Sin eaters - women who are chosen to take the sins of others through the consumption of representative foods so that the sinner can be welcomed in Heaven upon their death. These women are cursed by men in positions of power that this book focuses on, one in particular being May Owens, a young woman to who the reader is introduced right before she is sentenced to become a sin eater. But in May is not a girl who submits to people's expectations of her to be quiet and stay out of view except when a sin eater is needed - she uses it to her advantage as a sort of freedom.
One of the great things about this book is how character-driven it is. The sin eaters are meant to be quiet and unheard other than at Recitations when people confess all their sins to have the necessary foods consumed at their funeral for the Eating. May is, at first, quite a submissive character who obeys the rules of her role so a lot of her character development happens through her narration. It is with this silence that she becomes invisible to all though it also becomes a chance for her to evolve and grow her confidence. After experiencing everyone's behaviour around her, including in the royal courts, she begins to see her misfortune as her strength - "I am a curse" she repeats, many times over, and never in a self-deprecating manner. She is not someone who is shown to be loyal to the royal family and eager to serve them but sees the danger in a scandal that could destroy a country already on shaky ground due to the religious divides.
That brings me to another of the strengths of this book - May's character-driven story is interwoven with a plot-driven story as she finds herself in the centre of it all. After a few chance encounters and Recitations, May stumbles across a plot to destroy the monarchy with a scandal twisting a dangerous secret. She then uses her newfound position to find out the truth and help in any way she can, she doesn't care that this is the court that made her a curse, she cares about doing what's good for the masses. She could choose to turn her back on those who turn away from her in fear and reject her presence but she doesn't because she is good and kind-hearted. May sees the way people believe in the hope their Virgin Queen brings them, a so-called prophecy come true at last to save the kingdom. But the strength of this is all constantly balancing on a knife's edge with enemies on the inside that could easily destabilise it all.
The setting is an interesting alternative Elizabethan Tudor England, which Campisi uses in a way to avoid historical inaccuracies by using most of the truth but is not so strict with it. She adjusts the names of prominent historical figures - Elizabeth I becomes Queen Bethany, Mary I and Mary Queen of Scots become Maris, Catherin Parr becomes Kathryna Saymour after her marriage to Baron Saymour (Thomas Seymour). Christianity still plays a prominent role with allusions, with people being prosecuted or hiding for not following the current monarch's sect of the religion. It detaches itself from reality but keeps the story firmly on familiar ground for anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of late 16th century England.
Reasons to Recommend:
- Fans of Philippa Gregory, Hilary Mantel and Alison Weir
- Alternative (at times speculative) historical fiction
- A protagonist who people can't help but trust even with her cursed status and silence
- A character with agency, chooses her own path throughout and by the end of the book
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