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elizajstocks's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ana_deskin's review against another edition
2.0
The writing style was captivating, but at the same time I couldn't really connect with the main character. Maybe that's the good thing lol.
so_darling's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
milly_in_the_library's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
futurama1979's review against another edition
2.0
⟶ 2.5/5 stars
An eighteenth century orphan has a superhuman sense of smell, and oddly lacks any sort of scent himself. Pretty harmless in theory, until it leads to his becoming a serial murderer of young girls. No one can deny it's a gripping premise, but oh my god do I have so many conflicting feelings about this book.
On the one hand, I was so utterly morbidly drawn in for 7/8ths of this story. It's a quick read, partly because it's not very long and partly because it's really hard to put it down. It's slow, but with each paragraph you're pulled deeper into this character's straight up weirdness - and, at times, perverted-ness. It's like watching one of those hour-long true crime videos(Eleanor Neale, anyone?) and thoroughly hating the killer in question but being unable to click away or close the tab. And it does appeal to me in that sense.
It's also a unique premise, and focusing on scent as the sense through which the story is told is something that's totally new to me and I've never seen in fiction before. I really liked the originality of it, or at least of that element of it.
Aaaaand then the last few chapters totally lost me. Six words as to why: orgies and cannibalism out of nowhere. And I'm not scorning it just for the concepts being present, out of prudish principle or something. They just genuinely came totally out of left field, and there wasn't enough realistic justification for them to read as believable. But who knows! Maybe 18th century France was just like that.
An eighteenth century orphan has a superhuman sense of smell, and oddly lacks any sort of scent himself. Pretty harmless in theory, until it leads to his becoming a serial murderer of young girls. No one can deny it's a gripping premise, but oh my god do I have so many conflicting feelings about this book.
On the one hand, I was so utterly morbidly drawn in for 7/8ths of this story. It's a quick read, partly because it's not very long and partly because it's really hard to put it down. It's slow, but with each paragraph you're pulled deeper into this character's straight up weirdness - and, at times, perverted-ness. It's like watching one of those hour-long true crime videos(Eleanor Neale, anyone?) and thoroughly hating the killer in question but being unable to click away or close the tab. And it does appeal to me in that sense.
It's also a unique premise, and focusing on scent as the sense through which the story is told is something that's totally new to me and I've never seen in fiction before. I really liked the originality of it, or at least of that element of it.
Aaaaand then the last few chapters totally lost me. Six words as to why: orgies and cannibalism out of nowhere. And I'm not scorning it just for the concepts being present, out of prudish principle or something. They just genuinely came totally out of left field, and there wasn't enough realistic justification for them to read as believable. But who knows! Maybe 18th century France was just like that.
amynsoukup's review against another edition
dark
slow-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
4.0