Reviews

This is a creepy and weirdly romantic tale that, while written only about thirty years ago, feels old fashioned (in a good way). The classic style is due in large part to the omniscient narrator and the slow pacing, both of which I liked, even though the pacing meant that I wasn't in a rush to read it, and it took me two months to finish. But it's good, especially if you're looking for a horror story evocative of classic genre novels.

navgarcha's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

lacorvii's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

signe_l's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

elo_wheeze's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? No

4.0

sophie_111's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

mathman329's review against another edition

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3.0

2024 Book Review - Book No. 2: “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” written by Patrick Süskind

Date started: 1/1/24
Date finished: 1/10/24

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (would recommend reading if you like foreign works, 18th century France, and Scratch-n-Sniff stickers)

Spoiler free review: A colleague approached me over winter break about starting a book club with some other teachers at school (for any coworkers seeing this not currently in the club, let me know if you want to join!). “Perfume” was our inaugural book, and boy - what a way to kick things off. As if being Kurt Cobain’s favorite novel and heavy influence on Nirvana’s “In Utero” wasn’t indicative enough, this novel isn’t your typical feel good story of the year. My colleague said it was recommended to him as “weird”. It was unorthodox, sure, but I don’t know that “weird” is the appropriate term.

“Perfume” centers around a man who is born an orphan in 18th century France with an odd characteristic - he has no scent. Not as in the physical sense - oh no, that he certainly has - but rather the physical trait of having a smell about him. As such, he is constantly disregarded, overlooked, and even feared by some as being demon spawn.

What drives him as he grows is his sense of smell, which from the outset is so strong that he starts to accumulate a catalogue of scents akin to having a photographic memory, even though he has no knowledge of what things match each scent. He hates people, and yet he must learn from some of them to ultimately become the greatest perfume maker in the world. To become this and create his master work, though, will require the sacrifice of numerous lives along the way.

Without giving too much away, I’ll stop there. In the end, this was probably more 2.5 stars than 3, but Goodreads hasn’t embraced the .5 yet so I’ll round it up. There were a few plot holes that hurt the story, as did some of the writing. It’s somewhat amazing how descriptive the author could be and yet still have the novel feel poorly written at other times. A weird conundrum, indeed.

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