Review: Base Notes

Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I can see why this, the only novel Lara Elena Donnelly's come out with since her well-crafted Art Deco war story that wasn't a war story, the Amberlough Dossier, is so much lower rated here. It could've been a much better story, and it's certainly darkly fascinating for its depiction of a depraved perfume maker in New York. After all, if you really think about it, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and the same goes for perfumes, which historically have been made from all kinds of plant and animal resources without care for obtaining them ethically. But Vic Fowler, who has figured out a vaguely supernatural method of bottling memories in perfume, really has to resort to that old black magic to make it work.

Vic could've been a contender along with Hannibal or Dexter as one of the most darkly fascinating villain protagonists in the business, truly. Donnelly gives them a lot of mystery, deliberately eliding over most aspects of their backstory. Even their gender stays obscured throughout the novel, thanks to the combination of first person POV and no character referring to Vic with any pronouns - the back cover copy also makes it a point of never using pronouns. (In my head, though, I read Vic as transmasculine, based on the importance they placed on Giovanni's precise haircuts, as well as the subtly building annoyance they had at one character in particular always calling them "Vicky.")

Unfortunately, Vic, I suspect, is also the main reason why the book is so poorly rated. They're massively pretentious, and not in a way that their character justifies. Hannibal (particularly when played by Mads Mikkelsen - #sorrynotsorry but I've always thought Mikkelsen far outclassed Anthony Hopkins in the role, because Hopkins overacted in an attempt to make up for the character's limited screen time, especially in The Silence of the Lambs) is essentially the Devil himself, ridiculously OP in terms of culture an intellect alike. Vic, on the other hand, puts on airs of being the best in the business but is also a young, whiny, petulant little asshole, wanting to blame late stage capitalism for their evil nature instead of owning it the way Hannibal or Dexter or even Patrick Bateman would.

Props to Donnelly for taking "be gay, do crimes" to a whole new level with Vic, but I still wanted to sock Vic in the jaw and throw the book away half the time, especially when they were complaining about the pettiest little annoyances in their life.

View all my reviews