Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

243 reviews

eni_iilorak's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

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harper11's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Only because it was so confusing at first it lost a star for me personally. However this book blew my mind and tugged my heart strings. It was beautiful and tragic and sad and happy. Push through the confusion. I have a feeling this book could go up to 5 stars on a reread.

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iammmartina_'s review against another edition

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emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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emmymgb's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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menagerie_of's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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naes's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Piranesi's house is an awe-inspiring thing. There are infinite rooms, thousands of amazing statues, oceans and violent tides. Piranesi shares the house with The Other but everything may not be as it seems.

The journalistic style of writing is exceptionally done with prose that is lovely and dreamlike. The premise seems wholly original and was like nothing I have read before. I wish this had been enough to for me to rate it higher.

The first 80-100 pages for me were totally stagnant. There seemed to be no real movement with either the plot or the characters. It was constant descriptions of statues, the rooms, fish and birds. It was a bit dull and I did consider adding it to my DNF pile.

Once you get to part three, things start to get a bit more interesting with no major development until part five. It wasn’t quite enough to make me totally enthralled in the book however. I was mildly invested in what was going on but don't considered it a page turner that I couldn't put down. The ending seemed to happen too quickly as well. I did like that the ending has been left somewhat to interpretation of the reader though. That was a nice touch.

Overall I didn't hate the story, it was just far to slow with no real development in my opinion.

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yellowbinge's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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lianaet's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

It was certainly a struggle to get through Part 1 of this book, and the rest was still fairly hard to read in big chunks (until this last bit). The confusing aspect of the World is hard to follow most of the time, but you do kind of just have to accept that's how this book is. And it's an important aspect, with Piranesi's character.

Also minor spoilers? Kind of? But this book resonated with me towards the end, with the gaslighting, and the realisation of what's really going on - but still feeling a confusing type of way towards that person. As well that Piranesi is forever changed by the House and what he lived through there.

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godfrina's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule.

If I have to read the word "vestibule" one more time this year...

Look, I gotta be honest, I did not love it.

Obviously, I read it for the hype / just wanted a shorter story inbetween other reads. I don't know what I expected.
~~I mean, I kind of do know what I expected, reading the short and deliberately confusing synopsis and such, but I guess........eh?~~

The first 40% or so were an absolute slog for me. I dredged through, like Piranesi through the Drowned Halls; I was this close to my first DNF for the year.
Don't get me wrong, the prose as a whole is beautiful, albeit almost unintelligible. There is paragraphs of "I read it, but that's it". It knits together in the end, yes, however, it left me with an "huh"-feeling, with looming ✨anxiety and dread✨ behind it. I did not think it inspirational or hopeful.

I upped my initial rating of 2 for the second half of the novel to 2.5 as I clearly had a lot of thoughts right after finishing the story and that in itself always counts for something in my book.

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kajasversion's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I loved the writting style and the characters mind captivated me completely. The main focus of the book is how Piranesi perceives the world, and his experiences through his eyes, which is a type of book I love. I found the psychological part of his character study at the end very interesting, but the ending ultimately left me feeling a bit disappointed. Though it is true to the character, I couldn’t help but hope for something to be different.

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