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A review by thereadingpotato
The Perfume Thief by Timothy Schaffert
2.0
After a life of thievery to produce one-of-a-kind perfumes for the wealthy, seventy-two-year-old Clementine is forced to work with a Nazi bureaucrat to uncover the potentially poisonous secrets of a legendary perfumery, one of Hitler’s interests for use in WWII. All the while, she tells her life story, revealing her most intimate secrets in hopes of protecting her endangered friends.
This book is very atmospheric, and the connections between scents and memories is particularly emphasized. I liked the notion that one distinct smell can bring back a certain person, place, or moment in time, and I also enjoyed the LGBTQ+ representation.
However, I found this book to be incredibly slow and overly drawn out on multiple occasions. It’s quite repetitive about smells and scents, and there is a significant lack of action. There are several tangents into Clementine’s ambiguous past and constant musings about her thoughts, Parisian life, and old memories.
This book would be ideal if you enjoy slow-burn novels, especially if you have an interest in perfume or scents, or would like to see a unique perspective from underground Paris in WWII.
Thank you to Doubleday for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.
This book is very atmospheric, and the connections between scents and memories is particularly emphasized. I liked the notion that one distinct smell can bring back a certain person, place, or moment in time, and I also enjoyed the LGBTQ+ representation.
However, I found this book to be incredibly slow and overly drawn out on multiple occasions. It’s quite repetitive about smells and scents, and there is a significant lack of action. There are several tangents into Clementine’s ambiguous past and constant musings about her thoughts, Parisian life, and old memories.
This book would be ideal if you enjoy slow-burn novels, especially if you have an interest in perfume or scents, or would like to see a unique perspective from underground Paris in WWII.
Thank you to Doubleday for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.