Reader Score
72%
72% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Great
Based on 8 reviews on
The Sin Eater walks among us, unseen, unheard
Sins of our flesh become sins of Hers
Following Her to the grave, unseen, unheard
The Sin Eater Walks Among Us.
For the crime of stealing bread, fourteen-year-old May receives a life sentence: she must become a Sin Eater--a shunned woman, brutally marked, whose fate is to hear the final confessions of the dying, eat ritual foods symbolizing their sins as a funeral rite, and thereby shoulder their transgressions to grant their souls access to heaven.
Orphaned and friendless, apprenticed to an older Sin Eater who cannot speak to her, May must make her way in a dangerous and cruel world she barely understands. When a deer heart appears on the coffin of a royal governess who did not confess to the dreadful sin it represents, the older Sin Eater refuses to eat it. She is taken to prison, tortured, and killed. To avenge her death, May must find out who placed the deer heart on the coffin and why.
"Very much reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale...it transcends its historical roots to give us a modern heroine" (Kirkus Reviews). "A novel as strange as it is captivating" (BuzzFeed), The Sin Eater "is a treat for fans of feminist speculative fiction" (Publishers Weekly) and "exactly what historical fiction lovers have unknowingly craved" (New York Journal of Books).
Sarah Johnson is an author and book reviewer.
Review of Megan Campisi's Sin Eater, a thrilling Elizabethan-era novel, and Q&A with the author: https://t.co/J5oOFMnl35 #histfic @AtriaBooks https://t.co/CHGffQ6i9S
She/her anti-fascist. LGBTQ pan. Edgar-nominated international bestseller. NY Times book reviewer. Sherlockian. Trekkie. Daily Double Jeopardy clue. Huge nerd.
Hmm, let's go with SIN EATER by Megan Campisi. Dark, feminist, semi-fantastical semi-medieval. https://t.co/a9PHdpxbdB
Elizabeth Hand is an author.
I loved this book! (As you can see from my review.) RT @BookWorld: NOW IN PAPERBACK "Sin Eater" by Megan Campisi. Set in an alternate Tudor England, her wonderful debut novel is a riveting depiction of hard-won female empowerment @AtriaBooks @Liz_Hand https://t.co/iQneFNHFi8