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    Scent of Darkness: A Novel
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    Scent of Darkness: A Novel
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    Scent of Darkness: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Scent of Darkness: A Novel

    Written by Margot Berwin

    Narrated by Margot Berwin

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In her best-selling debut, Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire, Margot Berwin brought us to the rain forests of Mexico-to a land of shamans, spirit animals, and snake charmers-in the search for nine rare and valuable plants. Now, with her hotly anticipated second novel, Berwin takes us somewhere darker: deep into the bayous of Louisiana, to a world of fortune-tellers, soothsayers, and potent elixirs. Scent of Darkness is a magical, seductive story about the power of scent, and about what happens when a perfume renders a young woman irresistible.

    Evangeline grows up understanding the extraordinary effects of fragrance. Her grandmother Louise is a gifted aromata, a master of scent-making and perfume. When Eva was a girl, Louise carefully explained that lavender under her pillow would make her dream of the man she would marry; eucalyptus would make her taller; almandine, fatter; and jasmine, Louise promised, would wrap her life in a mystery. When Eva is eighteen, Louise leaves her the ultimate gift-a scent created just for her. The small perfume vial is accompanied by a note in Louise's slanted script: "Do not remove the stopper, Evangeline, unless you want everything in your life to change."

    From the moment Eva places a drop-the essence of fire, leather, rose, and jasmine-on her neck, men dance closer to her, women bury their noses deep into her hair, even the cats outside her bedroom cry to be near her. After a lifetime spent blending into the background, Eva is suddenly the object of intense desire to everyone around her. Strangers follow her down the street; a young boy appears at her door asking for a favor; and two men, one kind and good, the other dark and seductive, fall deeply, madly in love with her. As her greatest gift becomes an unbearable curse, Eva must uncover the secret of her scent and the message her grandmother, the woman who loved her most, wanted to tell her.

    A bewitching tale of love, blood, power, and magic, Scent of Darkness is a wildly inventive novel that will seduce the reader's every sense.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 29, 2013
    ISBN9780385363426
    Unavailable
    Scent of Darkness: A Novel

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    Reviews for Scent of Darkness

    3/5

    33 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Evangeline spends every summer with her grandmother, Louise, because her single mother doesn’t want her around. Louise lives in a stone house in a tiny town, hanging out with her Tarot reading friend and making scents. While Louise loves Evangeline and teaches her many things, she never lets her into her workroom. That area is closed to her until Louise dies and leaves her house to 18 year old Evangeline. Evangeline, arriving at the house the day after she graduates from school, finds a young man sitting at the kitchen table- it’s the only quiet place he has found to study for med school. Gabriel is a beautiful young man, and Evangeline is drawn to him and allows him to continue coming to the house to study. But there is a problem: Gabriel has a girlfriend. Louise has left Evangeline another item: a tiny vial of ruby glass with a small bit of scent, with a note: “Don’t remove the crystal stopper, Evangeline, unless you want everything in your life to change” Evangeline feels her life sucks, so how can she resist? Of course she opens it and applies the scent, which penetrates her skin and becomes one with her. The scent starts coming off her in waves, even several showers and days later. The scent makes her irresistible. Gabriel leaves his girlfriend for her, strangers are drawn to her, women put their noses in her hair, cats and dogs want to get close. Suddenly, Evangeline is the special girl that she has never been. But being universally attractive has its problems- bad is attracted along with good. Evangeline must decide between bad and good, while trying to decide if she is loved for herself, or just for her magical scent. What is real and what isn’t? This is a coming of age story in magical realistic style. Evangeline has come to the point in her life where she must find her own identity. The author paints her as an empty vessel into which the scent is poured; Evangeline has no friends, no interests, no ambitions. Will she allow the scent to continue to be all she is, or will she chose to fill herself with something more? The story itself is interesting; the scent is a unique idea. But Evangeline herself never came to life for me; her lack of interests and drive made her flat. Gabriel isn’t very deep either; he exists to study for med school and to love Evangeline. The villain is well done; he is warped and made my skin crawl. I give this one 4 stars.
    • 3/5
      I chose to read this because it sounded different; it would be a change for me from my usual type of book. I don't pick many literary novels as you well know because I'm not an allegorical thinker and I often find they go over my head. Sometimes I am rewarded with a book I adore, sadly this time I found myself drowning in confusion. It is not, I don't think, completely the fault of the author as the writing is in some parts very evocative of time, place and feeling. I think the problem was my inability to go beyond the literal and appreciate her magical and fantastic elements. So here we go, I'll try but this was not one of my favorites.Evangeline is a woman born to a mother who really didn't care whether she existed or not. Her grandmother Louise gave her the only love she ever had. She would go and spend summers in her grandmother's house in New York where she heard stories of Louise's past in Louisiana and the powers of scent. Louise was an aromata - a maker of scents and she believed that it was the most powerful of the senses. Louise dies and leaves Evangeline (Eva) her house and all of its secrets.When Eva goes to the house for the first time after her grandmother's death she finds a young man there - Gabriel. She knows him from town but why is he there? He says it's the only quiet place in town he can study. He's in med school and he didn't think Louise would mind. Eva thinks this is a sign the Louise has "left" him to her. In their explorations of the house they find Louise's work room and a box she left for Evangeline with a note telling her to only open it if she wants her life to change completely. Guess what?The box contains a vial with a liquid that when applied gives Eva a scent that draws people to her. Especially Gabriel. They soon become a couple, move to New Orleans so Gabriel can go back to Tulane and Eva is now bored every day while he is in school. So she goes off and starts sitting for their landlord, a mediocre portrait artist who has nefarious plans in mind.Bad things happen. Weird things happen. There is a fortune telling 14 year old boy in the mix.Over.My.Head.I also felt that it didn't live up to the synopsis in that the power of this scent of Evangeline's was truly never fully explored or to me anyway, explained. There is an explanation but it too went over my head. I am not saying don't read it because there are some good reviews for it, I am just saying it was not for me.
    • 3/5
      Eva is an unusual teenager, she lacks a connect with her mother, and seemingly any classmates, friends, neighbors, etc. But she holds a strong bond with her eccentric, aromata grandmother from New Orleans, who now lives in upstate New York. Eva finds a refuge in her grandmother and her grandmother’s home in the small NY enclave, the home she inherits when her grandmother dies during Eva’s senior year in high school. With no real direction or plans, Eva leaves for her new home the last day of school to find herself. What she finds is a mysterious man in her grandmother’s home, who becomes Eva’s fixation. But once Eva and Gabriel find the special perfume that Eva’s grandmother made for her that offered to change her life, Eva becomes not only Gabriel’s fixation – but the fixation of anyone who comes into contact with her hypnotizing scent.This is just the beginning of Eva’s tale in Margot Berwin’s latest novel Scent of Darkness. When Eva moves with Gabriel down to New Orleans she finds herself in a classic pull between good and evil – as many stories that lead to New Orleans have a way of going. I can’t say that even when I suspended any disbelief and let the story just take me along, I fully enjoyed the ride. In some parts the story dragged, while others I wish I knew more. And then there was Eva, a main character that I just couldn’t get myself to like or dislike – she seemed just one note, and left me wanting to shake her so many times. But Berwin’s writing, especially when the characters got to New Orleans was so rich and lush, I felt the heat and humidity, I was enveloped in the aura that is New Orleans. Which could almost get me to care about Eva, almost.*I received this book from the publisher for review.This review is also on my blog: Bailey's and Books
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      Reviewed by: April Book provided by: PublisherReview originally posted at Romancing the BookA 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.
    • 4/5
      Evangeline spends every summer with her grandmother, Louise, because her single mother doesn’t want her around. Louise lives in a stone house in a tiny town, hanging out with her Tarot reading friend and making scents. While Louise loves Evangeline and teaches her many things, she never lets her into her workroom. That area is closed to her until Louise dies and leaves her house to 18 year old Evangeline. Evangeline, arriving at the house the day after she graduates from school, finds a young man sitting at the kitchen table- it’s the only quiet place he has found to study for med school. Gabriel is a beautiful young man, and Evangeline is drawn to him and allows him to continue coming to the house to study. But there is a problem: Gabriel has a girlfriend. Louise has left Evangeline another item: a tiny vial of ruby glass with a small bit of scent, with a note: “Don’t remove the crystal stopper, Evangeline, unless you want everything in your life to change” Evangeline feels her life sucks, so how can she resist? Of course she opens it and applies the scent, which penetrates her skin and becomes one with her. The scent starts coming off her in waves, even several showers and days later. The scent makes her irresistible. Gabriel leaves his girlfriend for her, strangers are drawn to her, women put their noses in her hair, cats and dogs want to get close. Suddenly, Evangeline is the special girl that she has never been. But being universally attractive has its problems- bad is attracted along with good. Evangeline must decide between bad and good, while trying to decide if she is loved for herself, or just for her magical scent. What is real and what isn’t? This is a coming of age story in magical realistic style. Evangeline has come to the point in her life where she must find her own identity. The author paints her as an empty vessel into which the scent is poured; Evangeline has no friends, no interests, no ambitions. Will she allow the scent to continue to be all she is, or will she chose to fill herself with something more? The story itself is interesting; the scent is a unique idea. But Evangeline herself never came to life for me; her lack of interests and drive made her flat. Gabriel isn’t very deep either; he exists to study for med school and to love Evangeline. The villain is well done; he is warped and made my skin crawl. I give this one 4 stars.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      I wasn’t sure what to think about this book when it arrived on my doorstep some weeks back. I was worried that it was one of those books, like Chocolat, that goes so heavy on the senses, that bombards you with tastes or sounds or smells, that you almost feel the need to rinse your mouth or sit in a quiet chapel or spray some air freshener around.It was a sensory experience, reading this book. Happily, it wasn’t overload. On her eighteenth birthday, Eva’s grandmother places a drop of an amazing scent created just for her on Eva’s neck, and suddenly everyone is compulsively drawn to Eva. It’s a mixed blessing, as most blessing are, and Eva, though at first thrilled with this new power, gradually comes to want others to be drawn to her in spite of, rather than because of, her scent.
    • 2/5
      I have to admit that I was intrigued by the plot. It sounded amazing, like a journey I wanted to be on. However, after a quarter of the book I realized I might have picked a different journey. The way it is written left me feeling as if I was missing pieces to the puzzle. The language and set up of the book was choppy and harsh, leaving me feeling slightly confused and filling in the blanks myself. Although the premise behind the book was a wonderful idea I didn't think the characters actually lived up to it. I never really got a complete grasp on them, they could have been so much more, but they fell a little flat. There was no climax for me and it stayed on the basic level the entire way through.
    • 3/5
      I chose to read this because it sounded different; it would be a change for me from my usual type of book. I don't pick many literary novels as you well know because I'm not an allegorical thinker and I often find they go over my head. Sometimes I am rewarded with a book I adore, sadly this time I found myself drowning in confusion. It is not, I don't think, completely the fault of the author as the writing is in some parts very evocative of time, place and feeling. I think the problem was my inability to go beyond the literal and appreciate her magical and fantastic elements. So here we go, I'll try but this was not one of my favorites.Evangeline is a woman born to a mother who really didn't care whether she existed or not. Her grandmother Louise gave her the only love she ever had. She would go and spend summers in her grandmother's house in New York where she heard stories of Louise's past in Louisiana and the powers of scent. Louise was an aromata - a maker of scents and she believed that it was the most powerful of the senses. Louise dies and leaves Evangeline (Eva) her house and all of its secrets.When Eva goes to the house for the first time after her grandmother's death she finds a young man there - Gabriel. She knows him from town but why is he there? He says it's the only quiet place in town he can study. He's in med school and he didn't think Louise would mind. Eva thinks this is a sign the Louise has "left" him to her. In their explorations of the house they find Louise's work room and a box she left for Evangeline with a note telling her to only open it if she wants her life to change completely. Guess what?The box contains a vial with a liquid that when applied gives Eva a scent that draws people to her. Especially Gabriel. They soon become a couple, move to New Orleans so Gabriel can go back to Tulane and Eva is now bored every day while he is in school. So she goes off and starts sitting for their landlord, a mediocre portrait artist who has nefarious plans in mind.Bad things happen. Weird things happen. There is a fortune telling 14 year old boy in the mix.Over.My.Head.I also felt that it didn't live up to the synopsis in that the power of this scent of Evangeline's was truly never fully explored or to me anyway, explained. There is an explanation but it too went over my head. I am not saying don't read it because there are some good reviews for it, I am just saying it was not for me.