Ink Blood Sister Scribe

English language

Published Dec. 21, 2023 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:: 9780063253469

(2 reviews)

Joanna Kalotay lives alone in the woods of Vermont, the sole protector of a collection of rare books; books that will allow someone to walk through walls or turn water into wine. Books of magic.

Her estranged older sister Esther moves between countries and jobs, constantly changing, never staying anywhere longer than a year, desperate to avoid the deadly magic that killed her mother. Currently working on a research base in Antarctica, she has found love and perhaps a sort of happiness.

But when she finds spots of blood on the mirrors in the research base, she knows someone is coming for her, and that Joanna and her collection are in danger.

If they are to survive, she and Joanna must unravel the secrets their parents kept hidden from them - secrets that span centuries and continents, and could cost them their lives...

4 editions

enne📚 reviewed Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

4 stars

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a standalone novel about magical books, families, and secrets. Overall, this was just a fun ride. Plenty of action, fun worldbuilding reveals, good foreshadowing but also a few reveals I didn't see coming.

The three main characters that it follows all are sort of trapped in their own way by their family. Joanna (who can hear magic), is trapped protecting her family's magic book collection after her dad has died. Her estranged half-sister Esther is trapped on the run, following (until she doesn't, kicking off the plot) her dad's wishes that she move every year on November 2nd so that her mom's killers don't catch up with her. Nicholas is trapped by his overbearing father and his assistant Maram for his own safety after several attacks. They all in some way work towards their own freedom and untangle secrets about the past and each other. …

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a standalone novel about magical books, families, and secrets. Overall, this was just a fun ride. Plenty of action, fun worldbuilding reveals, good foreshadowing but also a few reveals I didn't see coming.

The three main characters that it follows all are sort of trapped in their own way by their family. Joanna (who can hear magic), is trapped protecting her family's magic book collection after her dad has died. Her estranged half-sister Esther is trapped on the run, following (until she doesn't, kicking off the plot) her dad's wishes that she move every year on November 2nd so that her mom's killers don't catch up with her. Nicholas is trapped by his overbearing father and his assistant Maram for his own safety after several attacks. They all in some way work towards their own freedom and untangle secrets about the past and each other.

I enjoyed the magic system in this book a lot. Magic in this world has a cost (sometimes people's lives) to create magic books (as the title might imply), doesn't come with infinite uses, and often has a short time limit on how long the spell lasts when read. I enjoy that the success of the creation process is largely vibes-based, in that (for example) to create a better book with a truth-spell one needs to obtain accoutrement to recreate a similar context where they personally felt great truths being told. There's also an in-world reason why book magic is bloodline-related.

Annie the Book reviewed Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

Ink Blood Sister Scribe, by Emma Törzs

3 stars

Jo and Esther Kalotay have a complicated relationship. As sisters, they love each other and want to support each other. As their parents’ daughters, they can’t be anywhere near each other. Families are complicated but I’ve never seen one quite as complicated as the tangle of obligations than what I found in Emma Törzs’s Ink Blood Sister Scribe. Even stranger, the weirdness is all because of books. Magical books...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.