Why I love. . . Black Water Sister

Pan Mac staff make the case for their favourite books. This month, Olivia-Savannah recommends Zen Cho's tale of ghosts, gods and family.

Olivia-Savannah is Senior Communications Executive for Pan, and works on publicity and influencer activity across our fantasy, horror and sci-fi titles on the Tor list. Here, she recommends Zen Cho's mischievous Malaysian-set novel, Black Water Sister.

Read it already? You'll find some related recommendations at the end of the piece.

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho is one of the most fun fantasy novels I have ever read. It’s set in Malaysia and is brimming with ghosts, gods and family conflicts. We’re following Jessamyn, a twenty-something-year-old who has just graduated and is currently broke, jobless and still closeted despite her long relationship with her girlfriend. What she really doesn’t need is the ghost of her estranged grandmother haunting her. But that won’t stop her Ah Ma from doing just that.

One of the many reasons why I loved Black Water Sister is how immersed I found myself in the rich setting and world building. While the novel is set in Malaysia, Jess is American-Chinese and is moving in with some of her Chinese extended family that she hasn’t seen for several years. I learned a lot about the Chinese community that lives within Malaysia, and the immigrant experience that doesn’t centre a Western destination or outlook on the experience of displacement. I was completely entranced as I read about what it’s like to celebrate Chinese New Year in such an international environment, and how their mythologies, histories and many languages (Hokkien, Japanese and Malay) have become entangled over time. I loved the added detail of some of the characters speech being written in the local vernacular.

‘I learned a lot about the Chinese community that lives within Malaysia, and the immigrant experience that doesn’t centre a Western destination or outlook on the experience of displacement.’

But I’d be remiss not to address the fantastical elements of the novel. The plot revolves around Jess, who is busy trying to grant the wishes of her Ah Ma so she’ll stop haunting her. This largely has to do a with a tycoon who wants to build a hotel on sacred holy ground, introducing themes of gentrification into the novel. While underground gangs, mischievous gods and magic all have their part to play in the unfolding storyline, I appreciated that at its core, the novel also examines what it means to get older, for traditions to be seemingly discarded by the younger generations, and what is sacrificed in our constant drive to build bigger and better and more.

There are so few books I’ve read that centre a close relationship between an adult in their early years and an elder in their community. And while Jess’s Ah Ma is a ghost, I loved getting to see them become reacquainted with each other’s beliefs and perception of life. Seeing the love bloom between them in the midst of everything they experience together was a beautiful bond to see weaving through the pages. Especially as it impacts Jess’s decisions when it comes to being more open with her parents despite the cultural and generational barriers they have to overcome. Particularly when it comes to Jess wanting to open up to them about her sexuality and identity.

As I said, Black Water Sister is a fun fantasy novel. But it’s also so much more than that. It’s got spectacular world building, an unpredictable plot with plenty of twists and turns, incredibly solid character development and above all, a fantastic look at culture and identity, and how they impact our relationships with the people we love. I cannot recommend it more.