Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

> FAQ Home
> Tag: Zen Cho

Family secrets and a ghost story

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

by 1 Comment

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 […]

I Just Can’t Get You Outta My Head

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

by 1 Comment

  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

by Leave a Comment

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

by Leave a Comment

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 […]

A Title Both Literal and Not

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

by Leave a Comment

I saw the author post something on social media before this was released about how some early readers didn’t think the novella had enough fighting to be wuxia. Zen Cho said that was because she meant for the novella to be a fan-fic of an imaginary 50 episode tv series of that genre. I don’t really know much about wuxia but I do think that The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water has the flavor of it at least. The general premise is […]

More Magic A Little Austen and A Few Surprises

The True Queen by Zen Cho

by Leave a Comment

I’ve had The True Queen sitting on my shelf a while; long enough that I remember the general plot and characters of the first novel in the series (A Sorcerer to the Crown) which ended up being a little bit of a problem when I didn’t quite remember who certain characters were at first or how they were meant to relate to each other. The first novel is Jane Austen-esque, and this one keeps the general vibe, but the story this time is all new; […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo