Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Ink Blood Sister Scribe

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Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

32 reviews

jenhfultz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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brynalexa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A fun read. Very easy to listen to. It over-explains itself quite a bit which affected the mystery/suspense aspect. Overall, I would definitely recommend it.

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cozy_tea_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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leexpenandpages's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

📝 SYNOPSIS:
After the death of their father, two sisters discover the world of magic is much bigger than he let on, and their blood—literal and figurative—is more valuable than they realized; meanwhile, the only known living Scribe of magical books learns that The Library houses more dark secrets than he'd thought.
🩸✒️📜✨️🪞👭👫🇬🇧🇺🇲

👍🏻 RECOMMENDATION:
💚 READ IT!

💬 FAVORITE QUOTES:

In Gil's world, women found themselves in mirrors. They became hypnotized and stared into their own eyes until they recognized themselves, and once they did, the mirror ceased to be a trap and became instead a doorway. An escape route. A path.

Cold was easier to bear when you’d never been warm.

(SPOILER)
Stepping through the mirror was like [...] swimming if the water was made of treacle and also of outer space, sweet and airless and tugging and infinite, and dark in a way that wasn't a binary to light but rather a different state entirely, complete unto itself.

👓 FORMAT:
🎧

📑 COMMENTS:
• Törzs's attention to craft is undeniable. If you're looking for a dark academic book, the aesthetic conjured by the prose will live rent-free in your beautiful mind, and the magic system will delight you!
• Pacing is slow. (The beautiful descriptions contribute to it, unfortunately.) It's especially hindersome in the first part. Plus, the POV changes often needlessly worsen it throughout the story. Significant cutting during revision would've greatly improved this book.
• The story is intricate, but all the details, some cleary important and some that seem innocuous, come together in the end. That being said, the details sometimes drove me toward boredom. Again, this book could've been shorter, and it would've been even more captivating.
• Characters come from around the world, and their diversity does not come across as tokenship. For instance, one character mourns the heritage she'd lost when she lost a parent, so she learns Spanish to reconnect with her ancestry.
• Even when the characters themselves are a little flat, the characters' relationships (including romantic, platonic, and familial) are natural and believable. These relationships affect the story in complex, meaningful ways.

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cglharmony's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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navayiota's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Aggressively good. Saskia Maarleveld has incredible taste in books. If she's narrating it, i know it will be a banger. And she's amazing at what she does!
I really, really enjoyed this story. The plot twists made complete sense and I felt proud of myself whenever I managed to see one coming, the characters are lovable, (I want to give all our protagonists a hug) and the descriptions of sensations were vivid and visceral. I loved every moment.
It was also a stunning portrayal of how people deal with trauma, especially trauma inflicted by one's primary caregivers. Excellent work!

My one critique would be that they struggled a bit with writing the 4-person conversation between Ester, Johanna, Nicholas and Collins where the 're trying to decide what to do with the wards. It felt forced and repetitive, and constantly reminded me of the fact that this is a story written by a person, and not just me being a fly on the wall for a real life conversation. I didn't notice this with any other conversation.

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abicaro17's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

The pacing was so slow at times but otherwise this is a terrific fantasy novel about love, friendship, and found family. Esther and Johanna are half sisters that have been separated for years. They're from a family of magical librarians that protect spell books. When Esther is attacked at the compound in Antartica she works at, she flees to escape her attackers. At the Library in Europe, Nicholas a Scribe and his hired bodyguard Collins discover family secrets that could be killer. This book weaves the world building so effectively into the characters and their motives. Its both very YA feeling and also insanely gory and dark but very well balanced.

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