Will I Like This Book? – Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs

The majority of the books I’ve spoken about in this post have been ones that I’ve been really excited about. But this one? This I’m not so sure about… It doesn’t sound bad, but it wasn’t great either. I’m not sure what I think about it, so let’s go into a little more detail.

This is an adult fantasy thriller that follows two sisters; Joanna and Esther. For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of rare and dangerous books. Books that contain magic. But now Joanna lives alone, guarding the books and trying to create her own whilst her older half-sister Esther hasn’t lived in one place for more than a year since she left home. Until now. But when someone on the antarctic base Esther lives and works on starts using magic, she realises she’ll never escape her family’s legacy. Now the sisters will have to work together to unravel the secrets of these books until it’s too late.

If this book sounds like your sort of thing, then it’ll be published by Del Rey in July 2023.

The summary of this book sounded so interesting, but it took a little while for me to get into it. I wasn’t really feeling Joanna’s parts of this book. It wasn’t that they were boring, as this was where we were really seeing the fantasy elements. But I didn’t really care that much. Esther’s part on the other hand? That fascinated me.

She’s trapped on a research base in Antarctica. There’s nowhere for her to go, and she should’ve left a few days before. But she stayed. She was finally finding joy with her job, friends, and love, Pearl. So she decided to stay. But new people on base have meant she’s now seeing hints of rituals, and she doesn’t know what’s going on.

The atmosphere and claustrophobia of this base really drew me in, and I wanted more of that. I know this book is going to be at least in-part thriller, and Torzs is clearly good at writing that sort of thing. I definitely enjoyed those aspects of this sampler.

But I’m not sure where the book is going to go with Joanna. I’m not sure I care enough about the book as a whole to want to read the whole thing.

I think I will give this book a go. But if I do, I’ll probably get it from the library. I’m not in a rush to pick it up, but I am curious.

If I see good reviews, I might get to it a little quicker, but we’ll see.

Amazon UK | Waterstones