Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

266 reviews

kaanda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Dementia, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

Minor: Child death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

payeswoods's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book answered all my “cosmic longings - the ‘Death and Stars’ part of” me. 

Dove into this blind and thirsty to be swept up in a story, and SUSANNA SWEPTTT. I know it’s only the beginning of 2025 but this could easily be my favorite read of the year. Whenever I had to pause reading, I found myself often thinking about it and couldn’t wait to dive back in. This was a beautiful reminder of why I fell in love with books.

I was captivated from beginning to end. I was only three pages in and I had already realized that Clarke was about to tell me a most fascinating tale. Vivid imagery and fantastic world building. I was free to explore every vestibule of the House with lovable and noble Piranesi as my guide.  Piranesi is a mirror of how many of us used to view the world and humanity. Every character added to the central mystery of the story. The answer to the mystery could be identified in the middle, but Clarke masterfully unveils the pieces in such a satisfying and haunting way.

This was brilliant and beautifully written. This book is one for the ages. It will stay with me for a very long time. Going to devour every Susanna Clarke book out there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Excrement, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Slavery, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, and Vomit

is_a_bella_here's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

4.0

Picked it up because I had seen a lot about it but knew nothing. Very cool, gothic concept.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Gaslighting

earth_to_mars's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

This is the second book of 2024 (and third overall) that I'm giving a five star rating. Aside from not reading many books this year, I would consider myself picky to what I give five out of five stars, especially with fantasy.

I think what really made this book special is Susanna's writing style and the way she builds up her characters' personalities through their actions (subtle and not so subtle ones). Her words are direct, simple, but together weave very dense paragraphs that I think of as poetic. I think her style of writing is as close to 'painting a picture with a thousand words' as someone can get.

Piranesi is such a loveable, rootable character. His naivety is charming (never annoying) and makes it easy to feel like the reader is there with him, slowly unconvering more about the House, it's inhabitants, and the mysteries of who The Other and Piranesi himself really are.

I only have one main nitpick.

The Prophet/Laurence Arne-Sayles falls into the predatory gay stereotype as he is the only gay man explicity stated within the narrative. And with him being the one to groom his students and trapping a man in the Labyrinth and his walls until the man suffers psychosis doesn't exactly bode well for his narrative.

That being said, I do believe this was out of ignorance and possibly unchecked biases and not out of malice and I don't think Susanna had any ulterior motive for it. (Still deserves to be mentioned).

Coming from a gay man, I still did enjoy the book. It's not the biggest part of the story, and thus didn't hinder my experience (it was just in the back of my head). I had a lot of fun uncovering the mysteries of the House, and the twist in Part Five was shocking and made me more eager to see how it all unfolds. Most of all, I really enjoyed and adored Susanna's writing style. 

I'm happy I was recommended this book and I definitely would recommend it to others, especially fantasy lovers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Excrement, Vomit, and Murder

iamastraythought's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

This is going to be one of those books that stays with me, one that I'm gonna wanna revisit in the future. It really did real feel like a dream.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

tokaylamockingbird's review against another edition

4.5

What a lovely book! (p. 155 par. 3 was particularly funny)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Mental illness

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Murder

katdeedubs's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

For once being in a fantasy space and solving the mystery before the main character based solely off having way more context somehow. Unique reading experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Kidnapping

Minor: Emotional abuse and Panic attacks/disorders

tobiii's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Gun violence, and Mental illness

zahsan's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

 i acc expected it to be like a nothing book like no plot so i was soo shocked and excited when the plot started to unravel i feel so bad for the mc and literally the second half had me hooked minus 1 star for the slow start tho cuz i thought the first 2 parts couldve been shortened 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mental illness, Slavery, and Murder

Minor: Gun violence, Self harm, Excrement, and Vomit

little_miss_book_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Toxic friendship