I can say this was nothing like I expected it to be. Two sisters trying to save their family library of magical books - while also trying to protect their family members and following different orders from their deceased father? THEN they find out more of these books exist in the hands of an elite family using blood money & power to gain more control over the books? The intrigue is high. The characterization let a bit to be desired but overall, the plot and magic system make it easy to overlook. I also believe this is a debut title from Emma Törzs so that is all the more impressive. This is certainly a book I would recommend going into a bit blind - skim the synopsis then drop in!

This would be perfect for fans of The Starless Sea (the magical atmosphere not the writing), The Invisible Library Series, and maybe even A Sorcery of Thorns.

Overall: I enjoyed this.

Who doesn't like a book about books? Especially a killer book.

This book does suffer a bit from pacing, although the pacing may feel off due to the narrative voice (which is just a little bit boring). The world that Torzs brings us to is completely worth trudging through.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is one of those books that are about books, only it's much different than other books that I felt had similar themes. In this world, blood and books are tied very closely together and can even create magic if certain instructions are followed.

I found the book interesting yet also confusing. The magic and how it worked was described in a way that made it easy enough to follow and yet it didn't really feel as though it was described well enough. I also felt that the characters were rounded enough but not quite so much that I could tell them apart.

Overall the book was a decent read and interesting enough, it just rubbed me kind of the wrong way and wasn't the best reading experience I've ever had.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe was a very engaging, entertaining novel. I received strong autumn magical realism vibes, the perfect book for October, but really can be enjoyed year-round. I liked the story development and am eagerly awaiting the second book. I want to know what happens!

This is a great twist on how magic works, with likeable characters, multiple libraries, challenging family dynamics, and lots of adventure. I was not ready for it to end and am keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel!

This story is so fascinating and the world drawn so richly that I felt like I became a part of it. I listened to the audiobook and Saskia Maarleveld had me enthralled with her narration of the book. The characters are interesting and the magic unique. The writing style is captivating and I need to get my hands on a physical copy for my home library. This is a book I'm going to want to read for myself too.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, William Morrow, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

The Kalotay family has always guarded a precious collection of ancient and rare books, able to let a person walk through a wall, manipulate the elements, books of magic and the half-sister Joanna and Esther were raised to protect and rever them. In time though, events and paid prices have brought them apart. Now Esther lives in a remote base in Antartica, hoping to escape the fate that killed her mother and Joanna has isolated herself in her house in Vermont, studying these volumes. When their father dies after reading a volume they didn't know, they decided to investigate his death and to preserve their family's legacy. By doing that, they soon discover secrets their parents decided to hide from them and a world of magic far bigger that they thought would be, spanning centuries, continents and other libraries.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a magnificent debut written by the amazing Emma Törzs and I'm so fallen in love with this. A book about a library of magic books? Secrets hidden and two half-sisters who have to protect their family's legacy? Other libraries? And magic? This book has everything you could hope to find in a story. It has magic, family bonds, loyalty, love, power, mystery, secrets intrigue, in a beautifully written story, with a rich voice and an atmospheric setting. Esther and Joanna are brilliant voices, intelligent and traumatized, who have to come back together in order to save their own legacy and to investigate what happened to their father and in their library. I love books about books and this book is truly unbelievable.
I loved the setting, the worldbuilding, the books, the voices and I can't wait to read more from this author!

Thank you Netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe does not provide a lot of information regarding its plot beyond it being a mystery filled with magic, sisters, and a family mystery surrounding the books that the Kalotay family has guarded for generations. With this in mind, I did not know what I was going to get. I overall enjoyed the book but it is not something I would reread again.

With the name of the book and the emphasis on the sisters, I was expecting their relationship and them interacting to be a big part of the story. However, they did not meet up after being separated for a decade until over halfway through the story. One would also assume the sisters were the only POV characters, but no another person has a significant number of POVs. They make sense for the plotline but it felt it came out of left field.

Another issue I had was the pacing. At times, a high tension event would happen and the next chapter would be someone else's POV about something completely different. While sometimes doing this builds tension, instead it simply cut the tension and made me less enthused to finish reading.

I also felt the ending plot and unravelling of the mystery was convoluted. I love an intricate plot but this felt like they were doing too much for a standalone novel.

The magic system was interesting and I did like the characters. Each had their own personality and felt fully realized. Overall, though, I cannot give this book over a 3.

I had high hopes for this but unfortunately it fell a bit too flat for me. I did end up DNFing around 20% in and found this story very hard to engage with.

Loved this! The writing was amazing and the story sucked you in and made you feel as if you were part of it. Unique storyline with magic books written in blood. Would read this again!

As readers we all think libraries and books are magical. But what if the books really were imbued with magic? Spells in fact. What if, instead of books being consumed by readers, the readers were literally consumed by the books.
Puts a different slant on things, doesn’t it?
I loved the magic and spells and that books had personalities and quaked with spirit.
This novel touched upon all kinds of magical properties and was fun to read.
I also didn’t get my life’s blood sucked out of either.

I did very little research on this book so based on the cover/title I assumed it would be more "classic" fantasy with a bit of a YA spin but I was very wrong...but....VERY PLEASANTLY SURPRISED AT THIS GEM OF A BOOK AND LOVED EVERY MOMENT OF IT. The book is creepy, atmospheric, a little gory, but very much speculative fiction thriller.

I rarely give 5-star reviews, and all my 5-starred books have to meet at least two of the following criteria:
1. Bingeability (aka...I read it in 1 or 2 sittings)
2. Beautiful prose
3. Made me cry or feel something very very deeply
4. Was VERY unique
5. Made a lasting impression on me far after the book ended

INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE met the following:
1. ✅ Bingeability: I read it in two or three sittings, I really could not put it down. This read a lot more like a speculative fiction thriller than a fantasy, and I love a good page turner. I very quickly became invested in the characters (who btw, are all living in very very unique settings...think Antarctic base, small town Vermont, sprawling ducal English manor) and loved unraveling the mystery of what happened to the Kalotays and their relationship to the "institution"
2. ✅ Beautiful prose: I was really pleasantly surprised by this one because on first glance based on the title and cover it seemed like this would be a more YA fantasy (I blame myself I didn’t do a lot of research tbh) and found the metaphors creepy and wonderful
3. ❌ Made me cry: no unfortunately not
4. ✅ Unique in a specific way: THIS ONE KILLED IT!!!! The magic system was about magic spell books and Scribes, who can write these magic books by draining their own blood and mixing it with herbs. The magic is invoked by reading the spell book, and the ink fades with each read. It was also a CREEEPY haunting fantasy, set mostly in small-town Vermont and with gory creepy details. I have never read a book like this, and absolutely adored it.
5. ✅Lasting impression: half half bc the creepy bloody magic books was so unique

Overall...everyone should pick this up!!!!! I will be aggressively proselytizing this book on TikTok henceforth

this is going to be a next big fantasy read. the story and the characters and plot are so immersive that i was left still pondering it soon after i finished. thank you for the copy!

Wow! This was an awesome debut novel by Emma Torz. It easily is one of the most enjoyable fantasies I've read in a long time.

We follow Esther in a reasearch lab in Antarctica and her sister Jo in Vermont as they get entangled into the world of Nicholas. The scribe with magical blood.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs was PHENOMENAL. I don’t know how to adequately describe my love for this book, but I HIGHLY recommend it. Go read it now if you haven’t yet! One of my favorite reads of the year so far.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a tightly woven story of family, loyalty, and power. This book is a unique love letter to books that reminds me a lot of The Starless Sea. What I enjoyed the most was how everything connected together. None of the reveals were particularly shocking, but it is incredibly satisfying when an author effectively uses every single element of the story. There are no loose threads in this one.

There are three POVs in Ink Blood Sister Scribe: sisters Joanna and Esther and, finally, Nicholas. Each character starts this book relatively isolated, from each other and from the rest of the world. This isolation affects their lives in different ways and it was incredibly interesting to see each of them grow beyond what was familiar to them. I was not expecting Nicholas’ POV, however, he quickly became my favorite character. His unique relationship to the magical books is what really hooked me. With the inclusion of his POV, slightly later in the book than the others, the reader's understanding of the magic system is flipped upside down. I struggled to connect with Joanna’s POV the most as I found her chapters a bit dull compared to the others. Though the limitations of her character reflect the restrictions she has imposed on her own life, I would have liked to see her get the same level of character development that Esther and Nicholas had (and not just a romance).

I loved the book based magic system and I really appreciate how the author explored the topics of conservation, power, and control through the library and the books. I always appreciate when a magic system has very strict and clear rules. Each character in this book had their own advantages and limitations within the magic system. This helped build the “found (or reunited?) family” vibes.

This book had been described as a magical realism thriller. Though I wouldn't say that it was ever shocking or suspenseful, the fast pace made it a quick and engaging read.

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.

This book was AMAZING. I admit we had a bit of a slow start but then it just took you along for a ride. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters. They were fleshed out enough to empathize with each one along the way. The magic and adventure in the book was so much fun, I found it hard to put down. In fact, I was hoping for a sequel. This is a must read for fans of fantasy and a little dark mystery.

Thank you @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for allowing me to read this book and give my opinion.

DNF. I think this book could be very good for some people, but by 10% I just do not care enough to continue this arc.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

This was a 5/5 for me. Torz did an exceptional job not falling into the cliches of fantasy writing and kept this novel fresh and innovative in its world-building. The novel hit a sweet spot of a fast enough paced and intriguing plot while still giving the characters all the time they needed to be well-developed. I found the pace quick enough to always have me wanting more, but not rushed at all. I also very much enjoyed the slow burn/light romance aspect of the book. This is one of the best fantasy novels I have read this year, and hope there will be more to come!

The premise truly sounds interesting but I was not clicking with the characters at all. It was a bit confusing - I was quite a way through and I still didn't understand why one sister had to move every year and why one stayed at the house and the whole drama with the step(?) mom. I think if we actually got more information from the get-go, I would have enjoyed more and it would have had more moments to flesh out the characters - it's like we got dropped in the middle of the story instead of establishing it from the beginning and there wasn't a moment where the narrative goes back slightly to further establish the story.