Ink Blood Sister Scribe

Joanna’s older sister, Esther Kalotay, is immune to magic and initially annoyed at the fact that “of all the traits Esther could’ve gotten from her father, like, oh, the ability to hear magic, she’d instead inherited his frizz-prone curls and lactose intolerance” (58). However, she later learns that she is a Scribe, meaning that she can write spells. At the opening of the novel, Esther works as an electrician in a South Pole research station in Antarctica, originally motivated by money, adventure, and the fact that “it would be completely inaccessible to most every other person on the planet” (6). She is extroverted, able to make “friends and lovers breezily” (7). She has also moved yearly since turning 18; her immunity to magic means that the protective wards that obscure the locations of other members of the family do not affect her, exposing her family members to the risk of being found.

The initial turning point in Esther’s character and catalyst for the events of the novel is that Esther has begun to form a deeper than expected connection to Pearl, in spite of the fact that she usually maintains distance and is not “used to people seeing what she didn’t want them to see” (10). Despite the fact that she must erase Pearl’s memory of the events that precipitated her departure from Antarctica, she sends Pearl a magical book near the conclusion of the novel in order to tell her about the magic and continue their connection. Over the course of the novel, circumstances cause Esther to confront her sense of self, relationship with Joanna, and sense of home. After being in a routine of constant travel, she has “learned over the years that adaptability was in and of itself a routine that could be learned” (48). After a kidnapping attempt, she begins to practice self-defense and martial arts, and the ability to defend herself is important to her character.

Like Joanna, she is initially lonely but begins to allow connections over the course of the novel. She eventually learns that her mother, Isabel, is alive and going by the name Maram—and while she has a close relationship with her stepmother Cecily, she yearns for a connection with Isabel/Maram. She moves toward letting go of this focus on Maram as important to her identity as the novel progresses. While she is initially reluctant to accept that she is a Scribe, Esther eventually begins to accept and use her ability. Esther is a complex character and one of the protagonists of the novel and functions as a foil to her sister, Joanna

Nicholas functions as a third protagonist and a complex character in Ink Blood Sister Scribe. Like Joanna and Esther, Nicholas is characterized through third-person limited perspective, which shifts among each of the three main characters. Nicholas has been raised in the Library with his “uncle,” Richard Maxwell, and Richard’s partner, Dr. Maram Ebla. Nicholas has been wealthy, sheltered, and used for his blood, as he is assumed to be the only living Scribe before Esther’s abilities are discovered. His wealth is closely associated with his appearance, and he is self-aware about his flaws and the role of money in his appearance: “Objectively, he was no different from any other standard-issue white man in his early twenties; perhaps a little better-looking and better-dressed, but even he, an alleged narcissist, could admit that was mostly money” (74). Esther describes his appearance as “Tawny-haired with reddish stubble, handsome and well-dressed” (238). He also has a prosthetic eye; he initially believes he lost his eye in a kidnapping attempt. However, it is eventually revealed that Richard orchestrated the event and needed the eye of a living Scribe to complete the immortality spell. Richard describes Nicholas as stubborn, like his father, and he is characterized as witty and acerbic.

Nicholas’s parents were murdered when he was an infant, and he has “no memory of either of them” (121). While he thinks of Maram and Richard as his closest family, his relationship to both is characterized largely as indoctrination. Maram is the closest thing to a maternal figure he knows, but she is reluctant to take on that role. Similar to Esther, Nicholas seeks affection from Maram that he does not receive. Nicholas’s primary arc as a character centers on his growing awareness of the wrongs perpetrated by his uncle and the Library and the decision to leave and stop submitting to Richard’s will. He also begins to form connections with Collins, Esther, and Joanna, which enables him—like Joanna—to progress from being isolated to finding community.

Over the course of the novel, Nicholas’s relationship to magic also changes. Having started writing spells at the age of eight, he initially has a drive to write for the sake of interest, which he loses after years of being required to write commissions. His progress back to magic for the sake of magic is an important aspect of his character arc, as “For the first time in a long while, he had the urge to write uncommissioned, purely out of interest in magic itself” (255).

Nicholas’s “uncle,” Richard, is characterized as single-mindedly focused on preserving the interests of the Library. While Nicholas initially thinks Richard’s control is a protective gesture, Richard is eventually revealed to be using Nicholas to achieve immortality and wealth. He is intelligent and capable of effectively manipulating Nicholas: “Richard was baiting him, not even hiding it, and Nicholas knew this, but somehow knowing didn’t help. Richard’s stupid mind games worked anyway” (204). Richard is the antagonist in Ink Blood Sister Scribe, eventually revealed to be the Library’s founder, the surgeon of whom there is a portrait in Richard’s office. Richard created the spell to restrict Scribes to the same bloodlines and has been keeping himself alive via a spell that required the body and blood of Scribes, including Nicholas’s eye. Richard is primarily characterized through his prioritization of financial gain and the Library’s legacy over the lives of Scribes throughout history, including Nicholas and Esther.

Richard’s partner, Dr. Maram Ebla, is a complex secondary character. Maram Ebla is a chosen pseudonym, selected “because of a family predisposition toward palindromes, and the surname as a tribute to the ancient library of Ebla, which was often called the oldest library in the world” (369); her original identity is Isabel Gil, Esther’s mother. She was born in Mexico City and raised by book collector parents. While she falls in love with both Richard and Abe, she does not want children, only keeping her pregnancy with Esther because of the possibility of producing a child with magical ability. Maram’s primary allegiance is to books.

Maram is initially characterized as somewhat distant, primarily through Nicholas’s thoughts about her. He notes that she “had always made it clear she had no interest in being his surrogate mother or even an aunt, yet she was still the closest Nicholas had ever really had to either” (70). Ambitious and knowledgeable, she “likely knew more about the particularities of Scribes than anyone alive” (123). She obtained her doctorate in theology at Oxford in order to form a connection with Richard and the Library.

In the narrative, Maram serves as both a mysterious figure and as an agent of assistance for the protagonists. She orchestrates Nicholas’s escape via her plan with Collins, but her intentions are unclear, given that Nicholas and Collins—then eventually Esther and Joanna—don’t have many details about her ultimate plan. Eventually, when her silencing spell is lifted, she helps Nicholas and Esther destroy the book with the immortality spell and end Richard’s life. She eventually disappears, realizing that she isn’t what the Library or Nicholas needs, which functions as a redeeming action.

Joanna’s mother, Cecily, was a nanny to Esther before she became romantically involved with Abe after he and Maram parted ways. Cecily is affectionate toward both Joanna and Esther. She calls both by several endearments, like “angel baby,” and always tells Esther that “I fell in love with you first […] Your father was a bonus” (36). Cecily expressed an adamant desire to lower the wards so that Richard could locate the immortality spell, which she planned to use as leverage to enable Esther to return home. Abe’s disagreement with her plan is what precipitated their breakup. Physically, she is described through Joanna’s perspective: “Like Joanna she was tall, though unlike Joanna she had excellent posture and looked her height” (41). Cecily is a complex secondary character; though she doesn’t experience an arc as a character, her motivations and actions are nuanced.