(no subject)

[skygiants]

Scenes from grad school friend Zoom the other week --

FRIEND A, WISTFULLY: Has anyone read anything funny recently? My book club really likes multigenerational women's stories and they're all very good ... but none of them are ever funny at all .....
ME, IMMEDIATELY SPRINGING UPRIGHT, EYES FIERY: You should get your book club to read Black Water Sister! It's about a woman who moves back to Malaysia and is becomes haunted by the ghost of her grandmother so it fits your book club's profile exactly and Zen Cho is generally one of the funniest writers I know!
FRIEND B: wait, a ghost story? So is it more like ... realistic fiction, or fantasy, or horror, or ...
ME, EYES SLIGHTLY LESS FIERY: Hmmm well full disclosure our copy hasn't arrived yet so I have not read it yet, but I would guess probably more the former, Zen's stuff isn't usually very horror --
FRIEND B, READING OUT LOUD FROM THE AMAZON REVIEW PAGE: Black Water Sister is a fantasy, and a ghost story, and a horror story --
ME: WELL ALL I KNOW IS IT'S GOING TO BE VERY GOOD AND YOU ALL SHOULD READ IT.

Anyway, now I have at last actually read Black Water Sister and a.) it is definitely a bit more on the horror/thriller than any of Zen's previous novels so Friend B and the anonymous Amazon reviewer were right and I was wrong b.) it is very good and you all should read it!!

"Long-suffering young woman attempts to cope with crotchety supernatural elderly relative" is of course one of the plots that Zen Cho has always done best, but the edges in Black Water Sister are extremely sharp and the stakes extremely high. Jessamyn has to juggle not only with her dead Ah Ma's murderous vendetta against the shady business magnate attempting to do her and her goddess wrong and the goddess' equally murderous vendetta against all the innocent bystanders even moderately involved in the process, but also the twinned traumas of abuse and violence that bound Ah Ma and the goddess together to begin with, rewritten in Jessamyn's mind as Ah Ma and the goddess both attempt to possess her to achieve their ends. And all that is layered over Jessamyn's pre-existing fears, quieter and closer to home and just as cruel as gangsters and murder: that she'll never find a job; that her father's cancer will return; that her parents will need her so much forever that she'll never be able to leave to join her long-distance girlfriend in Singapore; that her parents will find out about said long-distance girlfriend and it will break her family beyond repair.

In addition to generally loving Zen's writing, I am extremely weak to ghost stories and stories about possession, so I never had any doubts that I was going to love Black Water Sister for these reasons alone. But actually most of all what I love about the book is Jessamyn's family, parents and uncles and aunts and all, with their messiness and complications and obligations and secrets and love.

(Also, it is dark but it is still funny.)

Comments

[chestnut_pod]

Oh god I can't WAIT.

[skygiants]

IT'S SO GOOD

[dolorosa_12]

I am looking forward to this book so much!

[skygiants]

I'm excited it's finally available in the UK, too!

[dolorosa_12]

Indeed! And I have now acquired it!

[whimsyful]

I think this is my favorite work by Zen Cho so far. I highlighted so many passages that I overly identified with, but for such an personal work with some surprisingly scary bits I also ended up laughing a lot (Pooi Mun's side hustle selling health drinks! Ah Ma squabbling with Jess as she (spoilers)gevrf gb hfr ure obql gb pbzzvg zheqre! juvpu gurl raq hc orvat fb varcg ng gurve ivpgvz vfa'g rira gung fpnerq nsgrejneqf!.)

But actually most of all what I love about the book is Jessamyn's family, parents and uncles and aunts and all, with their messiness and complications and obligations and secrets and love.
Yes! I love that she showed the warts along with the warmth--the squabbles, the legitimate disagreements over religion, the clash between different generations.

[skygiants]

Yes! Jessamyn's aunt was actually one of my favorite characters -- trying her best for her in all the ways that she knew how to do. (The Let's Get Jessamyn Un-Possessed Day Trip with her mom and aunt was also one of my favorite scenes.) And I loved her uncle (on the other side) too, and the complexity of his relationships with his mom and sister and with Jessamyn herself, and the brief but vivid glimpses of her cousins; those cousin relationships especially, not close but linked by a web of Facebook and family gossip and that kind of weird indefinable family feeling, felt very close to home for me.

[troisoiseaux]

Oooh! I've had this one on hold on Libby since its release— I'm still, like, a month out from getting to getting my hands on it, but I look forward to reading it!

[skygiants]

I hope Libby smiles on you and delivers it to you soon!

[sophia_sol]

...so how much of a horror/thriller is it, I ask with trepidation. I adore all of Zen Cho's writing but also I struggle with horror!

[hebethen]

I am also a trepidatious about horror person, although I cannot say that it is in exactly the same ways as you are, and I was okay with it (although it does get dark, I wouldn't necessarily say that the darkness is done in horror-genre ways).

[sophia_sol]

that's good to know, thank you!!

[skygiants]

I'd agree with that assessment! I'm happy to give you specific spoilers for some of the most stressful stuff if you want.

[sophia_sol]

That would be lovely if you wouldn't mind!

[larryhammer]

I ... may need to get this.

Just maybe.

(For senses of maybe that are very elastic in how little uncertainty is involved.)

[skygiants]

I think you maybe definitely do!!!

[larryhammer]

Libby says it’ll be 26 weeks to get the ebook from my local library. It also says my hold of The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected the in Water has finally come through. So I think I’ll devour that before deciding whether to try for the paperbook instead.