I loved the first two books in the Ghost Roads series, Sparrow Hill Road and The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Although one particular mystery (or secret, if you prefer) was pretty obvious early on, so much of what happens in the novel was not. It was hard not to empathize with the Black Water Sister and Jess's grandmother and see how they ended up where they did.

I think Jess's mom and her grandmother were among my favorite characters.īlack Water Sister has its dark moments as well as some funny moments. I love Jess's family-how supportive and close they are. I loved the juxtaposition of the traditional versus contemporary, including ancient beliefs with more modern Christianity, which is most obvious when Jess's paternal aunt becomes involved. I found the mythology and world building very interesting. I also can appreciate how difficult it must be for Jess who is hiding a very big part of herself from her family, knowing how they feel about same sex relationships. She feels a strong sense of responsibility to her family, especially to their mental well-being given her father's recent illness. She is a new Harvard graduate, trying to find her place in a new country and life. I enjoyed seeing Jess come into her own over the course of the novel. I felt just as lost as Jess did at first, not really understanding what was going on-which is a point in favor of the author for putting me in the shoes of her main character early on. It starts out a bit slow, but eventually I found myself not wanting to put the novel down. I admit it took me a moment to settle into Black Water Sister. She soon finds herself in over her head in a world of gods and ghosts-with her own life at stake. Jess reluctantly agrees to help her grandmother's spirit settle a score with a gang boss who offended the god. During her life, Jess's grandmother was a spirit medium for a god known as the Black Water Sister. Jess does not know much about her mother's side of the family and her mother does not like to talk about it. Jess starts hearing voices, which at first she is sure must be due to stress, only to soon come to accept that it is the ghost of her estranged grandmother. Jessamyn Teoh, aka Jess, and her parents have moved back to Malaysia to start a new life after having lost just about everything due to her father's bout with cancer. I am even more eager to read that one now that I have read the author's Black Water Sister, which is a Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy. I have another of Zen Cho's fantasy novels ( Sorcerer to the Crown) sitting on my TBR shelf which is much different than her latest I am told. Source: I was provided a courtesy copy of the novel for review from the publisher via NetGalley.

Black water sister