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Girlfailure literature but make it lesbian, satirical and deliciously pulpy.

Perfume & Pain is paying homage to 1950s lesbian pulp fiction with all its drama and raunchy fuckery. It's in active conversation with The Price of Salt, or Carol by Patricia Highsmith and the titular Perfume And Pain by Kimberly Kemp. Anywho, main character Astrid's a struggling writer whose career prospects look about as promising as her [failed] sobriety. Her heart's desire juggles between two women in the backdrop of contemporary LA with all its pop culture shroom-infused algorithmically artificial haze.

Astrid's uncalibrated personality is melodramatic and borderline feral and I couldn't help but feel gripped watching my fellow sister in peril be a walking disaster; seeing a problematic privileged white woman dig a hole for herself will probably always be entertaining to me. She's very much so unlikeable, but even when she's being scathing or didactic it all coalesces to form her biting charm. You know, at least she's mostly self aware, though I think someone needs to tell her about her raging mommy issues.

She's erratically funny in a 'say what now?' way that borders on being deadpan. The book embodies that feeling of loopy contentment after scarfing down hard seltzer in a dingy motel room, which I guess is redolent of Astrid's signature self-destructive bender named the 'Patricia Highsmith'—a concoction of alcohol, sativa, Adderall and cigarettes. If you have a name for your intoxication routine, you've probably got a problem. Frankly the 'Patricia Highsmith' was a supporting character in this book.

This was very much so a story that was actually written for queer folks (instead of masquerading as a queer/lesbian story which is in reality written to be 'palatable' for straight people 🙄), and it's especially written for lesbian and sapphic women, which made it so scrumptious. A sapphic book with a messy problematic lesbian doing messy problematic lesbian things with just the right amount of mania. Who would have thought that this pulpy romp would match my freak?

I wouldn't widely recommend this, though, it's for a very specific type of modern sapphic reader who loves polarizing characters and social commentary that is very pertinent to the contemporary queer zeitgeist, but make it a bit ridiculous in a pulpy, satirical, self aware way.

rating: 5 stars