This was such a unique story. The magic system took me a beat to get into but I really liked it. I loved the writing- lyrical without being pretentious or tedious. And I have to hand it to the narrator- she had to do so many accents but I thought she did them all really well. This was a great way to end my reading year! 

Honestly one of my favorite reads of 2023, and it's December. 

It was very slow to get into for me, but around the halfway point it really picked up. I enjoyed the author’s writing and descriptions. I also enjoyed the relationships built by the main characters.

Very cool premise about books containing magic! And the characters were delightful. I loved the mirror magic conceit too. I would likely be interested to read more in the world if there’s a sequel, but I do have some major hang ups around blood that made the reading experience challenging at times. Honestly I can’t write more about it because it makes me feel sick, but I’m a baby about this. If you don’t feel squeamish and you like magic/fantasy/books about books, you’ll love this!

𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮 • 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 ⁣⁣⁣
3 𝘗𝘖𝘝 • 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘺 • 𝘓𝘎𝘉𝘛𝘘⁣

Give me a book about books and a well constructed magical system to sink my teeth into and I'm content. This book did both 🙌🏽

It kicks off with a mystery/thriller vibe as the two FMCs try to figure out how their father was killed by his magical books. There is a third POV, another magical book collector and scribe, and it takes a good half of the book before their storylines cross. 

I kept waiting for the romance to kick in. While there is a hint of a romance, it's not enough to make this a romantasy.

There are major witchy vibes due to the spells, herbs, and casting, although no one in the book is actually a witch. Also, for a book without vampires, they certainly spilled a lot of blood and the MMC spends the entirety of the book anemic. This is not the book for you if you dislike needles and blood. So file that as a trigger warning.

This was a very strong debut novel and by the end I was vibing hard. It was the perfect reading for fall season. I'll definitely be happy to read more from Emma Törzs in the future!

TW: parental death and death in general, needles, blood, violence, assault, gore (mild).

#booksaboutbooks #emmatörzs #inkbloodsisterscribe #fantasybooks #magicalrealism #lgbtqbooks #queerbooks #bookstagram #bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreview #bookrecs #witchybooks 

"Ink Blood Sister Scribe" by Emma Törzs is a good urban fantasy for readers who love books and libraries. The story follows two estranged sisters, Esther and Joanna, whose family watches over a collection of magical books. To protect the books and her sister from a mysterious force, Esther must move every year, which has led to a life with few deep connections. But this year, Esther is enjoying her life and budding relationship with Pearl so she decides to stay longer than the one year mark. When this decision backfires, Esther begins to learn the truth of her family's history and the danger that threatens them. 
I really enjoy the magic that Törzs has created as well as everything related to the library. I cared for the sisters but I do think that I will quickly forget them. There is a big part of this story (and a main character) that isn't mentioned in the synopsis and I'm not quite sure why. I found them to be the more interesting part and I felt like they had more character development. I will be interested to see if Törzs writes any companion novels since the world she sets up feels far vaster than the story in this standalone. This feels like it might have been better set up as a series with this book as the first installment and a future installment that would further explore the world outside of the main characters' lives. 

I had to struggle through more than 50% of the book to get to the interesting part. I didn’t like constant povs jumping back and forth.

Also Nicholas is there essentially like a lote dump character which is meh