Book Review: Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe

Two found-family sisters deal with each other's very different personalities and approaches to human life in this modern-day retelling of the Legend of the White Snake.

4/5 Stars

I LOVE a good mythology/folklore retelling. I was obsessed with Greek mythology when I was younger, and thanks to all us Percy Jackson kids growing up, we now have so many retellings to look forward to year after year. I have ventured into Norse mythology, Arthurian legend, and other Eurocentric stories that have stuck in the collective consciousness for one reason or another. But recently, I have been trying to venture more into other mythologies and legends around that world that were not part of my school curriculum growing up, and that led me to China's Four Great Folktales. One of which, Legend of the White Snake, was retold in Amanda Lee Koe's 2024 release, Sister Snake, and I knew I had to read it.

Sister Snake follows two friends who are as close as sisters- Su and Emerald. They are immortal snake shapeshifters, having gone through so much in both forms and at various points in their lives that they sometimes go their own way and reunite together again after long and short absences. They are very different people. Su, in all eras of her life, is always more deferential, more conservative, and more sheltered than Emerald, who identifies more with thrill-seeking, whims of fancy, and erratic behavior. The two have been fairly estranged for some time until Su, who lives in Singapore, discovers a clip in the news of a man who appears to have been attacked by a snake in New York City, and jumps on a plane to come to the aid of her sister. While Emerald struggles with who she is and what she wants in this modern time, Su is dealing with problematic secrets of her own. And with thematic elements investigating rage, sisterhood, class differences, motherhood, lgbtqia+ identities, cultural differences, and fitting in vs standing out, Amanda Lee Koe has crafted an excellent story around the myth of Legend of the White Snake that leaves me hungry for her version of the three other Great Folk Tales.

This book is a super cool retelling of a folk myth. We support female/snake rights, but mostly female/snake wrongs. Being human is overrated anyway, right? I give this book a solid 4/5 stars.