Tag Archives: writer: zen cho

Behind Frenemy Lines, by Zen Cho

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

I could hot desk in the open plan area, as Arthur had suggested, but then I wouldn’t have such luxuries as shelves for my client files, or a permanent noticeboard, or a drawer to keep spare pens and Post-it notes in. Even sharing with Kawan Baik was better than that.

Another contemporary romance (following on from The Friend Zone Experiment), this has two young British Asian lawyers in London gradually figuring out their destiny, while also navigating the perils of white patriarchy in their profession and the ethics of dodgy political assignments. There are some glorious moments, including a particularly gruesome wedding chapter. The ending surprised me; I didn’t expect the characters to go (literally) there. Again, you know where the story is likely to end up emotionally from roughly page 3, but the journey is gripping and very entertaining. You can get Behind Frenemy Lines here.

Spirits Abroad, by Zen Cho

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Second paragraph of third story (“The Fish Bowl”):

She did not have strong feelings about Puan Lai, but she liked the house. Between the entrance and living room there was an expanse of cool, white marble floor that would have been a hallway in a normal house. Puan Lai had dug out a hole in the floor and filled it with water. The pond was rectangular, like a swimming pool, but the water was green, swarming with koi and goldfish.

This is a tremendous collection of short stories by Zen Cho, including “If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again” which won the Hugo in 2019 (one of my years). They are all in the fantasy vein with some of them slipping towards horror. They all feature Malaysian culture, especially Malaysian Chinese culture, which is a particular point of interest for me as I get on with editing my grandmother’s memoirs of her time living and loving in Penang. Some are set in Malaysia, some in England, some elsewhere entirely. The ones I liked most were “House of Aunts”, a story of an undead teenager and her older (much older) relatives; “Prudence and the Dragon”, about an unlikely love story; and the Hugo-winning “If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again”, another unlikely love story. But they are all excellent. You can get Spirits Abroad here.

The Friend Zone Experiment, by Zen Cho

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

He hadn’t come for Alicia’s company, any more than he’d come for the exhibition itself. The name Dior meant as little to him as, he supposed, Shostakovich or Britten would to someone who didn’t care about classical music.

I know Zen of course both as a friend (I believe that we are the only Eastercon Guests of Honour with parents born in Malaysia) and for her intriguing fantasy novels and shorter fiction; I believe that this is her first venture into contemporary romance, a genre which is sometimes taken less seriously than it should be.

Renee Goh gets dumped by her pop star boyfriend on page 6, and bumps unexpectedly into her ex Ket Siong on page 26, and despite Renee’s experimental attempts to keep Ket Siong in the Friend Zone, we basically know where they will have got to by the end on page 341. I really enjoyed the ride; human beings are complex creatures, capable of misunderstanding their own best interests and getting confused about the signals they receive from others, and it’s entertaining (occasionally painful) to read.

As well as being a good empowering love story, with the dynastic intricacies of the Malaysian business community’s presence in London as backdrop, there is a grim subplot involving a massive political corruption scandal and human rights abuse, which peripherally touches both our lovers and also the Bad Boy rival for Renee’s affections. Renee manages to triumph here too, thanks to her ability to think outside the box, though it has an impact on her relations with her own family.

I am interested that the last Asian romance novel I read, Those Pricey Thakur Girls, also had a really grim political subplot underlying the girl-meets-boy main current. I don’t know how common this is for romance novels.

Anyway, this is a good one, and you can get it here.