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A review by boocwurm
Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
Thanks to the publisher for a digital ARC and finished copy for review!
Astrid Dahl is trying to "get healthy" and revive her lightly canceled writing career, but pesky toxic lesbians keep proving to be oh-so-sexy distractions. In her new bungalow in the hills of LA, Astrid gets sucked back into the world of lesbian pulp fiction (IRL), aided by her favorite vice—a lethal combo of amphetamines, alcohol and cigarettes called the Patricia Highsmith—and the bad behavior she tried so hard to kick only gets worse.
Perfume and Pain is propulsive, funny and highly engaging. The pages practically turned themselves as I watched Astrid fall to rock bottom, then slowly piece herself back together again. Astrid's voice leaps off the page from the very start, and her character is amazingly well-developed. She's problematic, witty, hilarious and chock-full of bad decisions, but I couldn't help but root for her the entire time. There are several laugh-out-loud funny moments, many more where I wanted to shake some sense into her, and others where I solemnly related to her bleak outlook.
Side characters like Astrid's friends, Otto and Zev, and the objects of her lusty affection, Ivy and Penelope, were less fleshed out. The latter made more sense than the former, and I wish we had a bit more of those friendships that Astrid's behavior threatened throughout the book.
The novel is also an ode to '50s and '60s lesbian pulp, a genre many lack familiarity with. There are tons of references to this body of work, and those unfamiliar like myself might miss some of them, on top of the parallels Dorn draws between her characters and the characters of works like "The Price of Salt" toward the end. There might have been bigger messages there as the novel wrapped up, but if there were, they went over my head.
Similarly, there are tons of modern-day pop culture references throughout. It might be a me thing, but I don't love this in novels—I find it dates fiction very quickly, making it a good book for today, but not for tomorrow.
Overall, though, this book was a fun, queer, messy-as-hell romp that fans of problematic lesbians will positively eat up.
Astrid Dahl is trying to "get healthy" and revive her lightly canceled writing career, but pesky toxic lesbians keep proving to be oh-so-sexy distractions. In her new bungalow in the hills of LA, Astrid gets sucked back into the world of lesbian pulp fiction (IRL), aided by her favorite vice—a lethal combo of amphetamines, alcohol and cigarettes called the Patricia Highsmith—and the bad behavior she tried so hard to kick only gets worse.
Perfume and Pain is propulsive, funny and highly engaging. The pages practically turned themselves as I watched Astrid fall to rock bottom, then slowly piece herself back together again. Astrid's voice leaps off the page from the very start, and her character is amazingly well-developed. She's problematic, witty, hilarious and chock-full of bad decisions, but I couldn't help but root for her the entire time. There are several laugh-out-loud funny moments, many more where I wanted to shake some sense into her, and others where I solemnly related to her bleak outlook.
Side characters like Astrid's friends, Otto and Zev, and the objects of her lusty affection, Ivy and Penelope, were less fleshed out. The latter made more sense than the former, and I wish we had a bit more of those friendships that Astrid's behavior threatened throughout the book.
The novel is also an ode to '50s and '60s lesbian pulp, a genre many lack familiarity with. There are tons of references to this body of work, and those unfamiliar like myself might miss some of them, on top of the parallels Dorn draws between her characters and the characters of works like "The Price of Salt" toward the end. There might have been bigger messages there as the novel wrapped up, but if there were, they went over my head.
Similarly, there are tons of modern-day pop culture references throughout. It might be a me thing, but I don't love this in novels—I find it dates fiction very quickly, making it a good book for today, but not for tomorrow.
Overall, though, this book was a fun, queer, messy-as-hell romp that fans of problematic lesbians will positively eat up.