#Emma Torzs

[storkmuffin]

Finished Ink Blood Sister Scribe and had what might be my first experience that's analogous to aroace people feeling repulsed by the thought of romance and sexuality. Because it happens in this book! But more on that later.

I've already said that I like the genderflips that the author has decided to make. It's a boy with magic blood being exploited and trapped inside a gothic mansion as an adventurous girl who can't stay anywhere more than 364 days or be truly intimate with anyone travels the world, having scary adventures, all the way to antarctica. He's very fussy about shoes and cashmeres and cologne and is very sheltered. She's an electrician who can get a job at a base in Antartica. And so on.

This fantasy novel is a cobbling together of all the stuff that's been in this author's childhood popular culture, given her birth year (1987). -

There are two sisters of differing magical / powers who are separated by lies told to protect them by their parents and long for each other (Do you want to build a snow man?)

There's an evil type of book that drains people of blood (HP's Monster Book of Monsters with the PG 13 rating taken off).

There's the one legal instrument firmly embedded in the long term memories of all daughters of E.L.James (It's a silencing spell, that's all it is, but everyone calls it an N.D.A).

There's mirror portals (Alice in Wonderland, The Matrix, Dr. Norris and Mr Strange).

Both the male and female protagonists are bisexual (Ao3).

The boy keeps fainting (hot frail boys are hot) while the girl knows a bunch of martial arts (girlboss etc).

One of the most powerful ways of being magical is to be completely immune to magic (Hi Bella Swan, is that you?).

There are name drops of random singers that signify what kind of cool girl this author is - Kurt Cobain and Fiona Apple. Oh, and Smells like Teen Spirit is actually sung acapella in an attempt to create a magical connection (it doesn't work lol).

The fancy english laird doesn't want to return the priceless artifacts bought and stolen from all over the world to their country of origin because he can take care of it better. (Very topical).

The mommy who gives birth to you is not as much as the mommy who adopted you and raised you. (Very modern, very Angelina Jolie).

There are lovingly rendered details of hand crafts like ink-making and bookbinding (very cottage core), as well as an adoration of huge libraries inside big English estate houses (Harry Potter, again, and also Mortal Istruments, which is Harrry Potter).

I liked this very much, by the way. The fact that all these ideas are not in any way original and simply competently assembled did not at all diminish my enjoyment of the story being told. The thrilling, scary bits were thrilling and scary. The magical bits did invoke a sense of wonder or at minimum, curiosity.

THE PROBLEM THOUGH WAS THE STRAIGHT PART OF THE STORY. There's the sister who travels and the sister who stays in the homestead, guarding her dad's library of magical books. The bodyguard of the fussy Englishman, Colin, who is from Boston, is the first man that the librarian sister allows into her home. They ...immediately.... have the true love true blue heterosexual attraction to each other. And they have terrible horrible flirty talk and they kiss and it's like, Wait, What?

Joanna wasn't aroace and somehow didn't go insane living isolated in her house for ten years with just her dad??? She fell hard for the first man not related to her by blood that was ever invited to her house? Plus why the fuck did the author set up all this chemistry beteween Colin and his fancy English charge, the fainting magic blood having boy, who is canon bi???

The no homo of it was so, so awkward and weird. Joanna even asks Colins if he and Nicholas, his charge, aren't a thing and Colins says no, because he likes long hair. He doesn't say he's straight, or that he prefers women, which makes me think the author didn't want to say those things, because it's not true. GIVE ME GAY COLINS. GIVE ME COLINS AND NICHOLAS EXPLORING THEIR BODIES IN THE LIBRARY OF MAGIC BLOOD BOOKS. The quality of the writing for the very gross Joanna and Colin courtship had me writhing with secondhand embarassment as well as disappointment, whereas the rest of the book is snappy and polished.

That tacked on hetero romance, that happens for no reason, kind of ruined the book for me, sad to say. I was so repelled.

[woodsfae]

I'm reading Ink Blood Sister Scribe and it sure is about ink, blood, sister, and scribe.

[wowzersbrina]

"And power is always a reflection of the world that created it, regardless of intention."

-Ink Blood Sister Scribe, Emma Tőrzs

[charliejaneanders]

It's out! Here's my latest book review column for the @washingtonpost featuring books by Emma Törzs, Emma Mieko Candon, Jeremy Bushnell and Shelley Parker-Chan! I love the worldbuilding and action in these books!!!

Paywall-free link: https://wapo.st/43vAojd

Please support new books by new(er) authors!

[bethly126]

What I'm Reading Now: Ink Blook Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs

This was on a couple of Best of Lists so I thought I would give it go

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Ink Blood SIster Scribe: A Novel

By Emma Törzs.

Design by Jim Tierney.

[friendly-neighbourhood-librarian]

Ink Blood Sister Scribe - Emma Törzs

Books can hold magic, but the price is blood...

After her father's untimely and mysterious death, Joanna is tasked with protecting his collection of magical books from the world, hidden away and cut off from what little family she has left. Her half-sister, Esther, has been isolating herself for far longer, on the run from an unknown danger that killed her mother.

When the threat catches up to her, Esther is forced to return home and she and Joanna will finally uncover the truth about the magic and what really drove their family apart.

Dark and creepy magic woven through an intriguing mystery that at times was predictable and at others was truly surprising! Overall a very satisfying bookish fantasy story.

More bookish books

[paperorhardback]

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.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they'll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

[sassyalone]

It took her a moment, as always, to acclimate to the roar that surged in her mind's ears, a sound she had attempted to describe to her sister and mother more than once but never could. Like being filled with golden bees that were all actually one bee, which was actually a field of shining wheat rustling beneath a blazing sun. It was a sound but not a sound. It was in her ears but it was in her head. It was like tasting a feeling and the feeling was power.

[dontdenymeshakespeare]

Mid Year Book Freakout Tag

[maxalotlxl]

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

3.5 / 4 Stars.

It's been some time, since I've read this book I'll be honest this review will be very bare bones because of that.

The basics of this book is in our world magic exists but is held in books that can only be written by a certain type of person that must create them with their own blood. Others can use these books to cast spells and there is some rich dude that want's to control all of it, surprising. This book mainly follows three people; a girl who's father was obsessed with these books and had died after reading a magic book, her sister that was told to move around every year or her family would be in danger, and the heir to that rich dudes hoarding of books that was the last person that had the ability to write books.

When I first read this book I rated it 4 Stars but with times past I'm pushing that down to a 3.5 but on the high end. I found the start very slow and I spent the first half kind of waiting for something to intrigue me into this. It eventually happened when the three main POVs actually came together and explained what was happening so each character wasn't acting with only a little bit of information. I think that's why I ended up rating this 4 Stars, the ending was enjoyable to me but since I've had a long time to really settle on the fact I found this book too slow to enjoy most of it and so for me at least I don't count this as a 4 Star.

Finished February 18th

[woodsfae]

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is an excellent book. But it also has an unusual and wonderful quality I don't run into often: it makes me want to write.

Not fanfiction. Many books make me want to dig my own little corner into their world. IBSS makes me want to sit down in front of a blank document and let my own ideas come spilling out.

Alicia Mountain's poetry also makes me feel that way. That quality is something I don't run into often, but it's so lovely when I do! A work of literary art that inspires me to create. What a marvelous gift.

[storkmuffin]

so far, on chapter 13 of 40 of Ink Blood Sister Scribe, this feels like the tropes I learned on A03 are getting a really nice workout. there's a surly bodyguard (m) who's totally tzundere to his ward (also m). i want a yaoi scene so bad - fingers crossed. both the male lead and the female lead are casually and actively bisexual. there's a boy with anemia because his blood is magic and raw material to be ink in magic books. books are magic and the author has an obvious fetish for libraries. this author has the same urge to make NDAs superpowerful somehow (they are not) that reminds me of 50 shades of grey, but the ones in this book are magic ndas so they render the party to an nda literally unable to speak about it, which cracks me up every time. the vengeful genderflip is fun too - there's a nerdy boy who keeps fainting locked into a big gothic house and a jiujitsu/boxer girl who travels the globe running from a mystery problem and is currently in antarctica.

[notrlyawriter]

TBR in January 2024

As promised I'm back with the books I plan on reading this month. [Actually, already started]. I haven't picked my non-fiction yet because this is a busy month for me, I don't know if I'll be able to listen to it properly. If I do then I'll add it here or you'll see in the monthly wrap up later. Better late than never, right?

Anyway, here's the 3 picks for the month:

1. Anne de Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables): I'm reading in portuguese, therefore my review will be also. I'm loving it but I'm reading it slowly to enjoy more. Plan on finishing it next week.

2. Ink Blood Sister Scribe (BBBB pick for January): Already started, not really that captivating but so far is a good read. I plan on finishing it this week.

3. O Conde de Monte Cristo (The Count of Mont Christ): I'm reading in portuguese, therefore my review will be also. So far not my favorite, its really slow but most classics are. I think I'll enjoy the second "book" more than this first one, but i gotta say an entire book dedicated to introducing characters is the type of shit i pull up when I'm writing so can't even complain no matter how much I want to.

[luartemisfowl]

La biblioteca di sangue e inchiostro di

Emma Törzs- Review party Salve e benvenut* alla mia tappa del review party dedicato a “La biglioteca di sangue e inchiostro” di Emma Törzs. Un grazie enorme a FranciKarou per aver organizzato l’evento e alla casa editrice per la copia in anteprima che non ha influenzato in alcun modo le mie opinioni. Acquista su: La famiglia Kalotay è da generazioni custode di una collezione di libri molto…

[bethly126]

Quick Review: Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs

I picked this book because it was about sisters and sisters, Esther and Joanna are a big part of the book. It’s really about two different families that share a connection. Magic exist and it exists in books. There are scribes who blood is used as ink to write spells and there are those who can hear the magic. Esther is a scribe and Joanna can hear the magic. At the beginning of the book Esther…