Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


“It figured that she’d avoided getting nagged to go to law school, only to get nagged to become a vessel for the dead.”

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

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3.5 stars Jessamyn “Jess” Teoh is feeling aimless and adrift. Born and raised in the USA, she has just moved to Malaysia with her parents, and they’re staying with one of Jess’ aunts while her parents are looking for their own place to stay. Jess is unemployed, broke and hiding the fact that she has a girlfriend in Singapore. Her girlfriend wants her to get a job in Singapore, so they can be together, but Jess keeps lying to her about her job searches. So […]

Family secrets and a ghost story

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

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I do love the tagline- She was trouble, so is her ghost. First book of the year (well first review), first CBR Passport book (book about another country).  This was a book that i suggested for my IRL book club (because i already owned it), so the review considers their responses as well. While I have owned “Sorcerer to the Crown” for a number of years I have never quite gotten into it and it took reading a book of short stories by Zen Cho […]

“But magic came, ever his friend…”

Sorceror to the Crown by Zen Cho

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Woot! First review of the year! I must have read a review of Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown on here (perhaps yesnopemaybe‘s), and so thanks for that. Zacharias Wythe, a formerly enslaved Black sorcerer has been named the Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers, a group that regulates magic in England. His ascendancy is the source of gossip due to his race and the manner in which he claimed the title and machinations by the other sorcerers. To make his job worse, magic is […]

I Just Can’t Get You Outta My Head

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

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  Black Water Sister is a standalone book written by the Zen Cho, the author of the Sorcerer to the Crown series.  It may qualify as a sort of urban fantasy or a modern-day folk tale.  It takes place in modern day George Town which is the capital of the island of Penang in Malaysia.  It involves vengeful gods, sacred shrines, a dead grandmother speaking to her granddaughter and lots of shady corporate dealings.  It’s also a story about a family and about the relationships […]

So not written for me, but that’s maybe the point

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

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Bingo 22: Uncannon Reason 1 Black Water Sister should be taught: It’s based entirely in the author’s personal background, Malaysian with some Western influence. The story follows Jessamyn/Jess whose legal name is something a lot more culturally specific (it’s only mentioned once and I couldn’t find the bit where Jess mentions it), is a queer woman in her early 20s moving from the US back to Malaysia with her parents because her dad got a job there. I wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t […]

Happy Pride from Malaysia!

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

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Happy Pride! Started off the month with this book, which features a trope that we well know–the disaffected millennial (…zillenial? ugh I’m getting OLD) who doesn’t know what they want to do. Except this time…it’s a gay Malaysian woman who’s recently graduated from Hahvard and moving back to Malaysia with her parents?? Already I am 100% more on board. I was going to say that Cho writes with a surety that’s impressive for a debut novel, but then I checked myself (and her profile) and […]



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