Reviewed by Nessa Luna on
The Sin Eater's Daughter tells the story of Twylla, who has been blessed by the gods. Unfortunately, that also brings a downside, as she can never be touched by anyone, save for the queen, the king, and the prince. She is also the official executioner of the court, something she hates terribly. Then, a new guard is assigned to her, and he's the only one who doesn't look at her as if she's a murderer, the only one who sees her as Twylla, not as Daunen embodied.
The first thing I noticed, was that the narrator had a nice, Irish accent. It wasn't too obvious at first, but later on I started hearing the words pronounced in the typical Irish way (words such as 'thought' and others that started or ended with 'th', Irish people pronounce it differently, which is something I personally like). I looked up the narrator, Amy Shiels, who is going to play a role in the upcoming TV series Twin Peaks.
The story itself was really interesting, and I enjoyed listening to it very much. I have to admit that when I first read it it reminded me of Shatter Me a bit, but other than the fact that both Juliette and Twylla can't touch anyone, there weren't really any similarities between these two. What I would have loved, though, was a map of the world. I wasn't really able to imagine the world that well, because there was no map in this book (I do have the physical copy, like I said, so sometimes I could read along with the story).
I loved the story behind Daunen emobodied, about Daeg and Naet (I had trouble picturing these names, so that's where the physical book came in handy) and how Naet (who I guess was the goddess of the night and death and everything dark) seduces her husband Daeg (day, life, light and such). It reminded me of Gaia and Ouranos from the Greek mythology. Personally I would have loved to read more about these gods rather than the actual story, but that's the mythology nerd in me. The only thing I am still rather confused about is the whole Sin Eating ritual. Why is there only one Sin Eater? Who - if not the Gods, because I believe it was established in this book that the while Daunen embodied thing was faked, why not the Sin Eating part? - who thought of this whole Sin Eating? And why? Idk I'm still a bit confused about this whole thing
Romantic wise, I wasn't really 100% behind it to be honest. I found it rather predictable and of course there was a slight hint towards a possible love triangle and that just made me a bit 'meh' over the whole thing. I mean I knew Leif was going to be the love interest rather quickly, maybe not right when he arrived, but later on in the story. I also wasn't a fan of how they said 'I love you' that quickly and how they slept with each other after a couple of months already. But hey that's just me.
The story ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, and I was prepared to pick up the second book almost immediately, but when I read the summary for that one, I realised that it was going to feature a completely different main character? Book two, The Sleeping Prince, will be, from what I understand, from the point of view of Leif's sister, Errin. Now I hope that the characters from book one will make (big) appearances as well (and I don't hope it'll be a multiple POV story *finger crossed*) otherwise I don't really know how to feel about this book.
Anyway, I enjoyed The Sin Eater's Daughter very much, I will pick up the second book and hope the characters I know so well now will make an appearance. I might only pick up the book for its beautiful cover, because did you look at it? It's beautiful right?! If you love fantasy books with a pinch of mythology and fairytale thrown in, you should definitely pick up this book!
My opinion on this book in one gif:
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 15 May, 2016: Finished reading
- 15 May, 2016: Reviewed