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Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
4.0

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I found the entire thing to be a good balance of lore, culture, and queer zillenial chaos. On top of her family being worried about her, her girlfriend being stressed, and her grandma screaming in her head- Jessa is going through it. The lore in this book was built up incredibly well, with cultural aspects explained in a tangible way. I did get a little lost with the writing at times. I struggled to know who was talking, and who was in possession of Jessa’s body. This could have been a formatting issue with the ARC copy, and so I can’t fully comment on it in the released book. As a queer person, the emotional turmoil of coming out or not that Jess went through felt realistic. It was extra, underlying stress to the regular stress of life. I can’t imagine trying to balance that, on top of a god seeking vengeance and a grandmother wanting to take down an influential businessman. This story was a fascinating one all around. The concept felt new, and the way it was executed was fantastic.