The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury | A Review

I picked this up in an Oxfam charity shop a few years ago, and for some reason it just took me forever to pick the damn book up! Eventually I did, of course, and it was a lot of fun. We follow 16 year old Twylla, who lives in the Royal castle. She has been taken in by the Queen as the bride to the prince because she is the embodiment of their Goddess and holds the power in her skin to kill anyone who touches her. Her life, whilst luxurious, is lonely as the entire court avoids her out of fear. That all changes, however, when a new guard is appointed with a playful smile and an apparent lack of fear for her deadliness.

I absolutely sped through this book, reading it all in one day, and I really enjoyed how the plot progressed. The title is explained as her mother is from the line of Sin Eaters and Twylla should have taken over this role when her mother passed. She never wanted it, never wanted the responsibility of it, so being taken by the Queen was a relief at first.

This is not an action book. Reading the synopsis of a girl who can kill with her touch you might think of a bad-ass who goes around killing people, instead we get a gentle girl who embroiders, prays to her gods, and wishes that she was “normal”. If you go into it expecting action you will likely be disappointed, but this is still an enjoyable book nonetheless.

Twylla is most definitely not a heroine. She’s more realistic than that. Most of us like to read about strong bad-ass characters and pretend to be them (me included), but Twylla is more like the realistic portrayal, especially for her age. She takes forever to realise that she is being manipulated, screws up again and again and takes solace as quickly as she can in whatever meagre comforts are thrown her way.

Why, you might ask, would I read this then? Well the plotline is facinating. I adored learning about the evil Queen and the way in which she runs her court and the various plans she concocts, as well as learning a little bit about the lore of this world. There is a forced love triangle in this book, but it does take an interesting turn one wouldn’t expect from a cookie-cutter YA fantasy and I love how it was left at the end of the book. I expect that that’ll be ruined by the rest of the series but it was something different to have at all and I enjoyed that.

Overall, this is quite the marmite of a book, and just like marmite I neither love it or hate it. It’s just fine. It’s a fun little read with court intrigue and a fluffy romance with some twists at the end, go in expecting that and I doubt you’ll be disappointed.