I am one of many readers who enjoy books about books, and I requested Ink Blood Sister Scribe on something of a whim due to that. I was expecting it to be a fun read but probably not an especially memorable one; nothing about the blurb suggested it was going to be a really special book. I figured there was a 50/50 chance that it would end up on my DNF pile.

It did not. Because Ink Blood Sister Scribe is every bit as magical as the spellbooks within its pages.

What struck me immediately was how easy Ink Blood Sister Scribe was to read; the elusive quality of airport thrillers and escapist beach reads, but wrapped around a surprisingly rich centre – a bonbon of a book, ridiculously delicious. Pages turned without effort, drawing me deeper and deeper, anticipation looped around my throat and fear for the characters leaden in my stomach. I was desperately anxious that all these entirely fictional people be okay and get their happy ending; Törzs wastes no time in establishing emotional connections between reader and read, making me far more deeply invested, and much faster, than I’m used to!

One of the ways she does this is by giving every character small quirks of personality that make them seem instantly and deeply human. I don’t think characters need to be likeable, and sometimes they don’t even need to be very interesting, so long as you give them something they’re passionate about, something small enough for the reader to understand, and maybe empathise with. Esther is slowly translating a (non-magical) book in order to connect to the lost side of her heritage; Joanna is trying to make friends with a feral cat and convince him to come inside and live with her. Small things, human things, that mean such a lot on an individual level that we can’t help being drawn in to the characters’ passion for them.

Story-wise, the blurb is a bit misleading; the death of Esther and Joanna’s father isn’t really a catalyst, so much as the removable of an obstacle that allows Esther and Joanna to finally discover things he chose to keep from them. The actual catalyst is Esther; at 18, she was told by her father that she had to run, and keep running. Magic doesn’t work on Esther, for some inexplicable reason, which means the wards that kept her family safe didn’t function while she was within them. So she had to leave to keep her family safe. But there’s a rule: she can only spend a year in any one place. Come November 2nd, 11pm Eastern Standard Time, Esther must run again; spend 24 hours moving, before settling in a new place.

Why? Because if she doesn’t, the people who murdered her mother will find her. So Esther’s followed the rule faithfully – until the start of Ink Blood Sister Scribe, when her relationship with the (extremely awesome) Pearl is judged too precious to abandon.

So she doesn’t run.

That’s what kicks the story off.

I flew through this book, and massively resented anything that took me away from it. Törzs’ prose is light, almost breezy at times, but without sacrificing thematic meatiness or some seriously complex character dynamics. Despite dealing with some majorly dark themes, this is a book that made me laugh over and over, both when the characters themselves were being funny and with the marvellous turns of phrase Törzs whips out that just nail some deep and ridiculous aspect of the human condition;

the closet of her sexual subconscious was full of petticoats.

He’d never felt so passionately all-caps about another person

I mean, you know exactly what she means with these two lines! They’re funny and more than a little ridiculous and you get it instantly, because yes, that is exactly the right way to describe The Thing. These lines are two of my favourite examples, but there are plenty more; I had to take many brief pauses to read certain passages aloud to my husband, else he’d have no idea why I was cackling my head off.

“He’s British,” Lisa said to Collins. It sounded accusatory.

“So was Bowie.”

Lisa put a hand to her heart. “Touché.”

The story itself is…wonderful. I don’t want to say much about it – and I strongly suggest you try to avoid any other reviews that go into detail about it – because the twists and reveals strike like lightning, and that is something you should definitely experience for yourself. I was able to see precisely one (1) twist coming, and it was a fairly minor and obvious one; all the rest left me gaping. If I have one critique, it’s that the Big Explanation near the end was one that I don’t think any reader could have put together; there weren’t enough clues, we had to be told because the pieces we needed weren’t given to us. But that’s an extremely minor quibble, because by that point, the Big Explanation isn’t really all that big – important to the characters, yes, but it doesn’t really affect the plot and doesn’t matter so much to the reader. The clues to the bits that matter are all there, although I defy you to figure out what’s coming before it hits – this is a case of, it’s so clear in hindsight!!! but so very un-obvious as it’s playing out. The theory I spent the last two thirds of the book building was utterly wrong – and that delights me. YAY FOR BOOKS NOT BEING PREDICTABLE AND ALSO TRICKING ME LIKE THE FOOL I AM!

Despite how dark some aspects of this are, this was my comfort book, oddly cosy even when the characters were on the run or fighting for their lives. I’ve said this already, but it was easy to read, a blessed relief when the brain-fog attacked – but it’s not insultingly or annoyingly simple. It’s twisty and emotional and I wanted to flail my arms around frantically a great deal more than once. And the magic system! I am in awe of how simple and brilliant is the magic system Törzs has come up with, a clever, so-unique twist on the idea of magic books! It all fits together so well; it’s easy to grasp but still wondrous, still enough to give you goosebumps or make you shiver or have you laughing with awe-wonder-joy. It almost seemed to marry the best parts of hard magic systems with the best parts of soft ones, and I’m so excited to see what my favourite readers think of it when this book is released next week.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a fascinating bundle of contradictions that cohere into a real delight of a book – every bit as magical as the spell books featured in its story. It’s light, but rich and complex; it’s dark, but bewilderingly cosy. It’s easy to read without ever feeling dumbed-down; deliciously more-ish without being rushed. It’s about magic and sisterhood, and yet another 1%-er greedily hoarding resources and happy to murder to acquire more. It’s about making friends with a cat, and ruinous obsessions. It’s about wonder, and terrible parenting, and a Pomeranian named Sir Kiwi.

And a lot of magic books.

A boy grows up in a house with library and many secrets. A young woman runs to the corners of the earth to escape from the same secrets. When they meet, they discover the magic each is privy to and how they can begin to control the damage it has done.

This weekend I read Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs. This incredibly lush story of family secrets, magic, and a group of misfit heroes has surpassed all other reads so far this year for me! Do yourselves a favor and check it out when it releases next week on May 30!


What I liked about the book:

1. Let’s first discuss the writing, which was perfect! Not only was the world building of the magic system super freaking interesting (which we’ll get to in a bit), but the grammar, spelling, and overall flow of this book was unequivocally flawless. This is not something that I mark an author down for unless it is excessive and leads to a large flow problem for the story, but this is DEFINITELY something I give points for when done well!

This story was written in third person POV, for three main characters: Joanna, Esther, and Nicholas. While I am not usually a fan of third person POV as I feel it is not as personal and intimate as stories told in first person, Emma convinced me that it can be done right with this book! I had no feelings of missing a character’s feelings or wanting to know more of what they were thinking, because Emma was able to expertly weave a third person POV story that felt like first person POV. Maybe I don’t hate third person POV after all!

The flow of the story was fantastic. Information was provided and clarified at the right pace to be mysterious but not daunting. I’m still not able to figure out how Emma did it, but essentially, I knew I was missing details while reading, but I also didn’t obsess over it because I had a bone-deep trust that Emma would get us there. Where and how this trust was developed I do not know, but somewhere within this story it happened and Emma did not disappoint.

2. Getting back to the system of magic, I was completely in awe of the idea and really dug it. I loved that there was definitely a yin-yang concept to it in that the people who wrote spells couldn’t wield them and the people who could practice magic couldn’t write spells; you had to have both for the whole system to work or it would cease to exist.

The methodology behind it all was wildly fascinating to me. The way that spells were written was unique and creative, but I was especially charmed with a book only having so many uses before it faded. This just made so much sense given how the books were written! I can’t say more about that, but trust me, it’s fantastic!

Finally, the background written around scribes and magic as well as all the artefacts found in the library totally fed into my lust for history! I loved the more immediate history we got detailing the FMC’s families before they were born, but also the history we got from generations before that. It made me think, “Did this type of thing actually exist?!?!” This was just like when I watched Jurassic Park for the first time and thought “THIS COULD TOTALLY HAPPEN!”.

3. I liked all three main characters and felt they definitely had their own voices as I read. They were all underdogs in their own ways and I love that! Usually we get one, but we got three here!

Joanna (little sister and magic wielder) was the quintessential goodie good who did everything she was told to without many questions, stayed dutiful and loyal to her family, and ultimately was a prisoner in her own life of solitude. I loved watching her step out of her comfort zone, forge relationships with new people, and ultimately learn to do something she thought she never could.

Esther (big sister and non-magic wielder) was the dictionary definition of the wild child, runaway. Never staying in the same place for too long and never establishing roots until one day everything changed, forcing her to go back to basics, find her way home, and simultaneously find her place in the magical world.

Nicholas (the lone, living scribe) was the sheltered but well-off “chosen one”. Left as the only scribe in the world, Nicholas was treated as no more than a machine for his…abilities, but otherwise was given anything and everything he could possibly want, including one super cute sidekick Pomeranian! Watching him develop relationships with several people and overcome his personal hurdles like a BOSS was so satisfying.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Collins, Nicholas’s hilarious bodyguard, who was really like the fourth MC. Collins’s love for the female Pomeranian, Sir Kiwi(!), his hilarious bickering back-and-forth with Nicholas, and his intelligence despite being sidelined as the brawn in their equation, made him easily my favorite character in the entire story.

4. Finally, this book did a great job tying everything together. From small things in the beginning of the book that later became significant, to the tattooed quote that followed Esther throughout the entire story, there were so many “AHA!” moments in this one that I loved.


What could have been better:

1. I wish we had gotten a bit more romance! I’m a romance junkie, and the description saying “this is a suspenseful and richly atmospheric novel that draws readers into a vast world filled with mystery and magic, romance, and intrigue” tells me there is going to be some grand romance. However, I felt the book was missing this piece with both FMCs. Don’t get me wrong, there was romance for sure, both of which I was all for, but there just wasn’t enough there for me.


Final Thoughts: Such a beautifully written story with a unique take on magic, sisterhood, and unlikely heroes.


Final Rating: 4.5 eye-opening stars!


Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Emma Törzs for the advanced copy of this book. The review expressed above is honest and my own.

Moody, melancholic, and lovely. A bittersweet tale about sisters and families and secrets-- Törzs constructs a world and a magic system that feels lyrical and lived in, and expressive of the characters' inner landscapes. I would spend a lot more time in this world-- the book is self-contained and satisfying on its own but points to a lots of future storytelling possibilities.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is so many things at once: an adventure, a puzzle, a twisty thriller, and a tender romance. It's a magical book about the magic of books; I really enjoyed it! 3.5 out of 5 ⭐️

Oh hi magic books, I love you - especially in a grim fantasy with secret societies! This read similarly to Book of Night by Holly Black, another urban fantasy that I loved. In a world where anyone can use magic if they have the right book, I can only imagine how much fun I could have with that. The magic system itself seems intuitive, though some are blessed with abilities like hearing magic or being completely immune to it. I also really enjoyed having a queer romance front and center amidst all of this fantastical chaos. This could potentially become a series, but I did enjoy that this book was entirely self-contained. Also Sir Kiwi deserves so many treats for making it through this book.

*Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

Oh my God. This was amazing. Read this immediately!!

Following two half sisters, Esther and Joanna, Esther is a traveler, moving yearly and Joanna stays at home caring for the vast library of magical books left under her care by their deceased father, Ink Blood Sister Scribe takes the readers on a journey of magic, loss, betrayal and family and it was so very good.
Esther, sent away to protect her sister due to her lack of magical abilities, must relocate yearly in order to keep from being found (and to keep her sister safe)- though by who she isn't quite. Joanna remains home, nightly setting the wards to protect the magical books her father spent his life collecting.
And across the ocean, Nicholas, protected by the Library has all the answers to the questions the two sisters need. Or does he? What secrets have been kept from him during his sheltered, cosseted life?

This novel was so well written, the characters coming to life wonderfully, the nagic and the world unraveling before the reader (or listener if you are able to listen to the exceeding well read audiobook) that is was a joy from start to finish.

This story about sisterhood and book witchcraft is already being compared to Practical Magic, Inkheart, Ninth House (and in my opinion has a few things in common with the Book Eaters), and I really felt like all of those comparisons were accurate. I really enjoyed this book a lot! It has: magic books, scary mirror magic, estranged family dynamics, and a bodyguard who is annoyed with his client (this feels like an important and underrated trope).

This story features three (maybe four?) main characters: First we have sisters Esther and Joanna, one hiding out in Antarctica because she's been told to move every year for her family's safety, and one stuck at her home guarding her family's precious books. We are also following the story of Nicholas and Collin, as Collin tries to protect Nicholas from an increasing danger to his safety (though the source of this danger is part of the mystery of the book).

This book delivers on magic and mystery, and I'm loving the dark academic energy.

Every once in a while a book touches a reader like a literary piece of art. This book was one of those novels for me. Where the prose weave such a rich story in my mind, and stay with me long after I have paused reading.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is one of those books that has a reader falling in love with a genre. A gateway drawing a reader in. And every reader has such a book in their reading history. The one that brought them to the genre. That sparked their love, a literary guide/introduction. Their doorway into a realm of reading.

I used to love reading fantasy novels and I cannot remember the last time I read one, but the moment I heard the blurb for Ink Blood Sister Scribe I knew it was going to be a book like no other. I was completely captured by Emma Torzs' writing. Her character's leapt from the page and her plot with its intricate twists and turns kept me hooked to the story. The well-written perspectives of the main characters, allowed for me to feel a connection with each of them; to see how their actual choices/lack of choices, and their belief in their inability to effectively make choices effected them and the story. How secrecy, knowledge and trust were wielded like weapons necessitating what was believed as protection but in many ways was the opposite. Knowledge equating power; a construct that is an ever present force within our actual reality. Torzs weaved all this and more into Ink Blood Sister Scribe creating a novel unlike any I have read in my life.

ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED. THIS WAS SO GOOD.

If you like complex sibling relationships, magical/dark libraries, and incredibly unique magic systems, definitely pick this one up. It wrapped up like a stand-alone, but with some definite room for more plot - which I would LOVE.

You get dropped into the action but the worldbuilding is done in such a wonderful way.

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.

Jo lives a lonely life in the Kalotay family home in Vermont. She takes care of her father’s collection of handwritten books. These books all contain strange spells—some can briefly suspect the power of gravity, others can hide a whole house from everyone, a few can even kill. A touch of blood and a dash of herbs can unlock their magic but what frustrates Jo is the fact that she can’t create her own magic; she can only use others’. Her sister, Esther, is on the other side of the world, in Antarctica. Every year Esther has to pack everything and travel. It doesn’t really matter where as long as she’s moving on November 2. She doesn’t know exactly why. Her father never told her anything other than something bad would happen to her and her sister if she doesn’t keep bouncing around the globe.

We’ll never know how long the sisters might have continued their enforced separation and unhappiness if Esther hadn’t fallen in love with a lovely Australian woman while in their research station in Antarctica. The November deadline passes and things start to get weird. Esther picks up on signs of magic she remembers from her childhood. A batch of newcomers arrives at the station and Esther suddenly doesn’t know who she can trust. Then the worst happens: Esther’s girlfriend is attacked and terribly injured. When Esther visits, the attacker finds them both. Whoever has been hunting the Kalotay sisters has found one of them.

A third narrator, Nicholas, helps us readers start to figure out what’s going on. The Kalotay sisters were kept in the dark by their father; they were only told to keep doing certain things but never why. (Fictional parents, please tell your kids the whole story. It will save a lot of problems in the future.) Nicholas’s uncle, who runs their magical book empire, is another person who never told the whole truth. All Nicholas knows is that his blood can make magical books and that, if he were ever to try and strike out on his own, evil people will capture him and bleed him dry to get his magic. When he was a young teen, even was even kidnapped and lost an eye before his uncle recovered him. He sticks close to home but the confinement and constant pressure to produce have chafed for years. When someone starts pushing Nicholas to question what he’s been told over the years, Nicholas is only too happy to go investigating.

The attack on Esther and her girlfriend kicks off a globe-hopping magical adventure for all three of our narrators. Horrific mysteries are uncovered. True friends are made. Spells are cast. And, best of all for Esther, Jo, and Nicholas, questions are finally answered. Enjoyed this original contemporary fantasy novel quite a bit. My only quibble is that I would’ve liked it if things hadn’t been quite so easy for our protagonists. There are twists in this book but they don’t have to struggle very hard to come out victorious when the baddies manage to gain the upper hand. That said, the climax of this book is pretty spectacular. My quibble is really very minor.

4.5 Stars

I was thoroughly captivated by this book. It does start off a little slow in the first half as it introduces you to the characters and pieces out their history. But even in the early parts, I was drawn in and intrigued by the magical plot. You are introduced to two sisters, who have not seen each other in years. Both are recluses of a sort- one tied to their family home in Vermont where she protects their collection of spell books, and the other is living in Antarctica and secretly following instructions from her father to relocate every year in order to protect her sister. Why does she need to do this? Why is she immune to magic when her sister is not? The author expertly establishes this mystery in the early part of the book to keep you engaged and wondering. Meanwhile, you are also introduced to Nicholas, another recluse living in a mansion in London, the Library, which houses a vast collection of spell books, which they loan out for commissions. Nicholas, it turns out, is a Scribe who can create new books, and is thus himself a priceless commodity and kept within the Library for his own safety.

The second half of the book is much more action-packed, and I did not want to put it down. I did find it fairly predictable, but that did not hurt the enjoyment for me. These characters had all taken hold on me by this point, and I had a great time watching all the mysteries unfold.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. Especially if you love unique magic systems, family drama, and secret societies. It's a great time.

This book is long so make sure your read for the ride it will keep you hooked in and once you think you have things figured out..... guess again it twists on you in the best way possible this writer did an amazing job with the character development and detail I would love to read more of Emma’s work and hope you will love it like i did

If you love books with the chapters being different characters perspectives, you'll love this. The take on magic being book-based is cool and the whole Scribe thing is neat, too. I really enjoyed all the main characters as well as the twists with the writing keeping me guessing!

I enjoyed this a lot. This is such an interesting combination of fantasy elements and thriller elements that I thought really worked well together. I think one thing I really enjoyed was how well-written each separate POV was. They felt like two distinct characters with different voices and ideas, and were parsed through really well. I feel like multiple POV books often run into the issue where the different characters are hard to distinguish from one another, but this book succeeded where many others do not. This was such an intricate and interesting story, with stunning prose and world-building. I cannot wait for more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

"Ink Blood Sister Scribe" started so strongly for me. I was really excited but somewhere along the line, I lost the excitement and reading this felt more like a chore than something fun. One big thing that I think could have helped this book is the length. It is is TOO long for what the story actually is. I think this could have been told within 250-300 pages rather than the 400+ pages. I loved the concept and initially really enjoyed how it was being executed but I struggled with the connecting to the Kalotay sisters and honestly, caring about them. I continued to read because I was interested in the concept of blood magic and how it can be used and thought that aspect of the novel was really fun and interesting. It was the characters that completely turned me off from this book though.

I think with the sisters' insecurities being so in the foreground, it was meant to become a bridge of relatability but it was exhausting to read. There are ways that I think Törzs could have written them so that it wasn't an exhaustive read ala Gillian Flynn, but the way it's executed in this wasn't pleasant. The characters just felt so one-note to me and all the attempts to make them feel grounded amidst all of the magic fell flat for me.

Overall, I'm torn because I love the magic system in this but I do not care for the characters. Like at all.

Thank you Harper Collins for this EARC in exchange for my honest review

Oh my god. I literally read this book so fast because it kept me that hooked. I loved the concept of blood magic and how it can be used for good and evil. It was really easy to connect to the sisters and their stories. I did have some trouble connecting to Nicholas and Collins. Some parts of the book felt rushed, and I wished it was a little bit longer. Otherwise, this was a really good fantasy book and I would definitely recommend it. I can't wait for this author to write more books!

This was a riveting urban fantasy thriller with dark academia vibes and very slight shades of the Starless Sea.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe takes its time getting off the ground. I don't always mind that, but I did find it somewhat jarring in this instance because the second or third chapter fakes you out a bit, creating a sense of urgency that something major is going to happen *right now* which will not actually pay off for... about 100 pages. Be prepared to absorb the main characters entire life's story before the action picks up.

Even though I did get stuck on this phase of the novel for a while, when all is said and done I honestly can't hold it against Törzs. She has created SUCH a pleasingly layered and intricate story with many pieces in play, which return in surprising ways. All of that backstory is essential both for understanding the dark, secretive magic system in this book, and for building the suspense - and once the action does start, it barely lets up for a minute. This is the first book in ages that has actually kept me up late reading because I couldn't possibly put it down without knowing what happened next.

I absolutely loved all three POV characters and the way that their stories were intertwined. (There was even a dash of romance, which some readers will probably enjoy, but I honestly kind of hated it because of the way it was shoehorned in late in the book.)

Overall, I ended up having a ton of fun with this and devoured the last seventy percent or so in two sittings. Pick this novel up for secrets on secrets on secrets, ancient spells written in blood, betrayal(?), portal magic, heart-pounding suspense, and a collection of traumatized and maladjusted young adults that I feel genuinely attached to now.

Think isn’t my usual genre of books but I couldn’t resist story about magical books. The story started a bit slow for me, but in retrospect it just needed time to set up the characters and get the plot in motion.

Ultimately, the characters were wonderful and the plot was smart and intricate.

By the end I began to wonder if I’ve been missing out and should be reading more fantasy books.

The banter between Nicholas and his "bodyguard" are the only saving graces of this novel which could have benefitted from some serious editing. All magic fantasy novels do not have to be over 400 pages. This would have done well to have been much shorter. It is also the author's job to eventually describe aspects and "rules" when world building, but I was lost most of the time and just wanted this to be over.