mass market paperback, 416 pages
Published April 27, 2021 by St. Martin's Paperbacks.
Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the inconceivable happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world – a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that takes her from her isolated island all the way to the complicated world of scent branding, challenging the limits of her heart and imagination.
Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the inconceivable happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world – a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that takes her from her isolated island all the way to the complicated world of scent branding, challenging the limits of her heart and imagination.
A fairy tale or a myth with deep, evocative scenes through scent. If 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' is too intense, the dark base note in this tale is balanced by hopeful and bright top notes.
A fairy tale or a myth with deep, evocative scenes through scent. If 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' is too intense, the dark base note in this tale is balanced by hopeful and bright top notes.
This book had many things going for it: the emphasis on scents in relation to memories, interesting characters, and a search for truth that isn’t cloying. However, the relationship between Emmeline and Fisher is meant to pull at the heart strings, but the author never took the time needed to flesh out their connection for it to seem natural. You can’t will such feelings into being without giving your readers something tangible to cling on to; simply spending time together isn’t sufficient. Overall, the book was entertaining, and I found myself looking forward to each new chapter, but the characters were never more than two dimensional. If I had been given a reason to believe in and care for the characters, my response would have been much less middling.
