Sin Eater: A Novel

May is arrested for stealing bread and ends up being sentenced to be a Sin Eater. She is no longer allowed to speak and bears the mark and the collar to let all know what she is. May must hear the confessions of all those on their death bed and eat the food representing those sins so that the confessor will meet the Maker unstained. While performing these rights, she discovers a deadly plot in the Queen’s court, one that costs the life of the sin eater she was apprenticed to. How will May expose this plot and avenge her death, when she is the Unseen and the Unheard?

The more I read about the sixteenth-century, the more I appreciate not living in it. The amount of treachery and backstabbing that occurred in the courts is always astounding. The whole concept of sin eaters is a fascinating one and while this book was fiction, I felt like the author did a great job of bringing that century and its beliefs to life. It is always sad to see how people use religion as a tool for power, but not very surprising. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about May as a narrator, however, I did like that she used descriptions as names for people she didn’t know, such as Black Fingers. That era seems terrifying enough, let alone to be a fourteen-year-old orphan condemned to bear the sins of others and never speak unless it’s at a recitation. Overall, an interesting look into a fictitious sixteenth-century English society.