Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

11 reviews

wordsmithreads's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Blood

Moderate: Violence and Gun violence

Minor: Colonisation, Classism, Xenophobia, and Genocide

cozy_tea_reader's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Death, Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death of parent, and Medical trauma

Minor: Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Gore, Kidnapping, Confinement, Toxic relationship, and Classism

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

The pacing was so slow at times but otherwise this is a terrific fantasy novel about love, friendship, and found family. Esther and Johanna are half sisters that have been separated for years. They're from a family of magical librarians that protect spell books. When Esther is attacked at the compound in Antartica she works at, she flees to escape her attackers. At the Library in Europe, Nicholas a Scribe and his hired bodyguard Collins discover family secrets that could be killer. This book weaves the world building so effectively into the characters and their motives. Its both very YA feeling and also insanely gory and dark but very well balanced. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Death of parent, Medical content, and Misogyny

summerspence's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment and Gun violence

Minor: Classism

readwithria's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a debut I’m unlikely to forget, but not for the right reasons.

I was very intrigued by the premise of this book. Sisterhood, familial magic, and dark secrets are usually things that I enjoy in books. However, it took about 300 pages to get through the setup and to the main plot. Those first couple hundred pages were interesting, but easy to put down. The last 85 pages were much more action-packed, but almost to the point of going by too quickly.

Other than the pacing, it also bothered me that it felt like the decisions the three POV characters made were because of the plot, and I prefer books where the plot happens the way it does due to decisions made by the main characters.

Things that I did enjoy included
- the magic system
- Pearl, Collins, Sir Kiwi, and the little cat
- the themes of colonial deconstruction 
- the division of information through the different POVs

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy books that deal with family secrets, generational trauma, and objects of power. I would not recommend this book to people who are sensitive to self harm (CW: graphic bloodletting for magical purposes)

This was interesting, but missed the mark in a few key ways. 3.5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Self harm

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Cursing, Kidnapping, Gore, Colonisation, Medical content, Death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Minor: Classism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Cursing

melchncookies's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

There were some twists I should have seen coming but didn’t. It was really nice to let my brain just be consumed with the read rather than figuring out the angles. I definitely recommend going in with an escapist mindset and letting the fun and horror wash over you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Body horror, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

palmkd's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This story is about many things, perhaps you'd think Ink would be the biggest as it's listed first but really that's Blood. Then it's possibly a tie between Ink, Sister and Scribe.

This is a captivating fever dream type tale where books are magic but only if the book was written with a special ink. The kind imbued with blood.

Joanna and Esther, sisters, were raised in a house that admired and protected the books, but when Esther turned 18 everything started to be weird and the secrets started piling up.

This book has major dark academia vibes as it explores the bounds of family and secrets and what people are willing to do for power and magic.

It was a very easy story to get lost in and devour in just a few settings. It's one of those where I feel it's best to not know too much going in. Know that it is dark, there's a lot of blood and lack of self care, and there's magic blended in with the regular world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Gun violence, and Classism

missgarceau's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Alcohol, Body horror, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Murder, Violence, Grief, Classism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Sexual content, Confinement, Death, and Abandonment

campisforever's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Well written overall. The magic system, however, toes—if not fully crosses—the line of a blood libel trope. I do not make that argument lightly. See below for short explanation. 

The magic of the books relies on the ritual harvesting (there’s no other word for it, as willing as some may be) of Scribes’ blood to make the ink, at the very least. The length of the book determines how much blood, and Scribes do die in the process of making books. More complex spells are composed of other ritually harvested parts, e.g., hair, sinew, skin. That the magic system relies on the ritual harvesting of the blood, lives, and bodies of a specific group of people (Scribes) in service of magic they themselves cannot enact or be affected by, toes the line of blood libel. That the book is focused on a specific, elite group  and one influential character being the ones doing the ritual harvesting… you see what I mean.

Read with care and caution. 

I do agree that Collins and Nicholas should have been endgame. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Classism, Gore, Grief, Medical content, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement

sarahyjackson's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I loved everything about this book: the characters, the magic system, the world, the commentary on institutions/belonging. 

</spoilerish> Stefon take: this book has everything…a female Pomeranian named Sir Kiwi, magic books, sister dynamics, bee bullets, romance novel discourse, ill timed sartorial longings…<\spoilerish>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Body horror and Vomit

Minor: Classism