Scent of Darkness: A Novel I'm really at a loss as to how to explain my feelings about Scent of Darkness now that I've finished. There are so many things that I completely loved about this book, and so many others that just won't sit right in my mind. If there was one thing I could say definitely at this moment in time, it's this: Scent of Darkness is more than what it seems to be. Let me try to break it down for you.
 
First off I have to praise Margot Berwin's writing. Without a doubt, this is what really kept me reading above all else. Her sweeping prose draws the reader into a world that is rich in color, texture, and of course scents. The blood of New Orleans bleeds through this book and, even though Evangeline's grandmother isn't in it for long, her character is the embodiment of her culture. Berwin weaves a dark and mysterious tale. It's hard not to be drawn in.
 
However, despite the elegant and prosaic writing, it was the story itself that kept me wavering between utter love and total despair while reading. Evangeline is not a very well fleshed out character, and really neither are any of the rest of the people who make stops in and out of her life. I understood her well enough. A girl who isn't wanted by her mother, and looses her only mother figure, Evangeline ends up on a path to self-discovery with no one to turn to for advice. I couldn't hate her for her naivety, but I also felt like she never grew at all either.
 
Then there are the two male interests. In an effort not to give anything important away, I'll simply let you know that these two men are like night and day. Gabriel seems to be the epitome of good, Michael that of evil, and we watch as Evangeline is torn between the two. I would have been fine with this, but neither of them truly spoke to me as compatible with her. It's like they were there to simply fill space. I wanted sparks, I wanted romance, I suppose I just wanted her to feel something.
 
So, as you can see, my feelings about Scent of Darkness ended up rather conflicted. I think that this was a great premise, with wonderful writing. The execution of it all is what threw me off. For those of you who enjoy literary fiction, this might be more of a hit. I can't deny that I don't usually read books like this, so it is entirely possible I'm biased. Point being, give this a shot and decide for yourself! If nothing else you'll be allowed to dive into the beauty that is Margot Berwin's writing, and that is a treat in itself. ( )

Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 4 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: Author/Blog Tour
Reviewer: AimeeKay

I’m torn. I loved the writing in Scent of Darkness; however I hated the main character.

Berwin’s writing was amazing. Her descriptions of the world, the people, their thoughts and emotions all were absolutely stunning. The way she put her words together was moving and kept me turning the page to read more.

However, I really disliked Eva. She was selfish and she just annoyed me. Maybe if the story hadn’t been told from her point of view and I didn’t have to listen to her thoughts I would have enjoyed the book more. She just seems to let things happen to her. She complains about the things that happen to her and she says she can’t stop them from happening. But she never seems to make a real effort to change anything; she just lets herself get dragged along.

I also didn’t seem to be able to connect with any of the other characters. They were all beautifully described, but the only one that seemed to be more than just a pretty shell was Michael. The problem with Michael is he was even more self absorbed than Eva. The only difference is he is supposed to be since he was the bad guy.

The writing was so beautiful though. I think if I had been able to connect with Eva I would have given the book the Royalty award along with 5 controllers. However all the beautiful writing couldn’t save that part, so I’m giving it 4 out of 5 controllers. I would recommend picking it up for the summer; maybe another reader can connect with Eva better than I could. ( )

Reviewed by: April
Book provided by: Publisher
Review originally posted at Romancing the Book

A very unique story, Scent of Darkness is told in an abstract sort of way that almost leaves the interpretation of the story and its characters to the reader, allowing different readers to take away different ideas. This is how I felt as I read and finished the story in any case. The writing style that Margot Berwin uses in Scent of Darkness flows rather beautifully, almost like a novel in prose. Both of these aspects are what truly stand out for me and made the story unique and unlike anything else that I have read before. Was this a positive or a negative? Honestly, a bit of both. Let me explain. Overall, I enjoyed the story very much and found it to be entertaining. It was also a very quick read for me, grabbing from the beginning and intriguing me until the end. I also enjoyed the prose-like style. An example of the abstract type of prose is as follows: “Human beings are defenseless against scent. They can’t hide from it because they can’t see it, or touch it, or hold it. All by itself it crawls into their brains, and by the time they’re in love with it, or the person it’s coming from, it’s too late. They’re tied to it forever, through the long, tight leash of memory.” This is taken from the first page and sets a fairly representative tone of the entire story, I feel.

Imagine a scent that is created just for you; a scent that takes over your body, your life and changes each and every aspect forever. Scent of Darkness is Eva’s story; the story of how a few drops of scent, created just for her, by her Grandmother, creeps through every pore, every vein, and every milliliter of her body. The effect not only changes her, but all of those around her – strangers, lovers, and friends, humans and animals are captivated and obsessed by Eva. Scent of Darkness is the story of how passion blinds and can create or destroy lives.

I truly loved the way that the author uses scent and the craft of creating scent to weave her story. I found this rather fascinating to be honest. The character development was interesting and I found myself really liking Gabriel, the friend turned lover of Eva. Michael, the passionate and rather greedy artist I found to be both on the likeable side as well as the distasteful side. Eva, I simply could not attach myself to. I actually found myself wanting to smack her a few times because, to me, she seemed incredibly self-centered. Keep in mind, this is completely my own personal opinion and thoughts and others may find themselves intrigued and like Eva. I do want to say that I loved the ending and commend the author on the excellence of it.

Overall, the story was very well crafted and enjoyable. I would recommend Scent of Darkness to anyone who enjoys paranormal/mystical types of stories and is looking for something unique. Would I read this author again? Yes, I would love to compare her writing style with this work with her other works. ( )

I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. The concept sounded very intriguing to me. The writing was very sensual and deliberately paced. While I enjoyed the beginning of the book, I found the wrap up of the story to be bewildering and unsatisfying.

Evangeline is eighteen when her grandmother passes away and leaves her her house. In that house Evangeline finds a gift from her grandmother, a scent that will make Evangeline incredibly desirably to all who smell her. Evangeline quickly finds that this scent is more of a curse than a gift.

This book was an interesting read. It was very sensual, beautifully written and deliberately paced. Evageline struggles with choosing between her current lover, Gabriel (who she is comfortable with and believes she may be in love with) and Michael, a painter who calls to Evangeline's dark side and doesn’t seem to notice her smell.

I had a bit of trouble relating to the main character in this story. Evangeline doesn’t ever really seem to have a purpose or something that drives her. The reason behind her decisions is never really explained or understood...she just kind of drifts from one situation to the next.

Neither male character is all that engaging either. Gabriel is obsessed with Evageline but in a oddly distance way; especially as he is further and further drawn into his medical studies. Michael is just plain strange, and I never really engaged with him as a character at all.

Despite the intimacy between the characters they all felt strangely distant to me. About two-thirds of the way through the book I found I just didn’t really care what happened to any of them.

There isn’t much of a plot per say...basically Evageline is trying to figure out if she will sucumb to Micheal’s darkness or not. There is quite a bit of sex in this book, it’s not incredibly explicit but it is definitely there...so just something to be aware of.

I did enjoy the beautiful writing style of the book. I also enjoyed the perfume lore sprinkled throughout. The perfume lore was very intriguing and interesting to read about.

The ending was ridiculous. It doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. It’s one of these kind of endings that will make you scratch your head and think “Huh, well that’s totally inconsistent with what we were told happened in the rest of this story.” I really didn’t like it and pretty much thought it ruined the whole book.

Overall an okay read. The writing is very beautiful, the perfume lore throughout is intriguing, and the concept is interesting. However, the characters were distant and hard to relate to and there really wasn’t much of a plot. I also thought the ending left a lot to be desired. This book wasn’t a horrible read, but I can’t honestly say I would recommend it. ( )

A few weeks ago, I read a short review in Entertainment Weekly for Margot Berwin’s Scent of Darkness. It sounded intriguing and when I found out my local library had a copy, I quickly requested a hold. I can’t describe how I feel about Scent of Darkness because I just don’t know what to say.

Berwin’s Scent of Darkness is a coming of age story. Eva grew up with a mother who resented her because she was the product of a one night stand. Being Catholic, her mother didn’t get an abortion and made it her mission to spend little time with Eva. Eva was raised her by grandmother, Louise who is a perfume maker and teaches her about how scents play a central role in our lives. When Louise dies she leaves her house to Eva with instructions never to enter a specific room. The room was Louise’s workshop and Eva honors that wish. One day she finds the boy, Gabriel, from the coffee shop in Louise’s house. He apologizes for breaking in and tells her he’s only there to study because his house is too crowded. Gabriel comes over often to study while Eva spends her time cleaning out Louise’s items. He encourages her to enter the forbidden room and there she discovers a vial of a scent Louise made for her. It comes with specific instructions, “Don’t remove the crystal stopper, Evangeline, unless you want everything in your life to change.” Eva does remove the stopper, places a drop of the vial on her skin, and changes her life. Gabriel suddenly is interested in her and even she realizes it was the vial and the scent she now has. Everywhere she goes people cannot help but stop to smell her and can’t get enough. Gabriel suggests she go with him to New Orleans, where he is attending medical school. While in New Orleans, Eva meets a man who will do anything to possess her and she has to make a choice: him or Gabriel.

A majority of the plot takes place in New Orleans and I can’t imagine it set anywhere else. New Orleans and her history with the occult come to life. In terms of character development, it’s a bit weak. I can’t for the life of me figure out the appeal of Gabriel other than his looks. Eva comes off a bit naive and spoiled, but I attribute that to her home life. I also think we need to have an inexperienced Eva to take us through this journey because it is with her, that we experience her life as it happens.

We’re given two key clues at the beginning of Scent of Darkness. One of them has to do with the tarot card reading done for Eva and the foreshadowing about a man who is for her and the one who isn’t. I found it interesting when Eva first sees Gabriel because she’s told he’s not the one destined for her and yet the two of them get together. The other clue didn’t make any sense to me at the time, but now that I’ve had a few days to digest it all, it does. I’m not going to say what it is because it’s pointed out and I felt like banging my head against the wall when it all came together.

Berwin’s writing is rich and the prose is just beautiful. I found myself rereading sentences because of the prose and the rich details. Eva and Gabriel making love their first night in New Orleans, “Later that night, in bed we made love again. Cats screamed from the courtyard below, the spooky, pornographic, wailing cry of felines in heat.”

Eva is bitten by a dog and goes back to the apartment to clean her wound: “Liquid seeped from the puncture holes and dripped into the sink. The drop hitting the porcelain sounded like a boulder in my ear, and with a ferocious intensity, as though it was happing right at the moment. I remembered the sound of Gabriel’s sweat striking the bottom of the white room in Louise’s house. The rest of the blood in my body jumped and shuddered at the sound. I could tell because I saw the veins in my wrist rippling as if they had tiny ocean waves inside of them.”

I really enjoyed Margot Berwin’s Scent of Darkness. I’m looking forward to reading her debut novel, Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire. If you’re looking into trying a different genre from what you normally read, I highly recommend Scent of Darkness. ( )