Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

8 reviews

zalouis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

cassie7e's review against another edition

reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

2.5 stars - waffled between liking and not liking it, and probably wouldn't recommend in general except to friends who are arc-focused.

A lot of this book is telling instead of showing. That can work for stories about plot or history but this book aims to be about experiences and feelings. For a book centered on scents, I didn't get clear sense of any of them. It talks about so many and with vague language. I'd been hoping for concrete, visceral, emotional scent descriptions, but the narratives just throws scent after scent at the reader and tells us it feels important. And the character's super ability to not only smell well but glean information about people's thoughts and feelings or actions through it felt unbelieveable much of the time. I wish it had been explained as an intuition paired with a strong nose instead of actually reading people through their smell.

Stemming from this same issue with telling, the prose overrelies on ominous-reflection in place of actual foreshadowing. I actually did enjoy the arc of the story, which is the main reason I kept reading, and just balances out the issues I have with the style to be an "okay" book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Abandonment

larissakoch's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

mdavis26's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

bek67's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad slow-paced

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

1.5

A friend recommended this book to me. About 40 pages in, I asked her if I was reading the correct book because this book was just weird. She told me to keep reading. So, I did. I know that your olfactory sense is the sense that can spark strong emotions and memories! I mean personally if I even get a whiff of any bourbon or whiskey, I'm immediately returned to a night in my early 20s when I over indulged and the feeling of nausea returns strongly. And I know that businesses use scents. Want to sell your house? Bake cookies before the open house! We are inundated with essential oils and scents where ever we go. But this book was a tad hokey to me. I did stick with it and soon it became a story of secrets, relationships and survival. It was turning out ok. Then we get to the last part of the book.

Emmeline takes off to the big city to find Fisher. And she finds her mom. Odd that a girl who is understandably socially awkward and not equipped to easily make connections with others just fits right in with her mom and gets a job at her mom's company. Then she finds out her mother did some really shady things and her father isn't the bad person her mother has portrayed him to be. But then Emmeline is leaving and never says anything to her mom about this, she just leaves. The End.

Did the author get tired of the story and just decided to end it? Felt like a quick, not well conceived ending. All in all the book was weird (and not weird in a good way) and I just did not resonate with me. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

sj_54's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

jennikreads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Cancer

jess_cale's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, and Death of parent