Perfume by Patrick Suskind

This book must be one of the creepiest, horrible books I have ever read since there are probably people out there like the main character. Despite the sickening sexually fetish this Grenouille has it is an incredible read. The whole time I was reading it I kept saying to myself "Oh my God" because it was disturbing, but of course I had to keep reading.

It is about this guy Grenouille who was born in 18th century Paris, while his mother was working in this factory. After he was born, his mother threw him in the trash like his older siblings to die, though while in the trash he decided to start crying leading him to be discovered. His mother was found and was hung. The odd thing about Grenouille was that he did not have any scent, no fresh baby smell, nothing, which really proved really creepy to the monk who was to take care of him. The monk couldn't handle the defective infant so he took him far away to this lady who was said to have died on the inside when she was a little girl, after being beaten by her father. She didn't feel any real emotion, her only care was that she did not want to be taken to die in a hospital. For her living she took in unwanted children as long as someone paid for their basic needs and putting them to work. It was she who discovered that Grenouille had an incredible sense of smell, he could tell if a storm was coming, or where things were even if they were hidden.

When Grenouille ran out of paid time, she sold him to a tanner to do some of the most deadly work with chemicals. While exploring the city after his work, he smells somthing that he cannot resist, he follows it; it leads to a young virgin girl whom he kills receiving some sort of sexual pleasure from the event. To his dismay, the beautiful smell disappears once the girl is dead, this leads to his killing of many more girls in the future. Grenouille later becomes disgusted with the smell of humanity, so he ends up living in a desolate cave for seven years. It is after this time Grenouille realizes himself that he has no scent of his own. He then goes to Montpelier where he works for a perfumer, learning how to capture scents. From here he tries to capture the scents of the beautiful women he kills, eventually succeeds. The townspeople finally discovers that Grenouille is the one committing the murders as seeks to finish the greatest of all perfumes. The final scene is him about to be hung when he opens his perfume, as it spreads over the crowd, everyone begins this massive orgy.

I did not see that coming.

-Michelle Herrera