#megan campisi

[alienigena-pansexual]

Querría estar dentro de él. Querría que abrazara todas las partes de mi cuerpo. Es como cuando tenía tanta hambre y necesitaba comer, y no podía pensar en otra cosa. Ahora tengo la misma hambre de caricias, de calor, de piel, de aliento.

La comedora de pecados. - Megan campisi.

[alderdixon]

Book Report: The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi

I haven't read much historical fiction, but I really enjoyed this twist on it - all the clearly well thought-out worldbuilding. The setting was so vivid and the imagery so visceral... sometimes too visceral, I'm squeamish haha. I loved watching the intrigue unravel...

[krv-reads]

Sin Eater

By Megan Campisi

Four stars

Finished May 5, 2023

I had picked up this book expecting a fantasy rather than a historical fiction, but I was not disappointed. The story was well-written and enticing, with parallels to the true history of the Elizabethan era.

Although the side characters were without much development, May’s descriptions provided some of the depth they lacked. Her penchant for nicknames created a unique sense of personality for each new character.

Aside from the characters, the narrative itself was well-paced and intriguing. While many of the twists were easily anticipated, I really enjoyed piecing together the clues for the final reveal.

Overall, this was a fascinating concept which resulted in an interesting and thought-provoking story.

[semper-legens]

58. The Sin Eater, by Megan Campisi

Owned: No, library Page count: 349 My summary: May Owens is just fourteen when she steals a loaf of bread, and is sentenced to be a sin-eater for the rest of her life. Invisible to the world, feared and shunned, May must live at the bottom of society and take on the sins of the city so that others can be free. But when she is summoned to court to hear the sins of a dying lady, she finds herself embroiled in a conspiracy far wider than she could have imagined... My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

This is an interesting one. I picked it up entirely based on its title, because sin-eaters are a history I know something about! The tradition of sin-eating was that a person would eat a meal, typically bread and beer, over the coffin of someone who had died in exchange for money. That person would in doing so take on the sins of the deceased person, allowing their soul to more quickly go to Heaven and their spirit to be at rest, while the sin-eater would be laden with the deceased's sins. Typically, the sin-eater would be a poor vagrant desperately in need of the money, so much that they risked their immortal soul for the needs of their mortal bodies. Campisi has stated that this book is not meant to be a reflection of the actual historical reality of sin-eaters, more an extrapolation of the concept - taking the idea of eating people's sins and expanding it into an elaborate system with different foods for different sins. Overall, this is a really interesting book, though I do have a few quibbles with it.

Our protagonist is May, a teenage girl sentenced to becoming a sin-eater after stealing a loaf of bread. As sin-eaters are not permitted to speak outside of the sin-eating ritual, she spends a lot of the book wordless, but that doesn't mean silent. The first person narration is told from her perspective and imbued with a lot of character. It was a really distinct voice, you always got a lot of her personality shining through. Her arc sees her struggling from a desperate vagrant to uncovering a mystery at the heart of the royal court, learning a sense of self-confidence in so doing. As a sin-eater she is reviled, but so too is she given a purpose and role in her society that is both lauded and vilified, commanding some fear while being seen as the lowest of the low. May comes to weaponise this, while she still struggles with seeing herself as a cursed creature. It's this dichotomy that really forms the core of the book's ethos, to my mind. Women are at once treated as angels and devils, and it is up to the individual how she copes with the stereotypes afforded to her by gender.

My issue with this book comes with its relationship to historicity and the worldbuilding inherent to it. See, in reflection of the fact that the author did not intend this to be a literal interpretation of sixteenth century England, this book is set in an ambiguous other place. People there are Anglish, their religion follows the Maker, the rival faith is the Eucharistian faith. Okay, that's fine, use a thinly-veiled version of sixteenth century England so you can build your imaginative take on the idea of sin-eating, that's fine. But the effort in worldbuilding seems to stop after that? There are still Jewish people, there's still a France, and the Hebrew and Greek languages exist unchanged. How difficult would it have been to call all of these things a slightly different yet still recognisable name? It's so weird that Campisi didn't seem to want to put in the effort to develop her ideas past England's shores, even when it would only have taken a moment to switch out France for Gaul. It's not a huge problem, the plot remains unchanged regardless, but it did bug me as I was reading.

The other quibble I had was that sometimes the book waxes into questionable language. We can't go a sentence about the old sin-eater to whom May is apprenticed without noticing how huge and big and fat she is. And, okay, I get that this is in contrast to the literally-starving May, but the exaggerated grotesqueness of this woman's body made me pretty uncomfortable. So too did the descriptions of May's vagrant friends, lepers and outcasts all, though in fairness this is likely more a way of representing what people of the time might have thought of people with facial and bodily deformities more than the author implying that said people are horrific. Still, it rubbed me up the wrong way.

Otherwise, however, I'd very much recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject matter. It's a gripping tale of deceit - the political intrigue is balanced well with May's character arc and ongoing development, though admittedly I was far more interested in the latter than the former. I had fun with it! Uh, insofar as 'fun' can be applied to a book about death and murder and such. Hey, I'm morbid, you knew this.

Next up, another of my morbid special interests!

[jvzebel-x]

"Don't I know by now that folks see their sins in the way they choose? There's always a reason as to why selfishness is not really selfishness, and crimes are honest, and waiting safely by as some folk else is killed is really the more courageous choice."

x. "Sin Eater", Megan Campisi

[joelfe]

[it-goes-on]

men will repeatedly try to kill a fourteen year old sin eater living a miserable life because she knows you’re fathering a bastard on an unmarried girl in the queen’s court instead of going to therapy. exhausting.

[enlilwind]

Devoratoarele de păcate sunt creaturi indezirabile, a căror unic scop în viață este de a lua păcatele muribunzilor asupra lor, pentru ca aceștia să pășească pe cealaltă lume puri. Ca pactul să fie încheiat, Devoratoarele trebuie să consume la înmormântare felurile de mâncare ce corespund păcatelor ce au fost spuse pe patul de moarte, făcând astfel cunoscute public cele mai întunecate secrete ale morților.

[grassangel]

Best book you've read so far this year? Favorite queer fiction book(s). Where/how do YOU find books to read?

It's been slim pickings so far. Best in terms of kicking my heels up and giggling is Demon Daughter by Lois McMaster Bujold. In terms of good writing or literary merit, Sin Eater by Megan Campisi, Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White and The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw. But those three were all a bit (or lot) bleak, even if well written/executed, so I'd be hard pressed to say any is the best on both fronts.

Favourite because it was formative: Doctrine of Labyrinths series by Sarah Monette. Favourite because of the smut: Wicked Beauty by Katee Robert. Favourite that isn't so much queer fiction, but just has queer characters: All Systems Red by Martha Wells.

I follow a bunch of authors I enjoy and small publishers on Twitter/Bluesky, mostly scifi and fantasy, with a couple of romance authors in there as well. And basically when they retweet about a book/a list their book is on, I'll check those books out and if they seem interesting, I'll add it on my Goodreads TBR. I'll also scroll through the recently added audiobook filter on Libby for my libraries, as well as looking over the free/cheap books in Kobo/Bookbub emails. Also subscribed to a bunch of self published romance/fantasy authors, but that's generally for only free books and will drop them if they only publish through Amazon/KU. (Am I missing out on some amazing sounding monsterf—king books by not buying on Amazon? Absolutely. But I have more than enough only getting freebies through Kobo/Google Play.)

There is also recs from friends of course, eg @zahnie, @setnet, @calico-arctique, and sometimes I'll just crawl through the Goodreads 'readers also liked' pages, or lists and bookshelves that I have a hankering for.

Which is why my Goodreads TBR is 1.7k long, my Libby TBR tag is 500+ titles long and my Kobo shelf has 500+ books in it. And what is on one list may not necessarily be on the others.

[ofcruelheart]

*     ◟    :    〔   jourdan dunn  ,      cisfemale    +   she/her    〕      VALLA    PARADISO ,      some say you’re a  THIRTY FIVE  lost soul among the neon lights.      known for being both  SHREWD  and  COLD,  one can’t help but think of  PAPRIKA  by   JAPANESE BREAKFAST  when you walk by.    are you still a    SIN EATER     at      CUTS OF PARADISE,     even with your reputation as the SIN EATER?     i think we’ll be seeing more of you and    METHODICAL CUTS INTO THE CHASM OF MEMORY, VISUAL HAGIOGRAPHIES FLICKERING ON A PROJECTOR SCREEN, COLD GAZE SWEEPING OVER A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE AS THE REST OF THE CONGREGATION WEEPS,    although we can’t help but think of BYLETH (FIRE EMBLEM: THREE HOUSES), PRIMROSE AZELHART  (OCTOPATH TRAVELER), KIKYO (INUYASHA)    whenever we see you down these rainy streets.      (      keira  ,      31  ,      she/her  ,     is this a wanted connection? nope!   ,   est    +    none  .     )

Name: Valla Paradiso Age: 35 Pronouns: She/her Orientation: Bisexual Occupation: Sin Eater at Cuts of Paradise, previously a Memory Maker Character Inspo: Mother Suspiriorum (Suspiria - 2018), Byleth (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Primrose Azelhart (Octopath Traveler), Kikyo (Inuyasha) General Inspo: Sin Eater history (x), The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi, The Final Cut (2004), The VVitch (2015), Noteworthy Traits: A stoic, unflappable, often emotionless countenance; a transparently appraising and cutting gaze coupled with lips that are neither smiling nor frowning; slender fingers perusing through memories and flashbacks as if they were playing cards, a rather old-fashioned way of speaking History: (TLDR at end)

I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man, that ye walk not down the lanes or in our meadows. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul. Amen.

Home lies at the fringe of civilization, a commune where the wind cuts and the crops are tough to the teeth. Home is isolation, a place where trust does not extend beyond the fences that encircle them. Life is governed by rigid divisions: men from women, and daily life steeped in prayers uttered in the archaic tongue of Old English. Her mother, she discovers, holds a role steeped in ancient ritual – a sin eater, a vocation she later learns has long vanished beyond the commune's boundaries. The mantle of sin, she knows, will one day be hers to bear, a legacy passed from mother to daughter.

She observes and absorbs the ways of the sin eater. They hear deathbed confessions. Each funeral, each interment, requires their solemn presence. Cakes, symbolic of the deceased's sins, are laid before the sin eater. With each bite, they absorb these transgressions, their consumption a rite that purifies the soul, allowing the departed to ascend to heaven.

To liberate a soul at the threshold of death is a role both deeply revered and intensely feared. Sin eaters, those who dare to barter with their own souls to amass the sins of others, are regarded with a blend of awe and trepidation. Such a sacrificial act, though honored, is often shrouded in whispers of dark magic, witchcraft, and dealings with supernatural forces, or even the Devil himself. To meet the gaze of a sin eater, if only for an instant, is believed to be an omen of misfortune.

Her time arrives, a solitary existence in the ancestral house skirting the village, where silence and averted gazes from the commune are commonplace and constant. She partakes in the ritual consumption of corpse cakes and wine, each sin of others adding weight to her family's tapestry, an ever-growing burden. Life unfolds in this solemn pattern, until an unforeseen event disrupts its rhythm.

The death of the commune leader beckons her to his funeral, to consume his sins, but hesitation grips her. Before his passing, he had confessed to her, revealing the repugnant abuse of his power. These confessions polluted her spirit, tainted her dreams, soured even the sweetest of fruits. Her only regret was that he met his end before she could play any role in it.

Defying all precedent, she absents herself from his funeral, a decision laden with grave consequences. When the commune descends upon her home, they find it devoid of her presence.

The city becomes her new haven, a stark contrast to her previous life. Here, there are no rigid divisions, at least not like those in the commune. Everyone bears the weight of their own sins.

An opportunity arises with Stoneage, a position for a 'memory maker.' Her expertise in the realm of confessions, sins, and raw memories makes her a strange, but fitting candidate. They take a gamble on her, and it pays off; she proves herself both diligent and prolific. But she grows curious, about what she can take and give within living human memory, and she has not yet known the finer nuances of subterfuge - she is discovered.

She is no longer a memory maker, but she still continues her work, and soon discovers it has every potential to be lucrative. It has every potential to bring back that which is familiar - sin eating. Powerful people who have died and are in need of hierographies and memorial movies to play at their funerals, their mausoleums, their museums and remembrances, and want a... clean legacy. Who want their sins absolved, forgotten by all but her.

She dubs her service "Cuts of Paradise."

Her clientele grows, now including the wealthiest seeking her unique services for more than mere memory curation. Bad deals, damning witnesses, debts too great to bear – they need these memories erased from those who would remember it. Not through violence or murder, but through oblivion.

Just forget. Forget about the bad deal. Forget about what they saw. Forget about forgetting.

She is innately attuned to this calling. Born to bear the sins of others, she navigates this labyrinth of forgotten transgressions, a guardian of erased memories, a modern-day sin eater in a world that unknowingly harbors ancient rites.

SUMMARY: Raised in a remote commune at civilization's edge, where harsh winds blow and trust is confined within rigid fences, she learns of her role as a sin eater from her mother, a legacy steeped in old rituals and looked upon with reverence and repulsion alike. Her life revolves around attending funerals and consuming corpse cakes symbolizing the deceased's sins, a rite believed to purify souls for their ascent to heaven. This revered yet feared practice defines her until an event disrupts her life: the death of the commune leader, whose confessed sins haunt her. Choosing to not perform her duty at his funeral, she faces the commune's wrath and flees to the city. Here, she initially struggles but finds a job at Stoneage as a 'memory maker,' drawing on her sin-eating experience. However, her exploration into living memories leads to her discovery and subsequent departure from Stoneage. Adapting her sin-eating skills, she starts "Cuts of Paradise," offering services to erase memories for wealthy clients seeking clean legacies or to be freed from bad dealings. In this modern world, she continues her ancestral calling, navigating a new labyrinth of forgotten sins and erased memories as a contemporary sin eater.

[ragingsands]

TAG NINE PEOPLE YOU’D LIKE TO KNOW BETTER!

favourite colour(s): red and black, dusty rose, rose gold

favourite flavour(s): sashimi, local (southeast asian country) rice + chicken, fish or beef dish with savoury flavours

favourite genre(s): horror, action, shoujo and shounen, josei, fantasy, female lead isekai

favourite music: pop punk, punk rock, jpop, jrock, whatever the fuck hiroyuki sawano's genre is and lastly, a band that has been an MVP for two years in my head: messgram

favourite movie: i'll go with comfort and i'll say jurassic park. that's it

favourite series:  drakengard / nier or drakenier as they like to call it. final fantasy franchise as well as the shin megami tensei franchise. fr fr

last song: want u bad by jon-YAKITORY ft. kafu

last movie:  puss in boots: the last wish

currently reading: sin eater by megan campisi

currently watching: record of ragnarok second season

currently working on: work but you didnt hear it from here first

tagged stolen from @ophiidias tagging @tundraecho, @violentsinnxr, @shackld, @9thagency, @valour-bound, @mandateofmetatron, @furiaei, @imarahuyo & @queenoftheboard

[jadelotusflower]

2022 Roundup - books read

Fiction

An Offer from a Gentleman - Julia Quinn

The Sin Eater - Megan Campisi

Romancing Mr Bridgerton - Julia Quinn

Wandering Stars - Sholem Alcehiem

A Study in Scarlet Women - Sherry Thomas

To Sir Phillip, with love - Julia Quinn

Once There Were Wolves - Charlotte McConaghy

A Conspiracy in Belgravia - Sherry Thomas

Binti - Nnedi Okorafor

The Starless Sea - Erin Morganstern

The Hollow of Fear - Sherry Thomas

The Art of Theft - Sherry Thomas

Ghosts of Sherwood - Carrie Vaughn

Heirs to Locksley - Carrie Vaughn

Murder on Cold Street - Sherry Thomas

Persuasion - Jane Austen (re-read)

Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen (re-read)

Miss Moriarty, I Presume? - Sherry Thomas

Love and Friendship (and other writings) - Jane Austen

That makes 19 - my goal for the year was to read more diverse authors/stories and an effort was made, even if I did revert back to my comfort zone of historical fiction and re-reading some Austen.

I'm not sure why I stuck with the Bridgerton novels as long as I did, seeing as I found them mostly frustrating. I started out really enjoying the Lady Sherlock novels, however they unfortunately became a series of diminishing returns for me.

The Sin Eater was probably my favourite novel this year, something completely original and interesting and that has stuck with me. Once There Were Wolves had a really interesting premise but didn't really have the payoff, and The Starless Sea was a strange one because it seemed particularly geared to my interests and yet I just didn't vibe with it.

Non-Fiction

Top End Girl - Miranda Tapsell

Celtic Myth - Kevin Eyres

Celtic Myths - Jake Johnson

Troy - Stephen Fry

What People Wore When - Melissa Leventon

Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer

Victoria The Queen - Julia Baird

Medieval Costume Armour and Weapons - Eduard Wagner, Zoroslava Drobna, and Jan Durdik

Scarred: How I escaped NXIVM, the cult that bound my life - Sarah Edmondson

Don’t call it a Cult: The shocking story of Keith Raniere and the women of NXIVM - Sarah Berman (re-read)

Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the wisdom and intelligence of the forest - Suzanne Simard

Out of the Corner - Jennifer Grey

1001 Arabian Nights Volume 1 - translated by Malcom C Lyons (partial)

That's 13 - some fascinating non-fiction this year, from actor memoirs, to myths and legends, to my continued interest in cults and cult-adjacent material.

In particular Under the Banner of Heaven, which I sought out after I watched the tv adaptation with Andrew Garfield and was extremely compelling, and Finding the Mother Tree, a super interesting exploration of the connectivity of the forest.

That's 32 total for 2022, less than my goal but who really cares.

[punk-rocking-nerd]

These are kinda similar to Sharp Objects!! (i.e., creepy, sometimes rural setting, mystery element, "don't mess with nature," def captures the feminine urge to scream at times)

A God in the Shed by J.F. Dubeau

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

The Inheritance of Orquidea Divinia by Zoraida Cordova

Weyward by Emilia Hart

Sin Eater by Megan Campisi

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

anyone got any book recs? finished sharp objects

[morgan--reads]

Sin Eater - Megan Campisi

Summary: May is a new sin eater—a shunned class of women who eat the sins of the dead in the form of prescribed foods—when her fellow sin eater refuses to eat a mysterious deer heart placed on the coffin of a royal courtier who did not confess the sin it represents. May, witnessing the terrible fate of her mentor, becomes determined to solve the mystery of the deer heart even as it brings her closer to the center of the royal court and all the dangers it represents. 

Quote: “I understand why sin eaters were made. Carrying such feelings is too much for one little heart, too much for one body. There must be some hope of shedding regret, grief, sorrow, sloughing them off like a skin and going into death free and light. Else we'd never be able to live.”

My rating: 3.5/5.0    Goodreads: 3.63/5.0

Review: The concept of sin eaters and the lore and worldbuilding connected to the practice is very engaging and the constant litany of sins and their associated foods never failed to be interesting to me. However the story and the world were both hampered by the naïve narrator, who isn’t particularly aware of the broader contexts in which the story takes place and doesn’t necessarily have the capacities to explore some of the interesting aspects of the world—her illiteracy is a prime example of this. The mystery itself is compelling and it’s the strongest argument for the bizarre slightly alternate history that Campisi constructs, allowing her to play with the facts of English history to create something a little more scandalous.

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: Sin Eater

Author: Megan Campisi.

Publication Date: 2020.

Genre: Alternate historical fiction (?).

Premise: Strap in, y'all, because this is complicated. May Owens, an orphaned teen laundress in Fake Elizabethan London, is arrested for stealing a loaf of bread. Expecting to be hanged, she's instead sentenced to be a Sin Eater for life. This means hearing confessions from the dying and then eating foods that symbolize their sins off their coffins. There are various other unpleasant requirements--speaking to no one except when hearing confessions, being forced to wear a non-removable collar, getting one's tongue tattooed, social ostracism, eternal damnation if one doesn't do everything right--but it does come with free room and board. Then the Sin Eater who's supposed to be mentoring May gets tortured to death. Why? A deer heart (symbolizing the murder of royalty) appeared on the coffin of a deceased lady-in-waiting, and the mentor wouldn't eat it because the lady-in-waiting had confessed to no such thing. Can May figure out what the hell is going on, adjust to her weird new life, and address a bunch of lingering childhood trauma?

Thoughts: Sin-eating, as depicted in this novel, never existed in Britain. Campisi was inspired to write this novel by a real-world tradition that started in and near Wales as early as the seventeenth century, but died out completely by the 1920s. Accounts vary as to how socially stigmatizing it was to be a sin eater; at best, they were poor, disreputable people doing a low-status job, and, at worst, they were feared and despised as people who had traded away their immortal souls and possibly consorted with demons. However, it was definitely not an island-wide, state-sanctioned role that people were officially sentenced to; it didn't require body modification, nor was it solely assigned to women.

In short, Campisi has created a fictional tradition that technically could have existed in Elizabethan London (as it doesn't involve magic or technology that didn't exist at the time), but demonstrably did not. This puts her in an interesting position that most historical fiction and fantasy writers don't find themselves in, because she has the following options:

Write a straightforward historical novel that just happens to have this one weird, fictional thing going on, with no further explanation. This would probably be the easiest option, but she either has to put an awkward author's note at the beginning or run the risk of readers thinking she knows jack shit about Elizabethan London.

Write an alternate history novel in which she explains how her version of sin-eating came to be in Elizabethan London. (Off the top of my head: Welsh people brought the tradition to London and other parts of England after migrating, but it only caught on in a big way as a response to the Black Death, during which time it developed distinctly English characteristics. The pious Henry VI was the first monarch to officially recognize it; however, the crueler official requirements didn't come about until the reign of Henry VIII, for reasons similar to the passing of the Tudor Poor Laws. Edward VI tried to ban it, but Mary I brought it back with a vengeance. Now it's allowed, but only because Elizabeth I branded it as an Anglican thing.) I think this makes for an interesting setting, but it is a lot of work for a story that's really just about one regular girl and some Tudor drama.

Write a story that takes place in a world that's similar in some ways to Elizabethan England (geography, level of technology, etc.), yet is substantially different. Maybe there's a young reigning queen, but she's not the often-disfavored daughter of a king with six wives; instead, maybe she had seven brothers who all died untimely deaths. Maybe the country's been torn apart by decades of religious conflict, but sin-eating is at the heart of the conflict instead of Fake Catholicism vs. Fake Protestantism. This might actually be the most organic way to handle things, but it does put the book in a weird place, genre-wise; people who want to read straight-up historical fiction won't be into it, and people who want to read fantasy might be put off by the lack of magic.

Any of these are better options than what Campisi chose, which is an unholy union between #1 and #3. Sin Eater is set in a world that's almost identical to Elizabethan London, except that (a) Campisi's version of sin-eating exists and (b) everybody has slightly different names. Instead of Queen Elizabeth, we have Queen Bethany, the daughter of King Harold II and his second wife Alys Bollings. She had an older sister named Maris, daughter of Harold II's first wife Constanza of Castile, who was a Eucharist. Harold II's third wife was named Jennette Cheney, whom you might think had a son named Edwin or whatever, but no, she had no children. What. You might also think that Jennette had a brother named Titus Cheney, who married Harold II's sixth wife and widow Katryna Park or whatever, but also no. He was named Titus Seymaur (no relation?) and he was married to Katryna...Parr. Confused yet? Because God is always called the Maker, and clergy are always Maker-men who preach sermons in Maker-halls, but Judas is still Judas and Eve is still Eve. Also, Roma people are called "eg*psies" (honestly, if you're going to make up a stupid word, at least use the opportunity to make it not a slur); it's something of a relief that the Jewish characters are just Jews. Oh, and the whole thing takes place in Angland.

This is some of the most irritating, distracting world-building I've ever encountered. It doesn't help that the only reason for the fake Tudor drama is a rather tired, mean-spirited mystery involving Queen Elizabeth/Bethany's secret baby and Katryna/Katherine Parr's long-lost daughter. And it's a shame, because when the story focuses on May--a lonely, angry, scared girl struggling to do the right thing and make a place for herself in the world--it's emotionally compelling. Her mixed feelings towards the fellow outcasts who start squatting in her home are particularly well-done, as are her encounters with religious outsiders. The mechanics of sin-eating are also fascinating; I liked seeing May visit dying people of various ages and stations in life. I think a person without my exact pet peeves would enjoy this novel a lot more, but it still wouldn't be great.

Hot Goodreads Take: There are many criticisms of this novel that I agree with, such as bad world-building, a weak mystery, a sophomoric understanding of religion, and gratuitous unpleasantness. (I love the dark, I love slippery things, but there was no reason for the tongue tattoo except to drive home that this whole thing sucks for May. I did not need to be further convinced!) There are also criticisms that I get, even if I don't feel the same way; for instance, I like the weird, bitter heroine, but I understand that she's not for everyone. On the other hand, one reviewer states, "I also didn’t care or need to know about the author’s childcare arrangements that she acknowledges at the end of her book." Like...cool, reviewer, but I don't think you understand the point of acknowledgments. They're to thank people. Are you going to complain that you "don't care that the book was manufactured in America, as the copyright page says"?

[ellis-reviews]

Sin Eater by Megan Campisi

I really, really liked it.

The Sin Eater concept intrigued me so much, so I was glad there was a lot around that. There is a lot of repetition when it comes to the sins and the food that represented them, but honestly there was so many that I actually liked it because I kept forgetting them, and it was nice not having to go back to check every time.

The writing was also very interesting to me. I haven’t read that many books set back in time, so I found the language very refreshing and interesting. And it wasn’t too heavy, it still had a nice flow and wasn’t hard to read. I had to look up a few words I wasn’t familiar with though, but I thought that was fun too — it felt like it was learning something!

The only choice I’m questioning with the writing is that all the information we got was mostly learned from gossiping townsfolk or maids, which I kind of can see (people love to gossip after all) but after a while it felt a little off when the people talking saw the main character, startled and just kept talking. In some sense it did make sense (given how they treated the protagonist) but she really was at the perfect time and the perfect place every time.

The characters were interesting, though sometimes I found a few lacking. There’s quite a few I feel like we only got to know on a surface level, which is understandable since we didn’t interact with them as much — but I also felt like we could have learned a little more about them while we did see them. Mostly I’m curious about the Queen, for example.

My impression of her is limited, because some loved her extremely much (and the Queen did seem to care much about them in return) then there were many that hated her, because she seemed like a bald person and kind of a tyrant but we never really learned if she was good or not.

There was also a lot of people that got on the wrong side of the protagonist, and the protagonist rightfully hated them. The only problem I had with that is that the main character then swore to get revenge on a lot of them, but then... just left them behind without even a thought or regret of how they wouldn’t get revenge, which I found a little strange.

I would have liked to see her do something.

The plot really was interesting. I would have been happy with just the Sin Eater concept, but the murder mysteries were interesting too.

The ending was... okay. A little disappointing, since all the mysteries weren’t solved (and a few other issues) but the main character mused about the ‘only logical explanation’ which did make sense, but felt lacking since we had gone around searching for answers and then... just nothing.

A lot of the bad people we also didn’t get to see what happened to (the good people too for that matter). The big mystery was solved, and then anything else just didn’t seem to matter anymore, which I found a little sad because I wanted to see how it could be resolved.

Personally I would like to see a second book where the main character goes back and learns about what happened, and maybe some more craziness happens. I wouldn’t mind that.

It could all have been solved pretty easily though. It’s already established that the townspeople love to gossip, so the protagonist could have learned all they needed from overhearing the townsfolk, but she didn’t, and that does make me rather sad.

Overall I liked the book though, and the Sin Eater concept just really did it for me enough that I will give this book a good rating. Still it is a little lacking in its ending, in my opinion, so that’s a thing to keep in mind before reading it.

I am recommending it though, if you like historical setting and concepts and some dark themes, with a little fantasy drizzled on top.