Black Water Sister

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho (2021)

Read 10/23/22.

This is contemporary fiction, which is kind of weird for me. I’m so used to reading secondary world fiction that books using modern parlance throw me for a loop. This was just a problem because I’m not used to it! Which is a flaw of me the reader, not this book.

So much of this book is about the immigrant experience. Our main character Jess is caught between worlds. She sticks out wherever she goes, not quite Malaysian and not quite American. I really liked how she found connection with other immigrants in small moments of solidarity. 

Jess is struggling with the move from America back to Malaysia with her parents, hiding her personal life, being her mother’s emotional support – and then the ghost of Jess’s grandmother starts to haunt her, demanding that Jess help her save a temple from destruction. She begins to explore the spiritual culture of Malaysia, to visit temples and meet mediums: people who gods can speak through. And there are many gods, big and small, everywhere.

Even as she learns about the spirit world, Jess also learns about her own family history, things her mother never told her, secrets kept for decades. Jess finds herself in unexpected danger, not just from a world of shady gangs and business deals, but also from the spirit world, where her grandmother’s god, a vengeful spirit known as the Black Water Sister, tries to take over Jess’s body in order to enact her revenge on the world. 

I really enjoyed this book! It was dark but not constantly; there were moments I laughed out loud. It’s contemporary, which I’m not used to, but it fully committed to “spirits and gods are real and people communicate with them regularly” which I love to see.