The Scent Keeper: A Novel

This is a beautifully descriptive novel with a very original story line. Characters are well defined and locations vividly conveyed. Each generation carries its own social dictates and standards which as in real life is very different than the previous generation. Enjoy a true escape!

*Minor spoiler under “The Bad” Overall: A beautifully written, lyrical, unique story about love, courage, finding oneself, and scents. A very sweet and light book that was easy and fun to get lost in 4/5 or 7/10 Summary: “Back before there was time, I lived with my father on an island, tucked away in an endless archipelago that reached up out of the cold salt water, hungry for air.” The story starts off on a secluded island in the Pacific Northwest where we meet Emmeline, a young girl who has always lived alone with her scientist father. Her father collects and studies scents that he preserves in small glass bottles and they both are completely isolated from the outside world (Emmeline believes that supplies are brought to them by mermaids). Emmeline finds out a bit of truth and becomes angry and makes a choice that will change her life forever. That choice forces her into the outside world where she is raised by a lovely couple in a small coastal town outside of Vancouver. The story follows Emmeline’s transition and her growth as she comes to terms with understanding and embracing who she is. The Good: The book is written so lovely it is almost lyrical in its style. I loved the premise too! I had no idea what I was getting into, but I am so glad I picked this one up and think most everyone would enjoy this read. In addition to lovely writing, unique premise, the plot is engaging and fast paced, and I really liked the two main characters. Moderate to more character depth, especially for Emmeline, and I really did like her. A nice light read with a bit of magic that is lovely to get lost in. The Bad : The major critique is the ending and also why did they have to kill off both the goat and the dog?! I really don’t think either did much to help the story and just made me very sad. Favorite Quotes: “Scents were always about what was growing and what was dying. What would last through the next season. This was just with people instead of trees or flowers or dirt. Maybe I could read them after all. The thought gave me hope.” “Scents were like rain, or birds. They left and came back.” “It's amazing how easily we can cast ourselves in the role of hero.”

FINISHED! This book was a GREAT read! Thank you @reesesbookclub The Scent Keeper “Erica Bauermeister, the author of the February Reese's Book Club pick The Scent Keeper, presents a moving and evocative novel about childhood stories, families lost and found, and how a fragrance conjures memories capable of shaping the course of our lives.” This book follows the story of Emmeline, who was raised on a remote island with her father. At a young age she was taught to use her nose and learn everything about scents she could. She enjoyed her life on the island very much, but as she aged, she had more questions about how they ended up there. Her father uses a special machine to save scents in bottles on paper and he becomes increasingly obsessed with his work. Emmeline decides to throw the scents away one at a time to try and get her father back. She realizes this was the wrong thing to do. The rest of the story follows Emmeline through the next stages in her life. When she leaves The Island and meets Henry and Colette at The Cove. She lives with them for many years and becomes part of their family. She also starts to research about her father and her mother and what brought her to the island. On the way, she makes a friend, Fisher who becomes a staple in her life. Fisher is dealing with abuse from his father and Emmeline becomes his escape. Fisher leaves for the city and Emmeline decided to locate him. During this time, she meets her mother and spends time with her in her fancy apartment. Due to her scent knowledge, she starts to work at her mothers business creating scents. She realized she is amazing at this job and she feels at home. Things begin to add up and she learns secrets about her mom and how she treated her father. Once she has discovered her true self, Emmeline and Fisher head back to the Cove with Henry and Colette where she always felt the most at home. Emmeline was a very bright individual. She had a passion for scents of the world and scents bringing you back to specific memories. It made me realize I have been taken scents for granted. I will be looking at scents in a whole new light now thanks to this gem. At the end of the book Emmeline gives a great quote, “Base notes can come from dark places, but they can create beauty all the same. They are reminders of what we will do to live, and what we can give each other. My parents taught me that.” I highly recommend this book!!!!!

This book started out so well. The writing is gorgeous, the story was captivating. The way the author describes scent and the ability to identify scents is amazing. And then the story turns into a rant against a mom whose story never gets truly explored. And then the story just ends. What started out as a lush, wonderful story just ended. I wasn’t expecting a happy ending, I don’t need happy endings. But none of the characters got explored fully and the ending was just weird and abrupt. I’m so angry.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. It kept me up late at night and I woke early in the morning. I could not put it down. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

In The Scent Keeper, Erica Bauermeister's Reese's Book Club pick, Emmeline has an enchanted childhood—she grows up on a remote island with only her father, the machine he uses to capture scents, and eventually she gets a pet goat. She has never been anywhere but the island--they get most of their food from scavenging and from boxes of staples, which her father tells her are dropped off by mermaids. One day Emmeline must leave their island and join the outside world, where everything is foreign to her and she has no idea how to manage the senses she’d heightened on the island, which are now overwhelmed by the stimulus of a life with others. The Scent Keeper is, in part, a discussion of socialization and the ways in which children are taught explicitly and implicitly to ignore their instincts for the sake of fitting in and the approval of others. Emmeline finds herself overwhelmed by all the odors that congregate around humans and the social rules no one explains to her. Her one friend is another misfit who can’t quite fit in, but they fit with each other. Would I teach this book? The Scent Keeper is told in first person, from Emmeline’s naive point of view. There is so much she does not understand about other people and the desires that they have. Her innocence is, at times, as cloying as the scents she describes. In terms of the narration and this outsider perspective, the book is interesting, and invites the reader to question the ways we are socialized, such as at school, where strangeness is often punished. Emmeline’s ability to recognize and eventually pair smells is one that can be used for great gain. Like so many abilities, it can be monetized, and another result of our socialization is how we view and eventually use our talents. The Scent Keeper has a charm and a wonder that is linked to the story telling, and can certainly offer a rousing conversation. The story telling, however, is not remarkable, and moments of the plot seem too farfetched. While it lent to a good discussion in book club, I would most likely not teach The Scent Keeper.

Emmeline and her father live on a small island—all alone and in the middle of nowhere. Emmeline knows next to nothing about how they got there, and whenever she works up the courage to ask her father, he only answers in riddles or short “end of conversation!” statements. She loves the island, and she loves her father, so she doesn’t push. What she does know is that they need to protect the scents. In their small cabin is a whole wall of tiny drawers filled with little corked bottles. Each bottle contains a slip of paper with a specific scent on it—maybe spruce wood or lavender. The bottles can’t be opened often, lest the scent escape, but from a young age, Emmeline understands that her father will do anything to preserve all the smells trapped inside. I don’t want to say too much more about this book, because it is a lovely mystery that reveals itself ever so slowly and subtly over time. The story is unlike anything I’ve read before, and the writing is beyond. Like beyond beyond. It’s poetry. You know when you read an amazing book and it makes you feel a little depressed, because you know you will never write something as good as what you just read? Yeah, that’s The Scent Keeper. Some of the descriptions of Emmeline’s scents left me honest-to-God breathless. I’m still in awe. My only minor complaint is that the conclusion felt abrupt—not by too much, but by just enough that I’m going to whine about it. Is the ending like one of Emmeline’s scents? Am I supposed to supply the missing note? I don’t know, but I needed a three-page epilogue, something to give me the closure I was looking for. But this is a minor gripe, and I still loved, loved the book. The Scent Keeper is going to stay with me a long time, and I will definitely be checking out author Erica Bauermeister’s other work. What a phenomenal story.

It wasn’t an easy read, nor a fast one. I bought it because I thought the premise was deeply original, and the book was true to that concept. It’s a coming of age story, and I have read one too many of that genre recently. Yet I still give it four stars for creativity and flair.