Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: May 11th 2021 by Ace Books
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 370
• Goodreads link

A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy.

Jessamyn Teoh is closeted, broke and moving back to Malaysia, a country she left when she was a toddler. So when Jess starts hearing voices, she chalks it up to stress. But there’s only one voice in her head, and it claims to be the ghost of her estranged grandmother, Ah Ma. In life Ah Ma was a spirit medium, the avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she’s determined to settle a score against a gang boss who has offended the god–and she’s decided Jess is going to help her do it.

Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business. As Jess fights for retribution for Ah Ma, she’ll also need to regain control of her body and destiny. If she fails, the Black Water Sister may finish her off for good.

I’ve been sleeping on Zen Cho and I have regrets, because I loved this book completely. Good thing our Goodreads book of the month chose it for our November read.

First a quick note on the audiobook, it’s very good. Well, to expand I need to go into the beautiful flowy way this book is written. It’s set in Malasya and written to reflect that, so most of the dialogue, sort of has a different grammar. I don’t think it’s actually Manglish since I was able to understand all the words just fine, but sentences tend to always end with an interrogative word, or if none fits a “la”. It almost feels like every spoken sentence is an invitation. The narrator made a great job of interpreting these and giving the characters unique voices, it was a joy to listen to.

Definitely for me one of the highlights of the book was how it showed Malasian culture (I don’t know what half the foods mentioned were but they sound so good). A key point is how people from all different backgrounds relate to the local deities and spiritual entities. I loved how real everything felt, and how people respect gods, even if they don’t pray to them. Relationships to gods, prayer/respect/fear make up a great deal of the book and I loved reading about them.  The Black Water Sister was scary and … not really relateable but understandable … and I enjoyed how he got to know her story too.

I’m from a tiny family, so it’s always fun for me to read about big families, and Jess does not lack in relatives or complicated relationships to them. Complicated even more by her not being out to them, and hiding having a girlfriend. The MC’s conflicting feelings towards her family were so well done. Also loved how the Jess being queer allowed the author to play with some tropes in very fun ways.

r/fantasy Bingo squares: Set in Asia (HM), Mystery Plot, Published in 2021, Witches, Bookclub

The Hidden City by Michelle West

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date:
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages:
• Goodreads link

Orphaned and left to fend for herself in the slums of Averalaan, Jewel Markess- Jay to her friends-meets an unlikely savior in Rath, a man who prowls the ruins of the undercity. Nursing Jay back to health is an unusual act for a man who renounced his own family long ago, and the situation becomes stranger still when Jay begins to form a den of other rescued children in Rath’s home. But worse perils lurk beneath the slums: the demons that once nearly destroyed the Essalieyan Empire are stirring again, and soon Rath and Jay will find themselves targets of these unstoppable beings.

Another author I’ve been meaning to try since forever and only finally got round to because of a readalong.

My friends always said this series should be up there with the big fantasy epics of the 2000s-2010s and oh boy were they right. It’s got all the main ingredients (that tbh I’m generally bored of): street urchins learning to survive, broody mentor with a mysterious past, medieval-ish city with the politics and crime gangs that implies, sinister mysterious magic, and they all fit together and are done so well even my curmudgeony ass had a blast with it. So yes def would recomend this to fans of medieval-ish fantasy with rogue-like characters and street urchins.

There’s two planes to the story, Jay, the kid, and Rath, the mentor. They work so well together because Jay’s so not quite innocent, but well meaning, and she wants to help everyone, and Rath’s been hurt and constantly conflicted between caring and being distant.

I would die for any of the kids in this story, except for one you know who you are. It shows kids really well in the way they are childish, but marked by their shitty life experiences, so act mature in some ways and immature in others.

I’m looking forward to finding out more about the world, the magical creatures we met this far are dangerous and interesting, and there’s clear setup for bigger picture stuff that I hope gets explored more.

r/fantasy Bingo squares: Found Family, Readalong Book, New to You Author (YMMV), Backlist Book, Cat Squasher, A-Z Epic Fantasy, Mystery Plot

The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Young Adult
• Pub. date:September 24th 2019 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 352
• Goodreads link

Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (“Ryn”) only cares about two things: her family, and her family’s graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don’t always stay dead.

The risen corpses are known as “bone houses,” and legend says that they’re the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?

Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.

I didn’t know much about this going in, and I ended up enjoying it a lot. It’s a small-scale story, mostly takes place in a village and the creepy woods around it. There are two main characters, Rin, a girl from the village, she’s a gravedigger like her father was, and Ellis, an apprentice map-maker from the big city who wants to map this forgotten area. The relationship between them is great in the slow way trust is built. Plus, tough axe-wielding-country girl vs soft city boy is so fun and quite rare.

Speaking of rare, in fantasy, one of the main character has chronic pain from an old injury. I thought that was very well done, and I liked that it wasn’t magicked away. And different rare, but I saw now while browing GR that it’s based on Welsh myths, that’s neat.

The tone of this book is so strange to pin down. Oh the one hand there’s the creepy forrest with the walking dead, so creepy, and what little we do travel def stays within the realm of the sinister. But it still feels cozy. Kinda. The two characters are good, the dynamic between them is nice. A cosy dark/fantasy horror I guess?

There is also a very good goat. Best goat.

r/fantasy Bingo squares: Gothic, New To You Author, Forest Setting

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Young Adult
• Pub. date: September 19th 2019 by HarperVoyager
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 496
• Goodreads link

A girl with no gifts must bargain for the power to fight her own mother’s dark schemes—even if the price is her life.

Heir to two lines of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. Yet she fails at bone magic, fails to call upon her ancestors, and fails to live up to her family’s legacy. Under the disapproving eye of her mother, the Kingdom’s most powerful priestess and seer, she fears she may never be good enough.

But when the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, Arrah is desperate enough to turn to a forbidden, dangerous ritual. If she has no magic of her own, she’ll have to buy it—by trading away years of her own life.

Arrah’s borrowed power reveals a nightmarish betrayal, and on its heels, a rising tide of darkness that threatens to consume her and all those she loves. She must race to unravel a twisted and deadly scheme… before the fight costs more than she can afford.

A dark YA inspired by African folklore. A good mix of some really happier moments in between lots of very nasty ones. I love gods in books and African inspired fantasy, so very into how the orisha mythology fit into the book. It also had an interesting, if grim, solution to people born without magic in a world where your gifts are determined by birth.

It’s a pretty tense book, great if you’re into themes of revenge and betrayl. I constantly felt sorry for the way Arrah’s life was going, while also impressed with her determination to push through, at any cost to herself.

r/fantasy Bingo squares: revenge, witches, new to you(?)

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Young Adult
• Pub. date: February 6th 2018 by Disney-Hyperion
• Format: Audiobook
• Pages: 440
• Goodreads link

Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orléans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orléans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful.

But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite—the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orléans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the royal family and their court, to be recognized as the most talented Belle in the land. But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favorite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that the very essence of her existence is a lie—that her powers are far greater, and could be more dangerous, than she ever imagined. And when the queen asks Camellia to risk her own life and help the ailing princess by using Belle powers in unintended ways, Camellia now faces an impossible decision.

With the future of Orléans and its people at stake, Camellia must decide—save herself and her sisters and the way of the Belles—or resuscitate the princess, risk her own life, and change the ways of her world forever.

This book nails that creepy feeling of old fairytales, that there’s always a nasty secret under the surface. The vibes are so well done. That was my favorite part of the book the entire time, and how there’s so much stuff under the surface to discover and be horrified at. And it also translates so well to the real life behaviours and injustices it critiques.

The Belles starts off being about Beauty, with Camellia just about to start her new life working as a Belle, one of the few who can use magic to make other beautiful. We’re in a wonderful kingdom, everything is a brightly colored, ornate wonderland as she arrives at the castle. I’m always a fan for descriptions of foods and clothes and prettyness, and this book was full of them.

But the more we meet the people living in this perfect world, the less happy they seem. There’s mysterious crying in the night, people being so insecure about their looks, and some outright cruelty.

I loved how Camelia struggled and had to deal with the conflict between her dream and reality. Even when things are clear to us, it’s hard for her to believe them and I just thought that entire theme was very well written.

r/fantasy Bingo squares: first person, new to you(?)