Review of Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

I’ve had this on my shelf for a while and am so glad I finally got around to it. Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a delightful standalone fantasy by Emma Törzs. It blends a lot of common tropes and motifs—family ties, the weight of inheritances, magical libraries—while also telling a unique story about standing up to (and standing in) power.

Joanna and Esther are half-sisters who have been semi-estranged for years. Joanna stays put at the family home, studying magical books left to her by her late father. Esther has spent her adult life moving from place to place, never staying anywhere more than a year, except for her current stint in Antarctica. Meanwhile, on yet another continent, a young man with one eye is learning the people he has been working for—the person he thought of as family—have not had his best interests in mind.

Törzs balances the narration among these three main characters so expertly. Each is so distinctive, yet I have a hard time choosing a favourite. I love how headstrong and determined Esther is, including in her love for Pearl. Similarly, Joanna reminds me a lot of me with her analytical nature and her dedication to her task of protecting the books. When Törzs introduces Nicholas, it upends the duality of these two sisters in such a delightful way.

This is a book about magic, but like so many books about magic, it is more about power and the quest for control. That is, after all, what this book’s Big Bad wants: immortality, power, and control over all the magic books in the world. This sounds very epic and final, yet Törzs keeps the story admirably personal and focused in scope. For a book involving a secret society that has existed for hundreds of years, there are remarkably few law enforcement officials involved!

Where Ink Blood Sister Scribe falls short, oddly, is the sister part of that title. As much as I praised Joanna and Esther as individual characters, their sister dynamic feels underdeveloped. Their reunion comes relatively late in the story, and Törzs attempts to address the inherent conflict created by the rift between them but has to smooth it over for the sake of plot. I would have liked to see more intense drama. As it is, it feels like the book is trying to say deep and meaningful things about the bonds of sisterhood but never quite manages to set the stage prior to looking for payoff.

This quibble aside, I really enjoyed the time I spent in this world. It’s just a very solid novel, with tight plotting and pacing and interesting characters. Törzs is a skilled storyteller.