Perfume (edition 1997)

I must admit, it was the cover that attracted me to this book (the snake perfume bottle one) all those years ago.

At the time, Point Horror was a rather disturbing fad at my primary school (tied strangely, with the Animal Ark books by Lucy Daniels). So at break time, every single one of us dutifully had a Point perched on his or her lap, eager to dive into the gruesome tales these books could offer.

The Point books were very different from the later popular GOOSEBUMPS books that took the stage later on—for one thing—the horror in Point books was far more psychological (and in my opinion, far scarier) than their pus filled descendants.

The tagline: The sweet smell of … EVIL.

The story centres on a girl called Dove, who is a gentle and kind girl. She has two friends called Connie (the popular confident friend) and Luce (the nice one), who spot an advertisement for a new Perfume in the local paper called Venom, sold only at Dry Ice in the local mall.

Dry Ice is a store that carries “the trendiest clothes, the funkiest costume jewelry, the craziest colors, and the sickest T-shirt slogans.” Dove is scared of a lot of things, from imagined monsters under her bed to black clothes or identical objects, so unsurprisingly she thinks Dry Ice is a creepy place.

However, once there, Dove becomes intoxicated by The Perfume and instantly buys some VENOM. Once home, she opens the bottle and breathes in the stench....then the next morning--her whole life is stolen away...

THE PERFUME, is smart and sweet. The concept may not FEEL orignal, but the writing certainly is. Cooney’s books may be short, but the writing is filled with promise. There is a simpleness in the astute observations Dove makes and a brillance to them as well--considering this is only teenage fiction, the subtleness in the writing hints at something dark and disturbing waiting around the corner. ( )