This is the first novel by Emma Torzs, but she is not a newcomer to the fantasy genre. She attended Clarion West and has written several short stories, including ‘Like a River Loves the Sky’ which won a World Fantasy Award in 2019.

I love books about magical libraries, and Ink Blood Sister Scribe has two of them. One is hidden in the basement of an old house in Vermont. The other is housed in an enormous mansion somewhere in England, and is large enough to be referred to merely as the Library. Both contain a collection of valuable books, written by Scribes over the centuries. Each book, when read aloud by a person who has inherited magical talent, performs a unique magic spell.

But the best part of Ink Blood Sister Scribe is actually the characters. There are the two sisters: Joanna who lives alone with her library in Vermont, protecting it and hiding herself with a daily reading of the codex that renews the wards; and Esther, who seems doomed to wander the world restlessly, somehow unable or forbidden to come home. In England are Nicholas, pampered and anemic under the protection of the Library as the last surviving Scribe, and his snarky but very competent bodyguard, Collins. They are all fully human, flawed and wonderful.

Surrounding them is the untold history of magic, full of lies and deception. Many magical traditions have been lost or stolen, and both libraries have their secrets, intertwined and deadly. At stake is the purpose and preservation of magic in the world. But while protecting the libraries and magic books is important, the plot centers beautifully on the lives and sacrifices made by the protagonists as they navigate the web of betrayal that links the two libraries.