“Sins of our flesh become sins of hers through the Eating, praise be.”
After committing a crime, 14-year-old May is condemned to be a sin eater. She begins to follow the elder sin eater to learn her new job. While learning, a deer heart is placed at someone’s Eating although the dead didn’t confess to the sin that matches that food. May decides to discover the truth of the murder mystery, but she finds secrets, witchcraft, and lies along the way and her world is quickly and quietly turned upside down. “My soul carries the sins of this town. I’ll carry them with me until I die.”
Throughout the story, May examines her new purpose and the new freedoms it provides. She internally ponders the meaning of her identity: does the role of a sin eater define her?
“I wish you could show folk your insides the way you show your face. Then they’d know I’m not wicked at all.”
I really enjoyed taking this journey with May. She was a very unique character, and it was both bleak and fun to be inside of her head.
Overall thoughts: The 16th century setting was phenomenal. It was eerie, dark, and I was easily transported there. The ending was fantastic. I thought I had the mystery all figured out, but I was wrong! Of course, there are a couple of things you might figure out along the way, but the final twist at the end totally caught me off guard. The main character is unique and her burden as a sin-eater is interesting to follow. I love how May names the people that she encounters; she is a quirky character and I loved her. My only complaint is that in the middle it started to get repetitive with May going to someone’s house who was dying, listening to their sins, and then eating the foods to carry on their sins for them. This made the pacing in the middle get a bit slow.
There are several old English words, so you might consider reading this on a Kindle to translate the words that are unfamiliar.
I recommend this to historical fiction lovers who don’t mind imaginative elements. May was awesome and I miss her already. This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley and Edelweiss for an honest review. Opinions are my own.
More about this:
What is a sin eater? -According to Wikipedia
Sin eaters and the lost sacraments
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