As a historical
fiction lover, I was thoroughly looking forward to sinking my teeth into The
Sin Eater by Megan Campisi. A beautiful cover with very little explanation for it was about. While the blurb gives little information,
An old adage says that there are really only two
stories: a man goes on a voyage, and a stranger arrives in town. This is the
third: a woman breaks the rules
I was intrigued to
read on to find what the book was about. The book is set in the 16th
Century and focuses on the main character, May, who commits a minor crime and
pays for it with significant consequences. She becomes the titular character, a
sin eater, someone who people call for when a loved one is dying and she takes
on board all of their sins as her own. It also involves food, as particular
foods represent particular sins and then there is a feast afterwards where the
sin eater will eat these foods in the presence of the deceased person. It’s all
very strange and reminded me somewhat of a dystopian world where women are
viewed as inferior and given this job to repay for their sins.
I loved the idea
of this book, something completely different for the genre of historical fiction.
I was fascinated by the relation of sins to different items of food, the role
of the sin eater and wondered while this was fictional, if something similar
was around in the medieval times. The portrayal of the main character of a sin
eater was a wise choice too. All too often, the main character of a book would
be someone who would be confronted with a character like this but it was eye
opening to read through May’s perspective. She went through so many changes at
such a young age but approached them with grit and determination. She was
really the only character in the book that you really got to know. The other
characters were all minor and many were not even referred to by their first
names. I was a little confused by the nicknames of the characters living in the
castle and they seemed to blur into one. I was not able to identify anything
about them and feel it would have been beneficial to know more about them to
engage more with the plot.
Another crucial
aspect of the plot was the mystery. I love reading about mysteries and trying
to decipher who did what, it really draws my interest to a book and makes me
want to keep reading. The mystery in this book started off well, trying to work
out who committed the crimes by using clues. By the end of the book, it got a little
strange and even once it was solved, I found myself very confused as to what
actually occurred and ‘who dunnit’. Again, this may have been due to my lack of
connection to these other characters and forgetting who was who.
My favourite part
of this book would be the writing. It is woven together beautifully, the author
carefully considering the language to use to make it feel authentic to the time
period. While I may not have been completely engaged with the plot and the
characters, it was the writing that kept me reading on. I admire the way that
Campisi created the character of May and how she built her up over time: from a
fragile young girl who seemed frightened and lost, to a strong, determined and
capable young woman who had to grow up almost overnight. She had to face such
hardships but would not let others get her down.
