Review by Booklist Review
In this cosmopolitan, thrilling tale, with roots in imperial times, Koe (Delayed Rays of a Star, 2019) fearlessly explores what happens when societal pressures force us to confront our true selves, shedding the skin that both protects and wounds. Inspired by an ancient Chinese legend, Koe's second novel follows two sworn sisters as they develop increasingly different lives and values while remaining bonded by their history as snakes who transformed to humans centuries ago. In contemporary Singapore, where the novel is predominately set, one of the sister's marriages to an up-and-coming politician showcases the fashionable, luxurious lifestyle of the privileged class and exposes their discriminatory treatment of queerness, particularly transgender people. Reminiscent of Crazy Rich Asians but with the glamour wrapped in dark fantasy, Sister Snake is also a deeply feminist story exploring body autonomy and reproductive rights. In doing so, it does not shy away from violent scenes, presenting powerful themes of vengeance, loyalty, and self-determination. This riveting, fast-paced novel, with its seamless balance of fantasy and realism, explores contemporary issues through an otherworldly lens.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Koe (Delayed Rays of a Star) draws on Chinese mythology for this brilliant story of two sisters who were born as snakes in 815 China and live as women in contemporary New York City and Singapore. At the novel's outset, Emerald is on a date with Giovanni, her billionaire sugar daddy, in Manhattan. The night takes a turn for the worse after she takes a sip of his whiskey, as alcohol can make her deadly. During a late-night tryst in Central Park, Emerald mutates into a green-hued snake and bites Giovanni, nearly killing him before she is shot by a cop. Her sister, Su, the wealthy wife of Singapore's minister of education, learns of the attack online and realizes Emerald was involved. She flies from Singapore to New York, where both Giovanni and Emerald are recovering from their wounds. In backstory, Koe portrays Su's and Emerald's lives as snakes at a lake in Hangzhou, where Su is violently assaulted by a group of male snakes and Emerald nurses her back to health. Several centuries later, in 1615, they transform into beautiful women, but the sisters find human relations far more complex than those in the animal kingdom. Koe chronicles their efforts to protect one another during subsequent trials and tribulations, which culminate in Su's shocking actions to avenge Emerald against the manipulative and verbally abusive Giovanni. Throughout, the author seamlessly integrates centuries of Chinese culture and history with shrewd social commentary on class, gender, and race. This propulsive story astonishes. Agent: Jacqueline Ko, Wylie Agency. (Dec.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A darkly comic contemporary fairy tale about estranged sisters who happen to have been born snakes. The story riffs on the ancient Chinese "Legend of the White Snake," in which a krait and a viper made a pact to be sisters forever. The krait yearned to become human, so the viper, though happy in her skin, agreed to transform too. For 800 years they practiced Taoist "self-cultivation" until they became immortal human women named Su and Emerald. "Self-cultivation? How Goop of you," Emerald's 21st-century best friend quips, capturing the book's prevailing tone of satiric, campy waggishness. In the present day, Emerald ekes out a sketchy bohemian existence in Brooklyn financed by men she meets on a sugar daddy app. A millionaire for 200 years, Su lives in Singapore, married to an ambitious official in the city-state's government. Vivid physical and sociological descriptions bring both cities to realistic as well as symbolic life. Unruly New York represents Emerald's embrace of individualism and impetuous spontaneity, while buttoned-down Singapore parallels the value Su places on assimilation and safety. Fully realized as complicated women, the sisters share a protective love/hate relationship all female siblings will recognize. But these sisters are also snakes, and evidently green vipers are impulsive but less deadly than white kraits, which bite infrequently but are "ruthless" with more poisonous venom. The sisters' diametrically opposed approaches to being human become clear during Su's lethal trip to New York, followed by Emerald's disastrous visit to Singapore. The obvious dichotomy between their views and values, coupled with reptilian amorality, set off a series of events ranging from graphically violent and deeply tragic to romantically bittersweet and deliberately, eloquently silly. Slithers gleefully around hot-button issues such as gender politics and racism without a whiff of didacticism. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
