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A review by apollinares
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book grew on me - I read it for a book club I do with my friends, and the more I got to sit with it and discuss it, the more I found myself enjoying it and appreciating the symbolism within.
Jess is an incredibly relatable protagonist, which helped. I found myself rooting for her not because I thought she was right for doing many of the things she did, but because, in the situation that she's in, I feel like many of us would have made a lot of the same mistakes. She was very easy to experience such a narrative with, both as the immigrated fish-out-of-water in a sea of cultural unfamiliarity (for herself as for the reader), and with her own repression fuelling the unsettling horror Cho infuses this story with.
Combine that with the flowing, fluid prose, as well as the stunning visuals, and you have yourself a gut punch of an urban fantasy read.
Jess is an incredibly relatable protagonist, which helped. I found myself rooting for her not because I thought she was right for doing many of the things she did, but because, in the situation that she's in, I feel like many of us would have made a lot of the same mistakes. She was very easy to experience such a narrative with, both as the immigrated fish-out-of-water in a sea of cultural unfamiliarity (for herself as for the reader), and with her own repression fuelling the unsettling horror Cho infuses this story with.
Combine that with the flowing, fluid prose, as well as the stunning visuals, and you have yourself a gut punch of an urban fantasy read.