Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

42 reviews

zoya_nazyalensky's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

The writing style is nice, though there is very little dialogue and that usually bothers me.
CWs: the n word and g word are used in the text!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Abandonment, Death, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Mental illness, Stalking, Sexual content, Sexism, Racism, Cursing, Violence, Excrement, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Classism, Racial slurs, Cannibalism, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, and Gore

gabbynasty's review

challenging dark tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Child death, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Gore, Incest, Murder, and Sexual violence

crustywhitedog's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Incest, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Infidelity, Torture, and War

ladynocturnal's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

3.25

 This is a character study of a twisted man. The violence is mostly understated, there is not a lot of gore or blood in this book. The focus on scent and perfume gave some much needed originality. My only compliant is that the author makes some gross comments about the female victims in this novel. I do not need to know how the breasts of a dead teenager look. The middle section gets a little boring. The beautiful writing makes it worth a read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Pedophilia

Minor: Incest, Sexism, and Torture

stephanieanneauthor's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense 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 is wild! Sure, the story had it's dark moments, but it's also ridiculous (in a good way). I genuinely was not expecting some of the things that happened - especially in those final chapters. I also love the fact that it focuses so much on scent. It's an underused sense in literature, but so good as conjuring up emotions. Just do listen to the audiobook on public transit like I did - I was VERY aware of the scents on the bus that day.

But I think my favourite part is that it reads like a text from the 18th century. I've read a lot of Victorian literature for both school and for fun, so I'm very familiar with the writing style of the time. I had to double check that this book was actually written in the 1980s - you could've fooled me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Abandonment, Xenophobia, Torture, and Suicide

Minor: Incest and War

lesemaus2303's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Abandonment, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Animal death, Cannibalism, Rape, Classism, Death, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

zauet's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Death, Excrement, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Sexual content, Genocide, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Rape, Pregnancy, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Suicide, Self harm, and Religious bigotry

hellreyser's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

grossly beautiful. 

”And suddenly he knew that he had never found gratification in love, but always only in hatred—in hating and being hated.”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Death

Minor: Cannibalism and Torture

cannibalism only happens at the very end and its extremely symbolic - its not a very graphic depiction, just climactic

butteredtoastinbed's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexual content, Death of parent, Excrement, and Death

Minor: Torture, Stalking, and Cannibalism

asimpson7's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Violence, Mental illness, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Classism, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Murder, Torture, Suicide, and Pedophilia