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A review by gingerellaj
The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi
4.0
I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
It's taken me a little while to write this one but it isn't necessarily a book I've forgotten. I'm not sure quite what I expected with this book either but it wasn't quite what I'd envisaged. The premise was brilliant: individuals, specifically women as I understand it, who are forced to absorb the sins of the dying by eating the associated food symbolising those sins. This in turn, unburdens the dying and allows them to by forgiven whilst the sin eater will be relegated to hell. Set in the 16th century, we meet May: a 14-year-old orphan who has stollen a loaf of bread and is ultimately punished by being made to become a sin eater.
The imagery that Campisi conjures up is exactly what you'd expert for the era: filth, disease, poverty and class boundaries. Whilst May did have presence, it took me a while to warm to her and understand her character. Some of the turns of phrase made it difficult to develop a reading rhythm. We did start to see more of the relationships that May forms, which I enjoyed and wanted more of. There was also a scandal and a murder mystery intertwined that certainly picked up the pace toward the end of the book.
It was a good read, albeit a little arduous at times with some detail that I wasn't necessarily interested in. But I think I was particularly enamoured with the idea of what the book was going to be. I can't say the delivery fell short per se, it was more of just an 'Oh.'. This book was unique: the story was original and it didn't remind me of anything else I'd read. So for that reason, I'm going to rate it an overall 4 stars but in terms of my own personal enjoyment, it was probably more of a 3.5.
It's taken me a little while to write this one but it isn't necessarily a book I've forgotten. I'm not sure quite what I expected with this book either but it wasn't quite what I'd envisaged. The premise was brilliant: individuals, specifically women as I understand it, who are forced to absorb the sins of the dying by eating the associated food symbolising those sins. This in turn, unburdens the dying and allows them to by forgiven whilst the sin eater will be relegated to hell. Set in the 16th century, we meet May: a 14-year-old orphan who has stollen a loaf of bread and is ultimately punished by being made to become a sin eater.
The imagery that Campisi conjures up is exactly what you'd expert for the era: filth, disease, poverty and class boundaries. Whilst May did have presence, it took me a while to warm to her and understand her character. Some of the turns of phrase made it difficult to develop a reading rhythm. We did start to see more of the relationships that May forms, which I enjoyed and wanted more of. There was also a scandal and a murder mystery intertwined that certainly picked up the pace toward the end of the book.
It was a good read, albeit a little arduous at times with some detail that I wasn't necessarily interested in. But I think I was particularly enamoured with the idea of what the book was going to be. I can't say the delivery fell short per se, it was more of just an 'Oh.'. This book was unique: the story was original and it didn't remind me of anything else I'd read. So for that reason, I'm going to rate it an overall 4 stars but in terms of my own personal enjoyment, it was probably more of a 3.5.