nerdy note, I loved all the language and other tidbits that I "had" to Google to learn even more as I read. I love books that make me do that. (America is Not the Heart was, for me, similar in this way.)

There were a lot of layers to this novel that made it a great read, the more serious aspects related to Jess' real life challenges combining with the fantastical aspects of her gangster medium dead grandmother to create a compulsively readable story. And with the well-paced, easy to read writing and super interesting cultural pieces, I super enjoyed reading this one!

“They’d set her up to have a life different from theirs, free of the hardships they’d had to endure. The result was that almost all her troubles were exciting new troubles, beyond their skill set to address.”

“But you had to die before you could be reborn.”

“What a thing a bad death was. It made a mythology that caught up in its wake old trees and young women alike, the violence of it reverberating through the years.”

Content Warnings

ehmannky's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is a bit different from other Zen Cho books I've read, but still a wonderful delight to read. I loved the way that the paranormal and the threats therein were so wonderfully integrated into Jess's life, all while keeping the more mundane stressers of coming out, job hunting, and identity so centralized. It's just a great novel overall, and just cementing my belief that Cho could write a phone book and I'd be enthralled.

I was a little taken aback by a scene of attempted rape at the end, but it wasn't graphic or gratuitously thrown in there, so it didn't take me out of the story.

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megplant's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

lucystolethesky's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

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