A little too verging on thriller/mystery for my personal fantasy tastes but still really enjoyed! 

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Now, I think this mayhaps have been a "right book, right time" kind of thing, but wow I fell in love with this. I found myself absorbed in this book's pages and struggling to pull myself away even to sleep or eat. And upon closing the book, I found myself disappointed to leave the world behind. That certainly is not an occurrence with everything I read. Lately, reading has felt like meandering through a thick forest, trudging along different paths, but Ink Blood Sister Scribe felt like finally finding the perfect little spot to settle down in, like Celia in the forest of Arden: "I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it."

In a magical world not unlike our own, we follow three characters:

Joanna, a young woman protecting and caring for her late father's personal library of magical books. Though in her attempt to protect the books from the outside world, she's holed herself in. And despite her expertise on her own collection, she can't seem to figure out where these books come from. Especially the book that killed her father.

Esther, Joanna's older sister who has been on the run for 10 years, after her father commanded her to move to a new location every November. Estranged from her family, and in a constant state of motion, she has no ties. But in Antarctica, she's decided to stay another season. She's happy and comfortable and has a girlfriend she's really starting to feel something for. What could possibly go wrong?

Nicholas, who is absolutely sick of his life. He's been giving his blood, sweat, and tears (quite literally) to the Library since he was a child, creating new magical books. But as the world's last and only Scribe, he's resigned to his fate. At least his uncle–the head of the Library–and his girlfriend care about him, and at least he lives in a mansion out of a fairytale. At least he's safe.

But when all three of these characters discover the secrets that define their lives, they're thrown together on an unexpected and emotional journey.

Emma Törzs has crafted a brilliant little sandbox. This story was filled with the type of magic often reserved for children. One of mystery and whimsy and one that feels graspable and close to the heart. This feels like a world I could dream in, and it made me want to play pretend again. Any fellow fantasy-loving adults wanna meet up and play Magical Library with me? We can pull up weeds and mix them together as the herbs for spells and use Kool-Aid and leaves as we pretend to write magical books with our blood. And we could even set up a little frame and pretend it's a magic mirror.

It's incredible that any fantasy book, especially an adult anti-colonialist fabulism tale, could make me filled with such childhood joy and imagination. This is a huge testament to the author's accomplishments.

This book's Jewishness also took me by surprise. In fact, I had no idea it had any Jewish characters, and was so pleasantly surprised to see the casual representation for most of the story, but even more so to see the characters' connection to Judaism emotionally move the story in a moment of need. It meant a whole lot to me. In general, I was really a fan of this book's diversity. Two of the three main characters were queer (likely bisexual), and one of the characters was half-Mexican, and another was disabled, using a prosthetic eye.

I must say, this is not a story of twists and turns, but one of nooks and crannies. Rather than dramatic surprises and mind-blowing reveals, it felt more as though the plot of this story was a picture slowly coming into focus. All of the "twists" were less shocking and more like a puzzle piece clicking into place. Some of them were easily spotted, but never felt predictable in a way that dragged. And I've always said that I'd rather read a well-laid and obvious twist than a shocking one that feels out of nowhere. I don't need to be caught off guard, I just need to be caught up in a story. And I was certainly swept off my feet by this one.

(Though a note for the editor: there's no airport in Brattleboro, and NYC is a 3.5-5.5 hour drive from Vermont, not 8 hours.)

I'm so grateful to have found this story at this point in my life, when I needed to be convinced that just a sprinkle of imagination reveals so much magic in the mundane. I can't wait to dive back into these pages someday, and I can't wait to see what Törzs does next.

CW: violence, gun violence, blood, self-harm (for magic), dead body, death of parents (past), grief, alcohol consumption, fire, emesis, abusive guardian, character death, kidnapping (past, recounted), torture (past, recounted), hospitalization (past, recounted), antisemitism (brief mention)

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

Magical books. Magical libraries. Magical herbs. Magical mirrors. Evil hiding in plain sight. A witchy cat. Sapphic (closed door) romance. Sisterhood. What more could you ask for?

I absolutely loved this standalone fantasy/thriller/dark academia mashup. It’s been a long time since a book made me want to text live updates to someone who’d already read it, but that’s what happened here. I also stayed up 3 hours past my bedtime to finish it, sooo.

The book has three main characters: Joanna, keeper of her late father’s library of magic books; Esther, her sister who’s been on the run from magical danger since she was 18; and (later) Nicholas, who is also magical and lives in England — but I won’t tell you more about him because of spoilers. I pieced some of the things together before they were revealed, but it was one of those books where that doesn’t take away from the experience at all. And there were surprises too!

One thing I really loved about this book was its structure, where one plotline builds the mystery while the other plotline answers it, so you get info you know some characters are missing, and then eventually the two plotlines merge. And yet it’s never frustrating like a miscommunication trope would be. (How!)

Anyway, you should read this. Kbye.

This was super mysterious especially at the beginning. I really enjoyed the magic and the intertwining povs. A hint of dark academia. Really interesting characters and complicated family dynamics. Funny at parts as well. There was a lot of build up to a main kind of conflict and that felt a bit too easily resolved. But the build up was fascinating and the ending was good after that too 

I loved everything about this book: the characters, the magic system, the world, the commentary on institutions/belonging. 

</spoilerish> Stefon take: this book has everything…a female Pomeranian named Sir Kiwi, magic books, sister dynamics, bee bullets, romance novel discourse, ill timed sartorial longings…<\spoilerish>

Thank you to Haper Collins for sending an ARC to Copperfield's Petaluma!

Wow I loved this book--If I hadn't known, I don't think I would have guessed that it was a debut novel. I really enjoyed the way it shifted between three different perspectives and the different insights you got from that. (I don't always like multiple POVs but it worked well here.) I also loved the  paradigm shift in the way magic works:

in this book, almost anyone can do magic if they just have the right book, but it's quit rare for people to be able to write spell books.

I really enjoyed the concept here; magical books will always be a buzzword for me and I think they were done really interestingly here. I liked the plot as well, for the most part I liked the plot twists and figuring things out with the characters, although the final reveal felt a little info-dumpy. I think there was something just a little off about the pacing, with the beginning feeling a bit slow. The first 100 pages or so spent a lot of time on flashbacks and explanations, but it did make the book less confusing. There were definitely characters I liked better than others; I really enjoyed Nicholas and Esther but think Joanna’s character could have been developed a bit more. I also wanted to see a bit more out of the sister relationship. I did really like the vibes and atmosphere of this book though, and it was a lot of fun. The writing was also well done, especially for a debut. There was just something stopping me from being 100% attached or feeling that typical ‘on the edge of your seat’ feeling, but I’m not sure what. Still, I definitely enjoyed this, and am looking forward to seeing more from this author.

 After a bunch of books which I thought would work for me but failed to stick the landing, this book was a really pleasant surprise. There's been a plethora of books in recent years about magical libraries or magical books, so I have to admit I wasn't expecting all that much.

The book opens with one of our protagonists, Esther, who is working as an electrician on a research station in Antarctica where she's just signed on for another 12-month contract - prior to this, she's led a very peripatetic lifestyle, having been warned by her father not to stay in anyone place longer than a year. This is, we discover, all to do with the possession by her family of some magical books and how they react to both Esther and her half-sister Jo. One of those books, we later discover, has taken life of Esther and Jo's father and something about Esther means that if she goes home, their hidden farmstead can be located and staying in one place too long puts Esther at risk as well. It doesn't take long before one of a new set of workers coming into the Antarctic base turns violent towards Esther and her girlfriend, meaning that Esther has to protect them both and then also leave both her job and girlfriend behind.

Meanwhile, literally on the other side of the world in London, we meet our other main protagonist, Nicholas - his family is involved with these magical books too, as he leads a sheltered life as someone whose blood is literally used as part of the ritual to create them. While he's gone along with what's been asked of him before, Nicholas starts to question what he's been told about how his very constrained world actually works, especially when his uncle's long-term partner helps him discover things aren't quite as he's always been told. When Nicholas takes the opportunity to leave the world he knows, his path naturally crosses with that of Esther and things develop from there.

The author does a really nice job of keeping all the moving parts of this novel working out, with some solid character work and some nice touches to the world-building - I particularly liked the idea of magical NDA, which were used/broken effectively as a way to drop new information in and take things in directions I didn't 100% see coming. At least one of the twists later on was a little predictable but others weren't and that kept me involved all the way through to the end. This looks like being a standalone novel but I'd be happy to read more about these characters and will also definitely keep an eye out for whatever this author does next.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.