Hurray! At last, I received a book box again! It’s been too long!

This time, it’s my very first Monthly Mystery Box of AnderWereld.

About AnderWereld

AnderWereld is a great bookstore specialising in Fantasy, Science Fiction and Young Adult fiction in both Dutch and English. They offer different monthly book boxes as well as a yearly subscription. Next to that, you can also ask them to create a personalised second-hand book box for you.

The teaser

As is the case for most book boxes, AnderWereld publishes some teasers about the books they select for their mystery boxes. For the English Urban Fantasy box of August, we received the following hints:

• Jess moves back to Malaysia and hears the voice of her grandmother
• She needs to settle a score against a gang boss and Jess is going to help
• A sharp and bittersweet story of past and future, ghosts, gods and family

Can you already guess the book?

The goodies

The first goodie I spotted was the hair pin. Okay, I admit I’ve looked for the second one because I thought it was a chopstick…shhh, don’t mention it to anyone! The flowers and leaves from the cover of the book are burned into the wood by Hollow Moon Art. Very pretty!

Next, I discovered a fun pink paper lantern, to pull the Malaysian atmosphere from the book right into your living room.

The botanical theme of the book’s cover can also be spotted on the cute little tealight, hand crafted by Heketa.

Finally, there’s the monthly bookmark, with a design by Hollow Moon Art. It incorporates the books of all three boxes available in August. For the book of this box, it shows the mountains and the lanterns of Malaysia.

The book

That brings us to the book itself:  Black Water Sister by Zen Cho. She’s a writer of Malaysian descent who has published several fantasy and romance novels. A note written by the author was included as well, telling more about her view on ghosts in our modern society.

The book tells the story of Jess, who returns to her native country after having lived in the USA all her life. She suddenly starts hearing the voice of her deceased grandmother, who worshiped the “Black Water Sister”. This local goddess was offended by a business magnate, so her gran decides to take revenge…using the body of her granddaughter.

What do you think? Sounds quite good, no? My review will follow shortly!