Reviews with content warning for Torture - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

I liked this book more than I thought I was going to. I am not usually a fan of historical fiction or classics but I found myself really enjoying this.
The main character was not likeable (which usually is a big turnoff for me) but that was exactly the point of the story and it helped with moving the story along and the complexity of emotions brought up throughout. There were a lot of background characters that I sometimes got confused between when they were mentioned by name, but they rarely overlapped so this was not too much of an issue. The pacing was also excellent, I at no point found myself in a slump or bored with the story. I also really liked the ending, I was worried that the end of the story would not be satisfactory after going through the entire novel with the main character, but I think it was great and left me very satisfied and with the story nicely wrapped up by the end.
It’s only not a 5 star rating for me because the story and characters didn’t captivate me and draw me in as intensely as I would want for a 5 star book. Overall, it is a great book that I enjoyed and would definitely recommend. I am however unlikely to reread it in the near future, not because I didn’t like it but because the story was perfect left where it was and I also don’t think a reread would reveal more story that I may have missed the first time through.

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asimpson7's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was so strange. I don’t really know what to think about it. It started off strange and I was confused as to where it was going and why but then it had a truly grim and odd ending. It was an interesting and entertaining read, however I was very confused by it all, and I am glad I do not have that sense of smell as it seemed a curse rather than a blessing.

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h3llraiser's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Upon reading the first few chapters of the book, I found myself sympathizing with the main character in a way I believe to be accidental in the authors intent, as I found myself feeling bad for how much the author clearly hated this character he had concocted from infancy. At its core this book is simply the predecessor to American Psycho set in pre-revolutionary France. However I found the lack of nuance of the main characters psychopathy and character development to be lacking in impact, that is to say if he were going to write a psychopath he should’ve gone full force and really elicited the audience’s hate. I had almost given up on this book, but the ending truly did redeem it for me as a pursuit of self-discovery through the infatuation with the imitation of love, and the success of that deception. Yes, the ending definitely saved my opinion of this book, but I still think the middle didn’t need to make it such a chore to get there. Probably, was a better read in the original German. Definitely do think the idea of not being a full person without scent is fascinating.

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applesodaperson's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

The best way to put it is that this book was straight up nasty. Like seriously it is not for the faint of heart, or people who don't like gross smells being described in detail. Because most of this book was just descriptions of smells. But also the writing was incredible, and it wasn't too hard to follow the story. I liked that there were sections from the pov of other people besides the main character, because as a psychopath, his inner monologue is pretty repetitive. But overall this book was just unhinged. It is like if there was a comic book supervillain whose power is having a supernatural sense of smell. He seriously is just a little freak from the moment he is born. And it was honestly really interesting that he himself did not have a smell. That is just something I have never heard or thought about before.

And holy cow the ending was absolutely off the wall. I am of course referencing the execution scene where he literally smells so good that everyone starts a giant orgy. I surprised me so much that I was literally laughing out loud on my walk home from school.

This is just an unhinged book but I genuinely had such a fun time reading it.
Listened to on Libby.

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bi2bi's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

3.0

es un libro rarísimo y lentísimo en algunos momentos, pero la idea es muy original e interesante y es un escritor muy bueno. me gustó porque es diferente pero a veces es un poco tostón.

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theremightbecupcakes's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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rain_blackbird's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

4.5

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