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

If I didn’t have to read this for school I would have dropped it a few chapters in. The main character was so despicable that it hurt every time he got away with something.

It was also extremely infuriating that all the victims were CHILDREN and they were still very sexualised

However, the way that scent was described was very intriguing. In my opinion it was overdone in the middle section, but especially in the beginning it was interesting. All in all I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone but it definitely wasn’t the worst book I was forced to read for school.

Content Warnings

mollylikethedrug_'s review against another edition

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dark tense medium-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

3.0

Content Warnings

maddyisnotilliterate's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny informative mysterious reflective 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

4.5

Holy shit this was the weirdest book I have ever read but by god was it good

Content Warnings

sofipitch's review

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dark 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? It's complicated

2.5

I liked how sensual the book was, and I'm a fan of the magical realism genre so I do like that story telling style. But there was also a lot I didn't like about the book. I almost put it down after first picking it up because I felt like the way Grenouille was written was ableist. He isn't explicitly disabled but some of the things intended to make him scary just feel like describing an autistic person. But I gave this book the benefit of the doubt but then encountered casual racism, in the use of the word "n-word-ly" used in the narrative, there's another racist section about the Romanian and jewish ppl, which might have been on purpose by the author to show how stupid the thinking in 1700s France was, but it's hard to tell and at this point the author is getting a LOT of benefit of the doubt. There's also the fact that no female character even talks, they mostly just serve to get murdered and aren't described unless to fetishize their beauty, which just rubbed me the wrong way. The pace of the book also made no sense, the climax and falling action just felt really anti-climactic and poorly thought out. A lot of the action and what's described in this book seems just for shock value rather than having any literary merit. I like the writing style and the setting but I think if that were taken away it's just meh.

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