Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

8 reviews

cozy_tea_reader's review against another edition

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

navayiota's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

Aggressively good. Saskia Maarleveld has incredible taste in books. If she's narrating it, i know it will be a banger. And she's amazing at what she does!
I really, really enjoyed this story. The plot twists made complete sense and I felt proud of myself whenever I managed to see one coming, the characters are lovable, (I want to give all our protagonists a hug) and the descriptions of sensations were vivid and visceral. I loved every moment. 
It was also a stunning portrayal of how people deal with trauma, especially trauma inflicted by one's primary caregivers. Excellent work!

My one critique would be that they struggled a bit with writing the 4-person conversation between Ester, Johanna, Nicholas and Collins where the 're trying to decide what to do with the wards. It felt forced and repetitive, and constantly reminded me of the fact that this is a story written by a person, and not just me being a fly on the wall for a real life conversation. I didn't notice this with any other conversation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Death of parent, Violence, Confinement, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Blood, Physical abuse, Stalking, Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Medical content, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy

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

chris_reads's review

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Chronic illness, Abandonment, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Kidnapping

asahome's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

TL;DR: Sisters, one who can never stay and one who can never go, learn why their family has been torn apart by the books they protect. A young man learns the lengths people will go to control his talent

for writing magical books

.

I found the first part of the book boring. I know it is intended to set up the rest of the book so you can understand the action when it gets there, but it felt too long to me. I also really struggled to understand when we were in the present versus when we were looking at the past. If there had been a format change or something to indicate we were not in the present, it would have felt less jarring to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Self harm, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Child abuse, Chronic illness, and Medical content

tigger89's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.5

This was a fantastic modern fantasy. I enjoyed the twists, even the ones I saw coming. I thought that the way the books worked was intriguing, especially how the knowledge had to be rediscovered by some of the characters. Once it gets going, the story moves along at a fast pace, leaving me desperate to know what happens next.

This book does contain blood magic. I've given it a good, hard look, and I think it avoids coming too close to invoking blood libel, for the following reasons. First, the magic doesn't have to involve the unwilling taking of someone's blood for the benefit of another. While it can take that form, in the form presented as good the blood is freely given and the magic is viewed as a positive thing of beauty. Second, while there are powerful people who take the magic for their own profit, they are not Jewish-coded in any way I noticed. And third, Jewish tradition is explicitly present elsewhere in the story and used as a source of positive strength. Obviously this is something each reader will have to decide their own comfort level on, that's just the reasoning I followed for my own feelings.

The only thing I didn't like was the romance. I didn't mind Esther's romance, though. I thought that was fine, and just messy enough to make me feel like she earned it. What really ground my gears was Joanna's romance. It's okay for characters to be single. She didn't need a man, and furthermore I never got any kind of vibe that he was particularly right for her. It felt like it was shoehorned in because the author thought she needed to end up with someone in order to be happy, and he was the most convenient guy.

Now, the most important part of the review: does the dog and/or cat die?

There's a pet dog and a pet cat owned by different characters. Both are completely fine. This book is certified adorable for pet lovers!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Chronic illness, Medical content, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

blewballoon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was great! I think this is my favorite Book of the Month read so far this year. I will say that there are a lot of twists and reveals that I figured out very early, but it didn't detract from my reading experience. It was fun to see the characters put together what I'd already figured out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Self harm

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Death, Gaslighting, and Murder

Minor: Emotional abuse, Vomit, Abandonment, Chronic illness, and Medical content

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Blood

Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Kidnapping