A review by daniellelardi
Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

this book took me so long to finish bc i entered a bit of a reading slump and simply could not finish any book i started HOWEVER when i first started it i got 50 pages in fell into a slump, but never returned it to the library. i have since emerged from my slump and i picked it up yesterday, read it from page one and could not put it down for 24 hours. 

i loved this book at made me laugh out loud multiple times over. astrid was so fucking real with her addictive personality and i lowkey get her perspective on woke and cancel culture. does that make me as problematic as her? probably but i literally don’t care. 

at one part astrid tells agent allison (also loved that she calls her agent allison the entire book, very funny) that she’s trying her best and then astrid’s internal monologue goes “but im not sure that that’s true.” that part made me not only laugh but realize how often people probably use that lie when they fuck up, and then it made me think about how many times i’ve used it when i’ve fucked up. 

anyway i thought this book was v silly, wanted to hate astrid but truly loved and honestly understood her. ivy was annoying af and i was so over her from the jump but that was obvi the point of her character. solid read, enjoyed it v much. will say the ending did feel a bit rushed in terms of

astrid finally getting off of the patricia highsmith like was her fall out with penelope the only reason she got sober? and then it was like a full year later when they saw each other again?