Two magical summer reads — one for grown-ups, one for kids, both by Minnesotans

Mary Ann Grossmann, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

Do you believe in magic? You will after you read these involving novels that include all the staples of other-worldly fiction but with a contemporary feel.

“Ink Blood Sister Scribe” by Emma Torzs (William Morrow, $30)

Unlike most books, which simply absorbed the drop of blood they were offered, the words drank. As soon as she’d touched her finger to the page it began greedily swallowing her blood, her finger stinging with slight suction as if a tiny mouth was latched on, and the ink grew brighter, blacker, fiercer on the linen page. — From “Ink Blood Sister Scribe”

It doesn’t matter how many TBR books are lying on every surface of your house. You have to make room for this debut novel from a Minneapolis author. It has everything we want in summer reads — old houses, hidden staircases, messages (and corpses) sent through mirrors, likable characters, secrets that go back centuries, scribes who literally gave their lives to write magic into their books, and questions of how far family loyalty should go.

It begins in an unlikely place — a science station in Antarctica where Esther is spending months as an electrician. It’s almost time for her to move, as she has every year in November since she left home after high school. Her father was clear that this was a mandate that had to be followed so she could escape the fate that killed her mother. But now she’s in love with a woman colleague and is tempted to ignore the move date.

In Vermont, Esther’s half-sister Joanna lives alone in the big Kalotay family home. Every night she wraps the house in a spell that makes the old Victorian invisible, protecting the library of magical books collected by her parents. After they separated and a book killed her father, she refuses to allow her mother into the house.

The third important character is Nicholas, who lives a life of luxury in a big house in England that holds the biggest collection of rare and ancient magic books in the world. The books are written in the blood of scribes like Nicholas, whose life is dominated by his uncle. Some of the books are lent out to people who use the volumes to do harm, such as the guy who conjures a hail storm to ruin his ex-wife’s outdoor wedding.

When Esther discovers dried blood on the edges of mirrors in the station in Antarctica she realizes magic has found her. Through a series of incidents and messages she ends up at home in Vermont with Nicholas and his bodyguard. Some unknown person wants Nicholas and Esther, also a scribe, to get together and write a book.

As we learn more about the magic book libraries, secrets are revealed about the ancestors of Esther and Joanna and of Nicholas’ family, which dates back centuries. Two women — Joanna’s mother and the librarian of the collection in England — know these secrets but will they tell the young people everything?

Besides vividly writing about how the magic is done (draining a lot of blood out of the scribe to be used as ink), Torzs writes fully realized characters. We root for Esther, who left her lover in Antarctica; Joanna, who comes more alive as her loneliness goes away, and Nicholas, who has almost never left his uncle’s mansion or met people not in the family’s social circle. Their lives are turned upside down when they begin to understand that the books they have grown up caring for are not always used in good ways.

This luminous and scary book can be summarized, but it has to be read to appreciate the author’s writing, especially her dialogue. No wonder it was sold in a bidding war. It earned starred reviews from Kirkus (“Bewitching … A fantastic magical adventure, not to be missed.”) and Booklist (“Exceptional … suspenseful dark fantasy, full of family drama.”).

Torzs will launch her novel Thursday, June 1, at Moon Palace Books, 3032 Minnehaha Ave., Mpls. For information: moonpalacebooks.com/events.

“Gossamer Summer” by H. M. Bouwman (Atheneum Books for Young readers, $17.99)

Deep down she’d always known she’d seen something real. Maybe not a fairy like in books or movies. but this – this someone, snoozing on their porch, did look like the fairies in some of Jojo’s old made-up stories: Squat and muddy. And with the long green beard and the suspenders. Definitely like something magical. — From “Gossamer Summer”

St. Paulite Heather Bouwman, author of the widely-praised children’s books “A Crack in the Sea” and the sequel “A Tear in the Ocean,” wrote this gentle story for slightly younger readers — 8 to 10 years old. It’s about, she says, “hanging out with your sisters, summer boredom, fighting monsters, telling stories, grieving the loss of a grandma, and building fairy gardens.” It was inspired by the plays and magic shows Bouwman and her three sisters put on as children.

Ten-year-old Jojo is the family storyteller, delighting her 11-year-old sister Maisie and 5-year-old twins Bee and Amy with tales of fairies. But when she’s sure she saw a fairy darting around the side of the house, he didn’t have wispy, beautiful gossamer wings: “It looked exactly like a small greenish person. And — with a beard made of grass?”

The sisters catch glimpses of the squat, muddy little creature and decide to build fairy gardens, including bone birds made of delicate bird skeletons. They also meet Theo, the new kid in the neighborhood who has his own secrets and shares their adventures.

Finally getting to fairyland through a magic door, guided by the little man whose name is Roland, the kids are surprised to discover that Roland’s people live in the mud and love it. More surprising, the little people’s lives are dependent upon the last story Jojo told before the girls’ grandmother died. It was about a human queen who rules over the fairies, and since Jojo brought the fairies to life with her stories, she has to finish it because the bone birds are coming, and they are not friendly.

Young readers will recognize themselves and maybe some goofy friends in these characters. For instance, there’s something odd about the twins’ fairy garden.

” ‘The green stuff is fairy throw-up,” said Amy. ‘We tore leaves into tiny pieces and added muddy water. One of the fairies threw up after killing a bone creature.’ ”

Bouwman, an English professor at the University of St. Thomas, introduces “Gossamer Summer” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 30, at Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul, in conversation with Swati Avasthi, creative writing professor at Hamline University. Party favors include a fairy door to take home and decorate. Ticket required to attend. Go to: redballoonbookshop.com/event.

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