Genre: Historical fantasy fiction, Magical Realism
Key Stage: KS5+ contains mature often unsettling content including murder, suicidal ideation and scenes of a graphic nature.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind (1985)
Reviewer: Samira, Year 12
Brief Synopsis: The story is about an orphan named Grenouille who has a distinctive sense of smell and its relationship with the emotional meanings which scents may have. As he tries to find specific and unique scents, his obsession takes over and he begins to become power hungry.
One thing which I became really fond of whilst reading is how the author beautifully described the variety of scents throughout the book as a whole, whilst taking the reader on a journey through 18th century France. This shows the extent to which people go through to try to achieve the things they want in life. As well as highlighting the importance of resilience, almost setting a moral for the individual readers, allowing them to develop a range of questions and at the same time, increasing their curiosity. I enjoyed how the books leaves you wondering if the main character ‘Grenouille’ is suffering with some sort of mental illness which leads him to have a lack of self-control and an uneasy sense of obsessive compulsions. Moreover, the overall meaning of the book was something which is very much relatable within society: the exploration of how people obtain power, and how, in the end, it can either be kept close to you or be taken away. One thing which could have been better about this particular book is if it had not been written to be a slow burn.