Booklog 30/2025: Zen Cho: Blackwater Sister

[jacey]

Narrated by Catherine Ho
Jessamyn Teoh, raised in the USA by Malaysian parents, goes back to the land she left when she was a toddler. Her father has been ill, but he goes to work for a relative while Jess and her mother are closeted with family. Jess future plans have been scuppered, she daren't tell her parents she's gay, and keeps ker girlfriend secret. So when she starts hearing voices, she puts it down to stress, but it's just one voice. Jess is being haunted by the ghost of her dead maternal grandmother Ah Ma, who was a spirit mediun and avatar for Black Water Sister, a mysterious and fearsome deity. Ah Ma needs to settle a score with a rich and powerful gang boss and she intends that Jess help her to do it. This is a story about spirits, gods, ghosts and family secrets and Jess needs to sort it all out before she can get her life back on track. The reading is good, the story interesting, and the contemporary Malaysian setting is fascinating.