by Melinda Salisbury
♦publisher: Scholastic Press
♦release date: February 24th, 2015
♦paperback, 320 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Sin Eater's Daughter, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review
I am the perfect weapon.
I kill with a single touch.
Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince, and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has it's price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla's fatal touch.
Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla's chilling role to the girls she truly is.
Yet in a court as dangerous and the queen's, some truths should not be told...
I kill with a single touch.
Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince, and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has it's price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla's fatal touch.
Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla's chilling role to the girls she truly is.
Yet in a court as dangerous and the queen's, some truths should not be told...
Review: For the most part, I really enjoyed this one. I loved the unique bizarre customs of the land it takes place in, loved the stoic voice that Twylla tells her story in when we first meet her. She's a girl who's life is very much out of her control. She made a choice to become the embodiment of the God's when she was too young to really know what it meant, and as a means to escape the destiny that she was born into---as the daughter of a Sin Eater. Her mother is a massive woman who ritually eat's a meal off the coffin of the dead, a meal meant to symbolize their sins. It's not hard to see why a young girl would do anything to escape this morbid fate.
But Twylla hates her new lot in life even more---as an executioner to those who commit treason. She's been mysteriously imbued with the powers of the Gods and no one can touch her or they'll be struck down by the poison in her skin. So she is completely alone. But in her voice you can feel that she is almost accepting of it, like she's just gone numb. Then she meets Leif--a new guard who finally treats her like a person, not a weapon, not a God, but a girl. I loved watching the two of them grow closer and I loved the realization that she comes to because of him.
BUT...
Once it got to the part where they were in love, sadly this was where the story kind of lost me. At first it was sweet, and then it just seemed they both lost their minds and any common sense. (Whited out for spoilers)>>Why on earth would they act so carelessly in a room that both the queen and the Prince could walk into at any moment?? I understood they were falling in love, but that was just asking to be caught in the act. <<(end spoilers).
And THEN...what a love-story twist at the end! It's quite a heart-wrenching shocker, whether you like their relationship or not. Also, there's an odd twist to the plot as a whole, and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not; it brought in a danger that seemed like it didn't have much to do with the whole rest of the story, had only been slightly mentioned in passing and suddenly it was the whole threat. It just felt a bit disjointed.
I actually loved the very end though, loved where Twylla ended up---might be one of my favorite results of a love triangle ever! I know this is a series with more to come, but actually I'd have been quite satisfied even if was a stand alone! I may still read the rest of the series, but really, it was a great ending on it's own! Despite a few issues, I really enjoyed this dark fantasy quite a bit.
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