The Sin Eater

Thank you to netgalley.co.uk for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow! Where can I start with this book? It's probably the best book that I have read in a long time, and I am so pleased that I got the opportunity to read it. The premise of this novel, I'm sure it would attract a wide range of readers. The whole book was well written, and I think the author Megan Campisi is a natural at crafting a well-rounded story that hooked me in from the first page. I really look forward to reading more of her work.

This is a really engaging and interesting read from beginning to end.

I was attracted to the book because I read The Familiar by Stacey Halls last year and this seemed to be of a similar bent. It is and it isn't. Whereas the former is very much set in the real world, The Sin Eater happens in a world very like our own but with small differences. There is talk of the former Queen Maris and the present Queen Bethany who are clearly Mary I and Elizabeth I but these small differences make the world we enter slightly otherworldly, it's quite beautiful and helps adds depth and interest. Are we in Britain or a dark fantasy world? The choice is ours.

Our sin-eater is May, a fourteen-year-old orphan who is arrested for stealing some food and her sentence is to be made a sin-eater. She is fitted with a collar, her tongue is branded with the letter "S" and she is sent to live with an old sin-eater who won't talk to her. May has always been a talkative and inquisitive girl and now she has to enter a world of silence. She cannot talk to anyone except when asking the sins of the dying and telling them that she takes them on as her own. She is also an outcast. No one wants to look at sin-eaters because they are bad luck. The only time a sin-eater is welcome is when she is performing her sin-eating duty.

Very early on May and the old sin-eater are at a sin eating when a deer's heart is on the coffin of the dead woman. The old sin-eater refuses to eat it because the sin it represents was not given to her by the dead woman. Because she refuses she is arrested and tortured to death. May eats the deer heart because if she doesn't she will be tortured too but she wants to know who put the deer heart there and why. She wants to avenge the death of the old sin-eater.

And that's where I'll leave the plot because I really don't want to give anything away and the way we get to the answers, the people we meet along the way ... it's just wonderful and you will find yourself (I hope!) engrossed. The plot is captivating and the writing is beautiful. I will be looking at more from Megan Campisi because she is definitely worth following.

I really enjoyed the narrative of this book and the subtle yet beautiful prose. The way she used her freedom was very moving as well as her strength and resolve. Just my kind of historical novel!

Well written, historical fiction with a touch of magic

This book is dark and keeps you reading from page one

Touches the real history behind the sin eaters as well

Characters are strong and believable,

A truly fantastic read

Thank you for the opportunity to review this dark and twisting tale set in a fantasy historical period that mirrors the reign of Elizabeth I. I thoroughly enjoyed it and wonder if May Owens will continue to develop as a character in a sequel?
May is an orphan, with two different strands of family who, she discovers, have both given her character traits she needs to call on when she steals some bread and is sentenced to be a Sin Eater. The role is vital in the community but leads to the holder becoming an outcast, feared and reviled. It’s an embellishment to what the real Sin Eaters were like in history but the conceit works due to the excellent efforts of the author to build the alternative universe in her novel.
Along the way May discovers Royal Court intigue, friendship from unlikely sources and crushing disappointment from those she grew up thinking would always help her and keep her safe. Resourceful, angry, fuelled by the unfairness of poverty, she refuses to give in to her appointed fate, whilst at the same time grudgingly embracing the strange freedom being a Sin Eater can bestow when you truly have nothing.
The language is luscious without descending into Purple Prose, the sights and scents of the world beautifully made flesh on the page. Each Sin needing a specific foodstuff to be consumed is an excellent way to add meat to the bones of a now largely forgotten practice. It also allows plot development in some areas, as the meaning is not always clear to the illiterate May.
I was sad to reach the end of this book. It reminded me of books by Karen Maitland and Frances Hardinge in some ways, but was never derivative. A gloriously luscious tale.