Yes. This book is so much fun! In this world, books written in blood under the right conditions become spells, activated when read aloud. Two daughters are born into a family that keeps and protects some of these books behind magical wards. The wards hide the house – but one of the daughters is resistant to magic, so she has to leave, to avoid giving her family’s presence away. The other stays alone in their old house, never knowing why her sister left. The sisters, Esther and Joanna, don’t know exactly who their house is in danger from. We follow each of them, plus a third character Nick, who is living in a powerful spell library that neither of the sisters know about – and who is also navigating uncertain dangers. The three timelines keep us constantly guessing, piecing together what the dangers might be from the scattered information of each protagonist. And it’s worth the wait: it all comes to a satisfying conclusion. It’s a really appealing world to spend time inside. There’s the sister’s old and atmospheric house, Nick’s palatial and empty library, Esther’s current life on an Arctic research station… One to curl up with on a rainy day. Oh, definitely!
"Yes. This book is so much fun! In this world, books written in blood under the right conditions become spells, activated when read aloud. Two daughters are born into a family that keeps and protects some of these books behind magical wards. The wards hide the house – but one of the daughters is resistant to magic, so she has to leave, to avoid giving her family’s presence away. The other stays alone in their old house, never knowing why her sister left. The sisters, Esther and Joanna, don’t know exactly who their house is in danger from. We follow each of them, plus a third character Nick, who is living in a powerful spell library that neither of the sisters know about – and who is also navigating uncertain dangers. The three timelines keep us constantly guessing, piecing together what the dangers might be from the scattered information of each protagonist. And it’s worth the wait: it all comes to a satisfying conclusion. It’s a really appealing world to spend time inside. There’s the sister’s old and atmospheric house, Nick’s palatial and empty library, Esther’s current life on an Arctic research station… One to curl up with on a rainy day. Oh, definitely!"
"As a book person, is there anything more alluring than a book about people who are obsessed with books? I was immediately intrigued by the premise of Ink Blood Sister Scribe: Estranged sisters are reunited when mysterious forces threaten their family’s library of magic books. It took only a few pages for this stellar debut to put me completely under its spell. Genres entwine to form the cleverly paced narrative as we travel from thriller to murder mystery to romance, while always keeping a foot in the deliciously fantastical."
