Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - 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

viscountess_black's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

When I tell you I was enthralled from the beginning, I'm not exaggerating. This story captured me because of the author's writing but mostly, because of its main character, who is a psychopath (if you tell me otherwise, I'm not gonna believe it) with one clear goal: to become the greatest perfumer of the world. I'm just gonna tell you this tiny bit of a spoiler: He fucking does.

Content Warnings

pascalthehoff's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Sehr witzig, dass einer der größten deutschen modernen Klassiker sich anfühlt wie ein Buch aus dem 18. Jahrhundert – das sagt sehr viel über die deutsche Literaturszene. Dennoch verdient Das Parfüm natürlich seine Lorbeeren, denn so muss man erstmal schreiben können. Schließlich bietet der Roman nicht nur eine unkonventionelle stilistische Richtung, sondern auch beeindruckende Stilsicherheit.

Das Parfüm ist maximalistisch und maßlos in seiner Darstellung eines äußerst extravaganten Charakters. Dass der Protagonist keine tiefen Sympathien wecken soll, ist mehr als deutlich. Dennoch geht das Parfüm schon SEHR auf Nummer sicher, dass die Verkommenheit der Figur bei den Leser*innen ankommt.

Einige der Schandtaten sind sehr dick aufgetragen und driften in ihrem Überschreiten von Geschmacksgrenzen vom Zweckgemäßen ins Sensationalistische. Durch diese Überspitzung entstehen prägnante Momente, die sicherlich für immer im Kopf bleiben. Dennoch kann ich Das Parfüm nicht vollends respektieren, wenn die Werkzeuge, derer es sich für seinen Effekt bemüht, so große Löcher schlagen – wenn auch mit beeindruckender Präzision.

Content Warnings

withlivjones's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.75

I read this book years ago for school and it has stuck with me ever since, and after rereading it it is still one of the most interesting, skin-crawling (in a good way) books I have ever read. We follow the life of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who is born with a superhuman sense of smell but no scent of his own. Grenouille is such an interesting central character in that the narrator has absolutely no sympathy for him; while the reader might at least feel a little bad for the way he is treated as a child, the narrator constantly and from the very beginning handles him with distain, calling him an “abomination” and a parasitical pest. The book is a fascinating extended character study of a person with no sense of right or wrong and a lot of hatred for his fellow man.

The description throughout the novel is almost nauseatingly vivid, with each character we come across thoroughly examined not only in terms of their scent but also in terms of their character, with their flaws brought to the foreground. Every character and setting is primarily described olfactorily as this is the way Grenouille perceives the world, and by focusing on smell over the other more common senses, it is as if one were to look at the world through an entirely different lens. Süskind even laments about the difficulty of describing scents in words, which is comically meta.

In particular, I love the use of foreshadowing laced throughout the novel, and spotting the clues pointing towards certain characters’ demises make this book a great reread. Furthermore, the biblical imagery is also a fantastic addition to the vivid descriptions throughout, and this is especially clear during Grenouille’s dream sequence - one of the most entertaining parts of the novel for me.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book to everyone due to some of the topics it deals with being sensitive and/or pretty gross, and I find that much like Marmite people either love it or hate it. But if you’re looking for a book that will stay with you for years and you’re okay with the content warnings, I’d give it a go.

Content Warnings

ok7a's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

savvylit's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Perfume is a beautifully written and enthralling sensual rollercoaster. Süskind masterfully evokes an entire range of both perceptible and imperceptible scents. Many of the lengthy descriptions of 'bad' smells (i.e. people's body odor or the rotten stench of death) are so vivid that they are truly stomach-curdling. At the same time, some of the passages where Grenouille experiences delicate floral scents are so delightful that they made me want to roll around in a wildflower meadow.

Despite the evocative and sensual writing, the story itself was ultimately underwhelming. Being subtitled "The Story of a Murderer" seemed to imply some suspense. However, the plot was predictable more often than not. Grenouille's cave era was the only part of Perfume that truly surprised at every turn. Sadly, the cave era was a short-lived segment of the novel.

Overall, Perfume is a classic horror story that would fit happily on the shelves alongside titles such as Dracula or Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. However, this horror story ultimately was not to my taste. The incredible misogyny - which does fit the monstrous characterization of Grenouille - was something that I personally found incredibly grating. At this point in my life, I am tired of reading "classics" in any genre that are so deeply steeped in hatred for women.

Content Warnings

outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark slow-paced

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

1.0

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (French for frog) is born in eighteenth-century France, & immediately abandoned to die. His mother is arrested & executed, & Jean-Baptiste farmed out to various wet-nurses who all accuse him of being greedy & unnaturally without odor. Finally sent to an orphanage run by a woman with no sense of smell, Grenouille grows up to become a tanner's apprentice.

He seems hardworking & humble, with a keen sense of smell & a talent for survival, but he is scheming beneath the façade & eventually becomes apprentice to a parfumier. There his talent for recognising & combining scents put his master on the road to riches, but Grenouille is looking for the perfect scent. He finds it one day in the form of a young girl whom he murders, & this is just the start of his killings.

If there was one word to sum up this book it would be "creepy". Everything about it is just off. To me, there seemed something profoundly misogynistic about it. Some of the older women were referred to in less than complimentary terms whilst the young virgin girls were described in extremely sexualised terms (such as when a father laments that he is his daughter's father & not a stranger who could sleep with her as she is so beautiful?!!), & as smelling different to those who were no longer virginal. There was no such comparison for men.

Then there's the spontaneous orgy at an execution (I'm not even kidding), & the ending is just ridiculous. It's a book ticked off the 'To Read' list but I can't recommend it & I definitely wouldn't re-read it.

TW: cannibalism, murder, animal cruelty/death, misogyny, paedophila, stalking.

Content Warnings

sofipitch's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

More...