Perfume and Pain

“Blending over-the-top humor with poignant observations on relationships, Perfume & Pain finds that rare sweet spot between campiness and vulnerability.” —INTERVIEW MAGAZINE“A testament to Dorn’s confidence as a writer. Her characters are fully developed and completely themselves, bold even in their neuroses.” —MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE“Acerbic, steamy, and compulsively readable—fans of ribald, satirical humor (with a specific focus on celebrity melodrama and LGBTQ+ culture) will read it in one go. It’s this author’s best work yet. A Sapphic roller-coaster ride and pitch-perfect homage to lesbian pulp fiction.” —KIRKUS, Starred Review “Dorn keeps her finger squarely on the pulse. This brash novel pushes the envelope in all the best ways.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY“Come to Perfume & Pain for the sexy drama, stay for the satire and hilarious doses of shade thrown at Hollywood. This novel is like driving down PCH listening to Lana Del Rey and vaping out the sunroof. Every moment feels sun-drenched, edgy, and unstoppable.” —ALLIE ROWBOTTOM, author of Aesthetica “Anna Dorn’s Perfume & Pain is a wonder. Dorn masterfully takes on cancel culture, holier-than-thou writers groups, and the complex rules of lesbian dating. The result is a smart and sexy, laugh-out-loud funny page-turner.” —MARCY DERMANSKY, author of Hurricane Girl and Very Nice“Perfume & Pain slaps so hard it stings—but in the best way. Astrid, agent of lesbian chaos and love addict who’s half-heartedly trying to change, is a magnetic main character, and I found myself relating to too many of her uncouth opinions. It was thoroughly enjoyable to follow Astrid’s antics—I flipped pages fast and LOLed frequently. And I’ll never again see the name Patricia Highsmith without thinking about Astrid’s favorite drug cocktail that leads to her most entertaining bad behavior.” —CELIA LASKEY, author of Under the Rainbow, a finalist for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize “Lurid and sensational. Perfume & Pain is deeply entertaining, hilarious, and smart. A compelling window into cancel culture, writing, and lesbianism. Anna Dorn never misses.” —EMILY AUSTIN, author of Interesting Facts About Space “Perfume & Pain combines the very best impulses of pulp fiction (dysfunction, drama, deception) with Anna’s signature whip-smart, fearless style. Darkly funny and careening down every perverted, doomed spiral, this is the funniest novel of the year and Dorn’s best yet. Light on its feet yet endlessly probing, Perfume & Pain is as sharp as it is delicious.” —JENNY FRAN DAVIS, author of Dykette

Anna Dorn is the author of the novels Perfume and Pain, Exalted, Vagablonde, and American Spirits. She was a Lambda Literary Fellow and Exalted was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She lives in Los Angeles.