The Sin Eater's Daughter

Rating

2 stars, DNF

Date Read

20/1/16 - 8/2/16

Age Group

13+

General Thoughts

Before Reading
Pretty cover right? And with direct reference to the book, considering the protagonist is trapped herself, by the palace, by the poison, by the evil queen.

After Reading
So, I really feel like a bad/lazy person when I DNF a book because if I start it, and except if it's really bad, it deserves a couple of days of attention, right? On the other hand, if it can't hold your interest maybe you shouldn't try to finish it. I would go days without reading a single chapter because the idea of the Sin Eater's Daughter waiting on me in my kindle didn't really sound appealing.

On to the reasons I did not like it -except for the fact that it was boring because that's kind of subjective.

Leif (sadly not even his pretty face could save the book)

1) The main character

Her name is Twylla. You say ok, she sounds sweet. Well, you would think that, when her name sounds like that. Twylla is not sweet. She's not even a teenager. She doesn't think like one and she doesn't talk like one and she doesn't act like one, although she is presumably 17 years old.

Now you would say that is a good thing, you would take that to mean she is a mature, intelligent person, a nice respite from the sea of shallow, petty YA heroines. 

You'd be wrong again. Twylla, she is quite dull and shallow herself. Not just that, but she's spineless, uncaring and cruel too. Detached and calculating and boring, missing that passion for freedom most girls imprisoned in a castle usually feature (see Kestrel or even Red Queen).

Very easy to hate and very hard to relate to. 

2) The writing

Awkward mix between Middle Grade, Adult and YA. The writing is either MG or Adult, I can't decide, with all those lengthy descriptions of how the kingdom is nestled between the the mountains, and how the flowers bloom in the gardens, and all the history behind Lormere and the pointless hunting trips in the forest etc. It's for people who have the patience for flowery details, actually care for the scenery and can overlook the lack of plot. I'm not one of those people. Meanwhile Twylla's age and her shallow romantic relationships were probably a failed attempt to appeal to a teenagers.

The result? Confusing and unappealing to all of the above target audiences.

3) Weird/ Disturbing Ideas

a. So, Twylla's mom is fat because she is the Sin Eater. She actually eats people's sins. Like, there are foods that symbolize each sin and after she eats everything, the dead can find peace. I must be weird but I found eating freaking crows in someone's funeral to exonerate them a tad disturbing.

b. The Plot In A Nutshell
Uh, and the whole Daunen embodied thing? There were these two gods who symbolised Night and Day and they had a daughter, Daunen, and, for some reason, peasant-born Twylla is the current embodiment of that daughter, like many other girls were before her. She is sent by the Gods to punctuate the Queen and King's power. And execute traitors in her spare time, because said Gods protect her from a specific poison called Morningsbane, which she drinks once a month to prove she's immune to it, thus making her touch lethal to commoners, who are not immune to it. (The royal family, anointed by the Gods themselves, are in fact immune to the poison themselves so she does not pose a threat to their reign.) 

c. Also, there's a weird Egypt Royalty style thing going on, siblings marrying each other to preserve royal bloodlines.

4) Evil Queen Fail

My only criteria for picking up the book: I had an epiphany that I really enjoyed a good manipulative Evil Queen, intelligent, regal, elegant and lethal. This Evil Queen? She just used the same argumant time and again to guilt-trip Twylla into following her orders: "You are Daunen the Embodied, here to make the king and I look good, so the gods are gonna be mad if you don't serve us. Also, I'm sending money to your old family out of the good of my heart so that your sister -who you're not allowed to visit btw- can eat." 

5) The Romance

It all comes down to that, doesn't it? I could maybe get over the impossibly dull and insensitive Twylla and her weird mother and the flowery, pretentiously poetic writing might even have been pleasant, if the heroine had at least had the desency to

Fall. In. Love. With. The. Right. Person.

Meaning the sad, misunderstood yet smart and witty prince she's been betrothed to.

But, no, she had to improvise and go all insta-love/slash/forbidden romance on a childish, smiley, opinionated, muscled Tregellian guard with the sketchy background she meets well into the book that could as well be an enemy of her country - I'll never know, I didn't finish the book- after knowing him for, like, five seconds.

I'm rambling.

Point is: Not much of a page turner. Do yourself a favor and go read something else. Like the grocery list or something.

XOXO

Aggie Pearson