Ink Blood Sister Scribe: the Sunday Times bestselling edge-of-your-seat fantasy thriller

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Overall, an evocative and utterly spellbinding literary fantasy that’s full of vibrant, compelling characters you’ll be hard pressed not to root for. So, if you love books full of magic (and magical books) then you definitely don’t want to miss this! In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection--a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs - Penguin Books Australia Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs - Penguin Books Australia

If they are to survive, she and Joanna must unravel the secrets their parents kept hidden from them - secrets that span centuries and continents, and could cost them their lives ... THIS BOOK DESTROYED ME AND MADE ME LOSE FEELING IN MY HANDS WITH HOW ANXIOUS IT MADE ME FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS BEST 2023 RELEASE BY A THOUSAND MILES' Pearl raised her hand, those long fingers wrapped around the stem of an imaginary glass. “Here’s to the crowd. May they love us.”

BookBrowse Review

I was also impressed by the clever way Törzs writes each different POV in a different tone and style befitting to the character we are with. Joanna is written in an almost fairytale-esque way, Esther holds a contemporary style with breezy dialogue and Nicholas has a scholarly tone. The contrast between Nicholas’s British posh manner and his more surly Boston bodyguard, Collins, was rather amusing whenever the pair bantered with one another! Joanna and Nicholas were of course my favourites, their love for books and their introverted nature echoed mine in many ways. You also cannot help but love Sir Kiwi, a very good and loyal, if a touch pampered doggie. These two families are going to come together in unexpected ways to solve a thrilling mystery - why does Esther have to keep running? Who is killing Scribes? Twisty, dark and exciting, I loved it! The plot of "Ink, Blood, Sister, Scribe" is well-paced, balancing moments of action and suspense with building the magic and world system. The story unfolds gradually, which gave me time to absorb the intricate details of the plot while it built tension toward the climactic moments. The three different characters balanced the plot well, and all contributed to it. Because of myself and my audience, I have to mention the biggest surprise of this book: its Jewishness. 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), one of the characters was half-Mexican, and another was disabled, using a prosthetic eye. Which ultimately means that their POVs hold no interest for me. They can't make interesting observations or enrich the world or the stakes for me. It just often feels like watching a child complete a scavenger hunt.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe ‹ Literary Hub Ink Blood Sister Scribe ‹ Literary Hub

Joanna does wonder about how magic books got written. She has tried experimenting with herbs and blood (her own sometimes) but has never had any success. Herbs and blood seem to be the main ingredients of the ink used. Joanna is tied to the books and the family house while Esther has to move on every year - this doesn't like a great way to live for either of them. The 3rd voice in this book is Nicholas's. It seems as though he is writing magical books for the "family business" and profit in the UK. The book follows these three voices and threads as the story develops. Finally, I was enamoured by the descriptions of the sisterly bonds and the longing for belonging, affection, and an identity. A sense of knowing who you are, who your people are, and where you can belong. But when she finds spots of blood on the mirrors in the research base, she knows someone is coming for her, and that Joanna and her collection are in danger. Her estranged older sister Esther moves between countries and jobs, constantly changing, never staying anywhere longer than a year, desperate to avoid the deadly magic that killed her mother. Currently working on a research base in Antarctica, she has found love and perhaps a sort of happiness. This was when Esther had realized she might be in trouble. Because not only was it true, she was nervous, butterfly-stomached in a way she hadn’t felt for years . . . but Pearl had noticed. Had read it somehow on Esther’s well-trained face or in her well-trained body. Esther wasn’t used to people seeing what she didn’t want them to see, and the way Pearl looked at her, saw her, was unsettling. In response, she’d given Pearl her most confident, reassuring smile, then set her teeth very gently to the inside of Pearl’s bare thigh, which had been enough of a distraction that the conversation ended there. But even then, at the very start, she had suspected how difficult Pearl might be to leave.

Emma Törzs

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements--books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect. The summer season had officially begun a couple days ago: November 5. Three days after Esther, according to her father’s urgent edict, should have been long gone. The first half of the story was kind of slow, and somewhat confusing. I have to admit to getting lost a little. I found the characters interesting and felt sorry for Nicholas. I found the second half of the book much more interesting as things started moving along at a better pace. I liked both Esther and Joanna. I loved Joanna's interaction with the cat and trying to win it over. The 'mirror magic' was good. Ink Blood Sister Scribe is itself a magical book, brimming with all the elements that make a story sing - an engrossing plot, characters that steal your heart and make you laugh out loud, and a compelling energy that reveals a true storyteller at work. What a gorgeously satisfying read. Lesley Nneka Arimah, award-winning author of What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs | Waterstones Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs | Waterstones

Astonishing and pristine, the kind of debut I love to be devastated by, already so assured and sophisticated that it’s difficult to imagine where the author can go from here. . . . It’s simply a delight from start to finish.” – AMAL EL-MOHTAR, New York Times Book Review Follow where this novel leads and you will be lost in a bewitching spell, a book of magic about books of magic . . . extraordinary.” – MARLON JAMESNot to mention the comedy gold we get in the Sunshine x Grump dynamics between Nicholas and his bodyguard Collins, or the utter adorableness of female Pomeranian Sir Kiwi (whose bond with Collins is soo sweet.) Especially when it comes to Fantasy, I've got a preference for things that aren't set in our current world, and definitely not in our current time. But this very much a book set in the present. I think it ultimately works with the Big Bad, but ymmv. This is a tale that’s so multilayered, so richly woven together that the narrative entertainingly meanders through puzzle solving, uncovering long hidden family secrets and self discovery. Throughout Törzs deliciously blends together contemporary with classic fairytale staples such as various enchantments, magic mirrors, forest animals, a quest, absent parents and even a stepmother. Like any dark fairytale, it is also drenched in blood. There is a fascinating twist on witches and mages as instead of spells just being read aloud and cast, blood is the key to activating the magic or for creating it. There are those who can feel and even hear magic but cannot create it, and there are those who can create it but never feel or hear it. Then there are some spells that are ongoing, that are a work in progress, that hold the power to drain the user’s blood dry. Though I can’t mention the identity of the main villain in Ink Blood Sister Scribe, I must mention how fantastically they too are written. Their manipulation is subtle, sugar coated with love and false affection, they hold the power of wealth, privilege and dominance over others, they orchestrate plans on a level to get exactly what they want no matter how cruel, how deceitful. They strive on other’s dependence upon them, they are a true narcissist. I did suspect them from the moment we met their character but this didn’t dampen my enjoyment in any way, I still had a lot of pleasure watching them get discovered and eventually get their comeuppance.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe: the Sunday Times bestselling edge-of

Pearl got to her knees and crawled down the length of the bed toward Esther. “I imagine,” she said, “that six months of unwanted celibacy plus a planeful of new faces could make an extrovert of anyone.” 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 glad, too,” Esther said. She had practice around Pearl now and could trust her own face not to betray any of her sudden, melancholy mood, and she watched Pearl relax beneath her smile. “Come get me when you’re dressed,” she added. “We can fortify with a shot.”

Reader Reviews

Chilling and charming ... Törz's debut is a love letter to stories everywhere.' Roshani Chokshi, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride I think the sister relationship and the daughter/mother relationship were the strongest here, but still pretty weak overall. Part of it is that the characters don't feel real to me since they never make choices and don't really seem to have passions outside of the scripted path I mentioned above in the section about their agency. Likewise, the romantic relationship is so brief and unimportant to the story that I honestly forgot about it until it resurfaced at the end. Considering it's a standalone novel, the plot was rather contained and I personally enjoyed that: I read so many Fantasy series that it made for a good change. I do think that expectations matter: if you go into it expecting a Fantasy novel with complex world-building and in-depth characterization, you might be disappointed. First, it feels more like a literary/mystery novel with magical elements than a Fantasy book. Secondly, I'm not saying that the characters are one-dimensional, because they aren't, and I did care about them, but they're still sketched in rather broad lines, and some of the relationships shifts were SO abrupt that they didn't make sense to me (*cough* what the second romance even was? Is that insta-lust or whatever? I'm too demi for that haha)(also I had another romance in mind for this specific character, ngl). The best kind of books do not simply expand our world, they let in light from new ones. Törz's spellbinding Ink Blood Sister Scribe embodies that completely. Chilling and charming in equal parts, Törz's debut is a love letter to stories everywhere. Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Tale of the Flower Bride