The Smell Collector is an odd bit of fiction.
Its central character, Jim Bronson, is fascinating in all his socially awkward, idiosyncratic glory. As the title would suggest, he collects smells. He’s fascinated with his olfactory sense and seems to devote the majority of his time working out the mysteries in everything he smells and determining the physical and chemical makeups of each scent.
He’s a weird guy. And that makes him fun to read. But lest we get bored of his oddities, the author also tells his story from various other viewpoints, which allows for a little more humor and emotional impact. I don’t think our hero Jim Bronson is very good at either humor or emotion. But the story as a whole does pretty well with it. It’s entertaining and kind of sweet. Maybe "charming" is the most accurate word for it.
I think my only complaint is that The Smell Collector is slow to start. The first few posts were like jumping into a freezing swimming pool . . . I was in shock because of how weird the narrator was. But soon enough, the plot began to pick up and the other characters began to emerge and balance Jim out a little bit. And now I’m hooked.
3 of 3 members found this review helpful.
Help us improve!
Register or
log in to rate this review.
There is a good bit of humor here and the story is written in an informal style, but it doesn’t grab my interest.
Especially with something like web fiction a writer needs a good hook early that grabs the audience early. It could be a mystery, a compelling character or some sort of mission or goal. This story lacks such a hook. With a story like this, a sort of coming-of-age, comedy/drama, a strong goal/ambition/dream would work well. For example, if this were a raunchy teen comedy, the goal of the protagonist in the prologue would probably be to lose his virginity at the end of prom night, or something like that (though something different might be appropriate for this story). Such a goal/ambition/dream might also make the narrator more likable. The narrator comes off as drifting and aimless, which makes the story episodic, and gives the reader less interest in continuing.
The writer might also try to introduce and develop a consistent cast of subsidiary characters that the reader can really get to know. From what I read here, minor characters seem to pop up and disappear all the time, and we don’t get to know them
2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
Help us improve!
Register or
log in to rate this review.
There’s not much of this book yet, but I’m looking for more. The writing is fairly solid . . . a bit choppy and hard to follow, but that seems to be a bit of modern style.
The world is very interesting: superpowers without a focus on superheros.
I’m looking forward to reading more.
3 of 3 members found this review helpful.
Help us improve!
Register or
log in to rate this review.