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cattheteawitchfairy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Enjoyable premise, could be quite graphic at times. Would have liked to see a little more with regards to the magic system.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Self harm, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
cozy_tea_reader's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug use, Gore, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Classism
leexpenandpages's review against another edition
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:
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Self harm, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
zophiebrown's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
A wonderful world of book magic, fueled by the love of sisters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Self harm and Death of parent
fabledfangirl's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm
asahome's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
TL;DR: Sisters, one who can never stay and one who can never go, learn why their family has been torn apart by the books they protect. A young man learns the lengths people will go to control his talent for writing magical books .
I found the first part of the book boring. I know it is intended to set up the rest of the book so you can understand the action when it gets there, but it felt too long to me. I also really struggled to understand when we were in the present versus when we were looking at the past. If there had been a format change or something to indicate we were not in the present, it would have felt less jarring to me.
I found the first part of the book boring. I know it is intended to set up the rest of the book so you can understand the action when it gets there, but it felt too long to me. I also really struggled to understand when we were in the present versus when we were looking at the past. If there had been a format change or something to indicate we were not in the present, it would have felt less jarring to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
apoppyinthewind's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
It took a while for me to get into this book and it wasn't until Nicholas was introduced that I felt my interest pick up. Nicholas and Collins were the most fun to read characters and their chapters felt like it advanced the story while Esther & Joanne's chapters felt like the wheels were spinning on the same mud.
Basically Esther & Joanna's chapters could be summarized up as "They each miss their sister, their family trauma and secret keeping screws with their mental health, paranoia, people being suspicious" rinse repeat. While Nicholas & Collins chapters made me feel like I was learning more about the magical world the story was set in. The book could have just been Nicholas & Collins and I wouldn't have missed Esther or Joanna which is unfortunate since they're the main titular characters.
That said, overall it was enjoyable enough and I appreciate that the story was contained to one book. If you like books about books and magic, you might like this one.
Basically Esther & Joanna's chapters could be summarized up as "They each miss their sister, their family trauma and secret keeping screws with their mental health, paranoia, people being suspicious" rinse repeat. While Nicholas & Collins chapters made me feel like I was learning more about the magical world the story was set in. The book could have just been Nicholas & Collins and I wouldn't have missed Esther or Joanna which is unfortunate since they're the main titular characters.
That said, overall it was enjoyable enough and I appreciate that the story was contained to one book. If you like books about books and magic, you might like this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Stalking, and Murder
tracylou's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did.
Törzs' gift in the book is the dialogue between characters. She crafts conversations that read honestly, cover various emotions and situations, and feel authentic to the character she's crafted. For me, these patches of dialogue were the saving grace of the novel.
The biggest problem for me, though, was a lack of focus. Any of the four main characters could have been the hero or the anti-hero, and given the book title, it probably should've been the sisters. Sadly, the sisters are the characters who feel the flattest. The friendship between Nicholas and Collins is far more interesting than the estrangement or reconnection between the sisters.
The pacing of the novel felt uneven, dragging in some places and racing to the finish in others. I found myself wishing the author would have followed a more chronological timeline, allowing the reader to follow the events, appreciate the intricacies of the magic, and enjoy the characters more.
Törzs' gift in the book is the dialogue between characters. She crafts conversations that read honestly, cover various emotions and situations, and feel authentic to the character she's crafted. For me, these patches of dialogue were the saving grace of the novel.
The biggest problem for me, though, was a lack of focus. Any of the four main characters could have been the hero or the anti-hero, and given the book title, it probably should've been the sisters. Sadly, the sisters are the characters who feel the flattest. The friendship between Nicholas and Collins is far more interesting than the estrangement or reconnection between the sisters.
The pacing of the novel felt uneven, dragging in some places and racing to the finish in others. I found myself wishing the author would have followed a more chronological timeline, allowing the reader to follow the events, appreciate the intricacies of the magic, and enjoy the characters more.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Self harm, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
readwithria's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a debut I’m unlikely to forget, but not for the right reasons.
I was very intrigued by the premise of this book. Sisterhood, familial magic, and dark secrets are usually things that I enjoy in books. However, it took about 300 pages to get through the setup and to the main plot. Those first couple hundred pages were interesting, but easy to put down. The last 85 pages were much more action-packed, but almost to the point of going by too quickly.
Other than the pacing, it also bothered me that it felt like the decisions the three POV characters made were because of the plot, and I prefer books where the plot happens the way it does due to decisions made by the main characters.
Things that I did enjoy included
- the magic system
- Pearl, Collins, Sir Kiwi, and the little cat
- the themes of colonial deconstruction
- the division of information through the different POVs
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy books that deal with family secrets, generational trauma, and objects of power. I would not recommend this book to people who are sensitive to self harm (CW: graphic bloodletting for magical purposes)
This was interesting, but missed the mark in a few key ways. 3.5 stars.
I was very intrigued by the premise of this book. Sisterhood, familial magic, and dark secrets are usually things that I enjoy in books. However, it took about 300 pages to get through the setup and to the main plot. Those first couple hundred pages were interesting, but easy to put down. The last 85 pages were much more action-packed, but almost to the point of going by too quickly.
Other than the pacing, it also bothered me that it felt like the decisions the three POV characters made were because of the plot, and I prefer books where the plot happens the way it does due to decisions made by the main characters.
Things that I did enjoy included
- the magic system
- Pearl, Collins, Sir Kiwi, and the little cat
- the themes of colonial deconstruction
- the division of information through the different POVs
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy books that deal with family secrets, generational trauma, and objects of power. I would not recommend this book to people who are sensitive to self harm (CW: graphic bloodletting for magical purposes)
This was interesting, but missed the mark in a few key ways. 3.5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Blood
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Alcohol, and Classism
someryarns's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Death and Grief
Minor: Self harm, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail