malaysia – Cannonball Read 17

Family secrets and a ghost story

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

May 1, 2023 by persnickety chick 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 […]

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

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

September 18, 2021 by CoffeeShopReader 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 […]

The Scope May Have Been Too Wide/Ambitious

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

August 26, 2019 by Jen K Leave a Comment

I loved Yangsze Choo’s novel, The Ghost Bride, so I was happy when I discovered that this novel had been released, and immediately bought it. It is set in 1930s Malaysia and has three different characters whose lives end up interweaving in odd ways. There is Ji Lin, a young woman, who is working in the city as a dress maker and moon lighting as a dancer. Though she had higher ambitions, her family would not let her go into a profession, and only eventually […]

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