I was immediately drawn to Megan Campisi's Sin Eater when I saw the quote "The Handmaid's Tale meets Alice in Wonderland" because I love both of those novels.  

With that being said, I wanted to like this book as well.  It started off great, I couldn’t put it down, and I thought 'damn this is going to be a ground breaking book!'  Sadly, as I continued reading this I felt this feeling slowly fade.  I struggled to get through the middle, as the story went flat.  There were some inconsistencies, and ending also left something to be desired.  Overall, I found it to be an enjoyable piece of historical fiction, and will be on the look out for whatever Campisi writes next.

What a wonderful piece of historical fiction! I could not put it down and read it on record time. Highly recommend!!

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This is a great book! Set in a slightly different world but one much like our own early modern period, a young woman is forced to take on the job of Sin Eater. Sin Eaters hear the final confessions of the dying and assign foods the Sin Eaters must eat in order to absolve the dead. When the new Sin Eater begins finding accusations made through the foods left on the coffins of women in the court of the queen, she begins to investigate who is making the accusations and why. This is a terrific and smart riff on the Catholic church, the courts of Mary and Elizabeth I, ritual and its meaning in society, the treatment of women, and much more. Campisi gets top marks for creating a rich and compelling alternate world, for playing with rumors and myths surrounding her real-world models, and for developing fascinating characters.

This was kind of a depressing story. A life were no one talks to you and you can’t talk either. At least in this role you wouldn’t starve to death. Even tho it was depressing I was still interested enough to see what happened. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi
Book Review by Dawn Thomas

304 Pages
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: April 7, 2020

Historical Fiction

One of my favorite movies is The Order with Heath Ledger playing the role of a Sin Eater. When I saw this book, I knew I had to read it. May Owens is sentenced to become a Sin Eater for stealing a loaf of bread. She must now be unseen and unheard by society. As a young teenager, this is worse than a life sentence. She moves in with another Sin Eater but since there is no talking, communication is difficult. May does not know how to read and learning from the Sin Eater is almost impossible.

When they travel to the Queen’s castle for two deaths, deer hearts are placed on the coffins of the women. This symbolizes the death of a royal child. Since no one confessed that sin, the original Sin Eater is crushed with stones as punishment. May is intrigued but all the subterfuge. She starts looking into who may have been responsible for the deer hearts and the meanings of their placement.

This book is written in first person point of view in the present tense with flashbacks. The book was an enjoyable read. There are some old English terms, but they do not have an negative impact on the story.

Megan Campisi created such a vivid tale - my words will not do it justice. Dark storytelling isn’t for everyone and sin eating is a taboo subject, but with fresh accessible language the story exceeded my expectations.

More than a 3 really. I don't recall having heard of a Sin Eater before, a woman who hears the last confession of those near death and symbolically assumes the sins of the penitent by eating a prescribed food that represents each sin, ensuring safe passage to the after life for the sinner. The Sin Eater is marked, bound to her role for life, banned from speaking other than the recitations of her vocation, and feared and shunned by society.

I really get a kick out of books that are rich with the vocabulary of the setting, it enhances the ability to transport us to another place and time. This place and time is dark and despairing, but the Sin Eater shines nevertheless as she learns to navigate the world she has suddenly been thrust into and uses her native intelligence to track a murderer in the world of the highborn, where no one is truly innocent. Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for the ARC.

Megan Campisi created such an interesting tale, set in such an interesting place that I was immensely happy to lose myself in there for the hours it took me to read it. Apparently sin eaters, as recently as a hundred years ago, were actual people from various cultures throughout history. I find the practice disturbing yet oddly beautiful. I found the world the author created for this book, which I would say was similar to ye olde England, the perfect backdrop for these unfortunate souls. The religion, the royalty, the poverty all mimicked that time in our actual history, but everything was tweaked just a bit and twisted around so that I found myself very happily immersed in this great new world. The main character, May, is ostracized by her circumstances living in the fringes of society and I loved how the author identified the characters so removed from May's plight by never giving them names. Instead they were identified by the characteristics May saw in them - Mush Face, Painted Pig, Fair Hair, Black Fingers. Such dark subject matter, but really delightful to read. This was one of my top reads for 2019!

I had a bit of a hard time getting into the book, but it got more interesting! I’m still a bit confused about the subplot but decent story.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 - A solid, enjoyable story about a fascinating and little-discussed topic. This novel pairs the incredibly interesting subject of the Sin Eater, a person who hears deathbed confessions and eats food symbolic of the penitent's sins in order to absolve them before their death, with a royal murder mystery.

I was engaged in the story from beginning to end, although I wasn't a fan of the first person POV (I'll fully admit that it's an unreasonable quirk of mine). That, along with some dialogue issues and historically accurate but distracting speech patterns, made this fall just a bit short of a 4-star read for me.

I'd still recommend this to any historical fiction lover - I've never read anything quite like it before!

Thanks so much to the publisher for providing me with a free copy to read. I'm very grateful!

What a novel! I'm not going to lie, when I first requested this book I was expecting it to be fantastic and it totally lived up to the hype!

It does take a special kind of reader for books like these. It's dark, so if that style doesn't appeal to you, than this may not be the right read for you.

A retelling based on Kig Henry VIII's court it is creatively reworked by the author into something fresh and wonderfully entertaining, very creative and addictive.

The author's descriptive prose is on point - mature, biting and totally en pointe. I found myself readily falling into the well crafted storyline.

Definitely tongue in cheek at points, yet wonderfully rendered and detailed, this book is a total MUST read. I'm so glad that I did!

I would like to thank the author/ publisher/Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I just don't think this was my type of book. This was a little too odd and quirky and for me. But the writing was good if dark and off beat are what you're looking for.

Sin Eater is “a dark story with some humor, remarkable characters, and occult mysteries. It was interesting from beginning to end. I found everything about this book to be fascinating. I highly recommend it. My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

This was a very interesting look into what life may have been like for sin eaters. I had no idea such a thing existed and it was a bit of a shock to the system to consider someone having to do this day in and day out. I can't imagine. I enjoyed the story and she was an interesting character to follow.

Sin Eater was an amazing read.

I picked it up this afternoon and didn’t put it back down until I was finished. I enjoyed the languid pace and the solid sense of time and place.

I thought I’d figured out the mystery pretty early on, but I was wrong. I did not see the twist coming and I thought the ending was perfect.

May is a scrappy, resourceful protagonist in an impossible situation and she really makes this story what it is.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

This fascinating book takes place in a slightly altered version of early Elizabethan England. In this world a very important part of every person’s life, be they noble or beggar, is the eponymous Sin Eater. A person on their deathbed confesses their sins to her and, at their funeral, she eats the corresponding food items thus taking on their sins. This absolves the person of their wrongdoings and assures their admittance into heaven.

Our main character, May, is sentenced to be the town’s newest sin eater at the beginning of the book and we follow her journey as she learns not only of the changes that this will mean for her; but, also as she begins to learn truths about herself and her family. She learns what being a sin eater really means from accompanying the older, established one on her visits and on one such visit, they arrive at the palace. Within a short time May becomes involved in a mystery reaching from the highest nobles through to the servants.

I found everything about this book to be amazing. The writing was magical. The way May communicated with the world around her, gave names to everyone and everything, and described things was clever and unexpected. The story was gritty without being depressing, no easy feat.

The publisher has asked that my review be posted at the time the book is published.
I love this story because it's unique, creative, and imaginative. This is the first book I've read from this author. It is the first book I've read with this particular plot. It's an amazing story. Brilliant.

Sin Eater by Megan Campisi was an interesting little book that hooked me from the start. The plot did lose some of its momentum halfway through though, but I overall enjoyed this novel. The role of sin eaters, as explained by Campisi in the beginning, is not new. I, however, had never heard of someone condemned by society to eat the sins of others in the form of various foods so the sinner could ascend to heaven. It’s novelty fascinated me. Our narrator, May, after being caught stealing bread is sentenced to become a sin eater and soon becomes caught up in a royal plot to avenge her mentor’s death. Overall, I liked the story, but I feel the mystery aspect got a bit muddled and the ending seemed a bit rushed.

I don’t have words to describe Megan Campisi’s Sin Eater. Well, none that do it justice at any rate. Suffice it to say I had high hopes when I acquired this piece and the execution surpassed every one of my expectations.

Dark storytelling isn’t everyone’s cuppa, but it holds my attention just fine. I found the shadowed pageantry of May’s world utterly captivating and happily lost myself in the potent imagery, superstition, and secrets that surrounded her. That said, I should note I’m a history junkie and came to this novel more interested in the reference to 16th century England than I was the literary comparisons in the jacket description.

The noble class enjoys a renaming, but it doesn’t take much to recognize the players here. Henry VIII/King Harold II, Anne Boleyn/Alys Bollings, Thomas Seymour/Titus Seymaur, etc. and so on. Campisi’s rework, however, brings something new to the Tudor table, something bold, creative, and utterly addicting.

Campisi’s prose is rich and poetic, a fact which makes Sin Eater more literary than the majority of recently released historical fiction. Some might find this jarring, but I found the mature tone of the novel wonderfully attractive. I gave met something to sink my teeth into if that’s not too crass a phrase.

Audacious, imaginative, and beautifully rendered, Sin Eater is not to be missed.

I had to stop reading because, while I can deal with tough topics and oppression, I found the story to be overall too relentlessly depressing with no pockets of light or even "okayness" to make reading bearable. That may just be me, though!