I would have loved this book if I was about 20 years younger. I think I should have known when I was just cringing during the sugar daddy stuff.

this was a masterful story that drew me in almost immediately. i thought the pacing worked well for the story and just when i thought i knew the characters, they really start to shed their skin (hehe). i have no notes. i loved the plot development, the head hopping, all the characters and the feminine rage.

The perfect book for the Year of the Snake. This compelling novel is a contemporary retelling of the Story of the White Snake set in New York City and Singapore. Emerald and Su are snakes that formed a deep bond after Emerald rescued Su and nursed her back to health. However, when they assume human form, their relationship becomes more difficult. After hundreds of years, they reunite in modern day Singapore where they have to come to terms both with each other and their lives among humans.

this book is over-the-top crazy, featuring hyperbolically beautiful and rich and charming women, and everything it does is wild. still, somehow, the core of it feels almost realistic: the way that your sister is the person you love the most who also deeply infuriates you, even if the infuriating thing is murder instead of stealing your clothes. complicated love stories. friendships and crushes. the singaporean nanny state.
it's an almost goofy book, and yet it holds itself back when it has to. 
in other words, it's really fun.

I could not finish this book. From what I got through (about 25%), this book is about two "chosen" sisters bonded through trauma in their snake forms. They take on human form and live throughout time periods, on very different paths.

I am going to preface by saying I don't think it's necessarily a bad book, it is just not for me. The writing is easy to understand and readable, but the style is not my type I think the parts that are meant to be "humor" are coming across cringey. I'm not invested in the characters or their growth because I feel like we didn't get much insight into them yet, and a quarter of the way into the book, I feel like I should have knowledge on the characters by now.

I think there is a very specific audience who is receiving this book very well, but it's unfortunately not me.

I had to put this one down at 18% because I was very confused as to what was happening. I understand there are two women.

Ok, I had to put this one down because of an F bomb slur with zero content warnings prior. Please please please use content warnings when using hate speech in a book, as it can be very triggering.

This book was put down at 19% after I was confused and saw an F bomb.

This just is not the book for me.

It’s stories like this one that remind me of what it was like to read as a teenager- falling hopelessly in love with characters, a meticulously created world, and hypnotic prose. That feeling of finishing a book and feeling genuine sadness that my time with it has come to an end. This book is so exquisitely written, and heartbreakingly authentic, that I know I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time to come.
Perfect for fans of fantasy and familial drama alike, “Sister Snake” is at its heart, a love story about chosen family, and if you’re in the market to take your emotional body to the literary gym, I could not recommend this more. Expect a heart-cracking experience from which you will surely emerge having shed a world- weary skin you didn’t even know was there.

Thank you, NetGalley & Ecco for this beautiful gift of a read!

I find myself often drawn to stories inspired from Chinese folklore and this is maybe one of the best I've found. Two sisters with such defined voices and personalities. I could not step away from them. Huge recommendation.

This was SO good, where do I even begin? Born and bred in Singapore, lived here all my life, and here comes a groundbreaking novel that has me questioning and reflecting about everything.

I was in love right from the start. The writing and plot are so compelling; the sisters and their characterisation and their backstories so fascinating, the social commentary so FLAWLESS.

All my complicated feelings about the place I call home, its many contradictions, its beauty, its evolution, its culture... I also loved the sisterly bond so much that the book made me cry more than once.

The author truly nailed it with this one. Just beautiful. Searing. Exquisite.

This was both more incisive and more luxuriant than I'd expected from the synopsis, which made for a very engaging albeit whiplash-inducing read at times. It's a very quick read, but it packs a lot into such a short length.

This was a relatively quick read and was way more than I expected. Which is always a good thing! There is Chinese Folklore, LGBTQIA+ characters, sensitive subject matter and of course the exploration of sisterhood. It was messy, violent and heartbreaking.

Emerald marches to the beat of her own drum, living her life to the fullest. Su is a trophy wife to a Singaporean diplomat who makes it a mission to fit in. Neither find themselves thriving in the human world. After many years living separate the sisters reunite. During this reunion bonds and betrayals are explored; as well as the question - how far would you go to protect the ones you love?

The writing is so immersive and compelling! I really enjoyed this one, and will likely look into other works from the author! Would definitely recommend!

This is incredibly unique and spellbinding. I've never read anything like it and I probably will not stop recommending it to friends. The magical realism is beautiful and eccentric. I did go into this thinking there would be darker scenes but I'm still so satisfied with the female rage. I loved the relationship between sisters. The writing is incredible. I'm a huge fan of Amanda Lee Koe now.

I love books about the dynamics of sisterhood, and Sister Snake was no different. I appreciate how the story balanced humor with emotion. The background of Chinese legend and folktale also made this story's telling feel unique. I appreciated the messaging about being yourself, deviating from the norm, and chosen family. Would absolutely recommend this book!

This made me laugh out loud, which is a difficult thing to achieve when reading. Sister Snake takes such important community conversations and explores them in the most digestible and unique way. I can't wait to read this again

This was really well written and engaging—the differences in the personalities, rationalizations, existences of two very different legendary women/snakes/adopted sisters were really fascinating. Many of their divisions were there from the very beginning and only widened over time (it's amazing how little difference, ultimately, a thousand years can make). The novel is propulsive and suspenseful as you watch these two immortalish snake-women who are both drawn to and repelled by each other make potentially very, very bad decisions. Lots of plot about Singapore and Singaporean politics that I am by no means qualified to weigh in on (but if this is all I had to go on, it absolutely did not make me want to live in Singapore).

4.5, rounded up

Admittedly I don't think this novel will everyone's cup of tea, but I found it to be so creative and interesting. It's part fantasy, part social commentary, and part epic that keeps it moving. If The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Shark Heart, and Night Bitch had a love child, this would be it. I thought it was fun, fantastic, and an easy read to boot.

This book is my favorite type of novel: magical realism and feminine rage. It is literally perfection. Everyone should read this.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco For a copy. This book is out today!

Happy Pub Day!

Sister Snake is the story of two very different women who are, in fact, very ancient snakes who spent hundreds of years meditating until they were able to evolve something very, very close to human bodies & human consciousnesses. They wanted to leave their snake lives behind after horrible betrayals & predations inflicted upon them by their own species, but as we humans know, people can also be predators. The women have something of a secret weapon though. They are still able to transform into snakes at will. That doesn't mean they necessarily WANT to, but there are times when it is useful. There are also times when it's a curse.

The women have been walking life's path together for so long that they consider each other sisters, but at the time of the book's primary narrative, they have been estranged for many decades. One woman lives a hardscrabble life in New York City, while the other is a wealthy politician's wife in Singapore. But when they need each other due to mutual crises, they reunite.

This is a fantastic book on female rage. It's also a reimagining of the Chinese folktale, The Legend of the White Snake. It is fiercely feminist, queer, & addresses themes of neo-liberal hypocrisy & orientalism. & of course, sisterhood, & connections that are even thicker than blood.

The quality of the writing was a little bit uneven, in my opinion. I definitely preferred one character over the other & felt the story dragged somewhat from time to time. There were a few strange moments in the book that could have been cleared up with better research or editing. For example, a character described a necklace as resting against her "wishbone". But humans don't have wishbones. The "wishbone" is the clavicle, which on a bird is connected to support the chest cavity during flight. Human clavicles are not connected. Another scene describes a person wearing "tighty-whities" a few years before that style of underwear was invented. Just a few little things like that, & bear in mind that I read an ARC. These inconsistencies could have been corrected for final publication, I don't know. Just mentioning in case you, like me, are an insufferable pedant who gets taken out of a story by things like this.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC!

As snakes, Emerald and Su were bound by sworn sisterhood, content to live peacefully together in their Tang Dynasty home. As humans, things are more… well, complicated. Despite their shared history, Emerald and Su couldn’t be more different–Su is prim and poised, repressing her nature to please her politically conservative husband in Singapore, while Emerald is fierce and uninhibited, struggling to make ends meet in New York City. Reunited by a moment of violence, Emerald agrees to return to Singapore with Su, but as her unapologetic authenticity threatens the life Su has built for herself, buried secrets and long-held resentments grow teeth in this dark and striking take on the Chinese folktale “The Legend of the White Snake.”

Protagonists Su and Emerald are vicious, antagonistic, and often downright murderous. Koe beautifully positions their rage as both feminine and animal, and the deliberate blend of each results in gratifying moments of well-earned violence. Sister Snake is at its best when leaning into literary horror, and though it takes time to settle there, once Koe sheds the new adult tonal “skin” (pun intended), the result is a bold exploration of race, queerness and neurodivergence, the trauma of masking yourself, and the cruelty of loving and being loved.

Koe’s writing crackles with energy. This is an author who clearly knows how to bend voice to her will, and the perspective shifts seamlessly between Emerald, Su, and key minor players, embracing the nuance of how we see and are seen. Despite some missteps (like the occasional shift into quippy modern slang which feels gimmicky in comparison to the depth of Koe’s narrative), Sister Snake is the kind of story I hope to see more of in the future–genre-defying, darkly funny, and unafraid to craft women who are monstrous, who do the wrong thing, who love each other, and who, yes, steal the life force from a man who deserves it every now and then.

China's Legend of the White Snake has gone through many different imaginings throughout history. It was interesting to read this novel of two snake sisters, the white snake Su and the green snake Emerald, who land up in contemporary Singapore and New York where they live lives as humans.

The unusual story caught my attention through most of the book, but then the novelty of the snake sisters and their activities in their human forms began to wear off, and I found myself flipping pages to get to the end. The ending was horrific to me and astounding. I was less enchanted by this tale by the end.

Nevertheless, I'm glad I read it. It introduced me to the old stories about snake women. This book is also about sisterhood and women and their relationships.