About

Piranesi is a standalone novel written by Susanna Clarke.

Piranesi book cover

Blurb

Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

Review

I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, it wasn't easy to read for me but I enjoyed the second half a lot. When Piranesi was announced, I immediately put it on TBR. But it has taken me nearly a year to get around reading it. I did have several chances to read it before, but I'm a moody reader and wanted to give the book my full attention.

Turns out my best attempt last weekend wasn't good enough. Oh, I did enjoy the book by the end. But similar to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, it took me a while to get used to the atmosphere. It didn't help that the setting was shrouded in mystery. The book was short and paced fast enough that the ending seemed to be missing half a book.

I'm hoping the re-read will be a better experience, somewhat like Interstellar which I enjoyed and understood better the second time around. Speaking of movies, I had a strong urge to watch Cast Away again after finishing Piranesi.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

What others are saying

From Spencer Orey's review on goodreads:

Pretty much anything I could write about this book would be a spoiler, so I will keep this short and say, if you like strange and magical stories, this one is wonderful. I loved it.

From Blair's review on goodreads:

I'll just say it becomes increasingly gripping as it goes along, and when its secrets are revealed, they are ingenious and completely captivating.

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2021 bingo categories:

  • First Person POV
  • Mystery Plot
  • Genre Mashup
  • Has Chapter Titles