The Perfume (1992)

Book Info

Author

Caroline B. Cooney

Genre

Fiction

Series

point horror

Rating

3.51 of 5 Votes: 3

Your rating

ISBN

0590454021 (ISBN13: 9780590454025)

Language

English

Publisher

scholastic

Shops

Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble

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About book The Perfume (1992)

Where should I start on this?Well I'm going to poke at that cover for having a bottle that looks NOTHING like the one in the book.Now on to the real review:Dove Daniels (What a name) is the main character. She is a 15 yr old goody-goody with some odd phobias. She checks her bed for monsters, she thinks parking lots are the end of the world, and she's just overall pessimistic, which is rather odd for her "sweet and lovely" personality.Anyway, despite her obvious symbolic name, Dove seems to be curious about getting a change in her life. So to be "cool" so to speak, she buys this really foul smelling perfume called VENOM. A no brainer there. What comes out of this perfume is the supposed "vanished twin" of Dove, WING. Wow. WING. Obviously symbolic but it's a big "DUH" type of symbolism. Nothing deep there.Long story short (literally), the entire plot (AND I MEAN LITERALLY) is composed of Dove's internal struggle with Wing. Now this would have been a very interesting concept but it was poorly executed.Wing is a character who is honestly so twisted and all over the place that you can't #$%^ing tell what kind of person she really is.At first I sympathized, I thought she was just troubled and angry. But no. The author switches from a "troubled unwanted twin" to a "crazy and demented Egyptian spirit monster thing of some sort who just hates everything" to "really just a dark side of Dove" character.None of the characters have depth. They are all pretty black and white (minus Hesta who showed in the end she wasn't really EVIL but just a bitch.)If you want to read this book read it for laughs. The metaphors and similes used are sometimes hilariously corny.

Do You like book The Perfume (1992)?

Rating: 4 of 5 The Perfume was among the many Point Horror books I read in the early 90s, between the ages of 12 to 15. In those days, when I wasn't buried in a Stephen King novel, nine times out of ten I was reading L.J. Smith, R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike, Caroline B. Cooney, or Richie Tankersley Cusick. Their novels always thrilled and entertained, and yes, there was a healthy dose of jumps and creepies.Nowadays, I'd recommend the Point Horror books for younger 12- to 15-year-olds, who want to dip their pinkie toe in the horror pool. (These books will likely fall short for anyone who's already dabbled in adult dark fiction or film.) The horror elements are mild, for the most part, and some of the teenager-y behavior may seem a little outdated. But other than that, these are great fun!Note: My rating is based on what I remember from 20+ years ago and, of course, includes a fair share of sentimentality.
—Leah