Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

276 reviews

sweetadeliene's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

This gave me "House of Leaves" vibes.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Slavery, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

hergyschmergy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Dementia, and Kidnapping

accurry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

What a wonderfully unique read. A mix of magic and science, innocence and deviance, life and death, all in a bleakly beautiful or beautifully bleak world of isolation and still statues and thrashing waves. It’s bizarre and you find yourself wondering just what’s going on here and then the mysteries start unraveling and they kept me gripped. It was a bit easy to foresee how some things would go but I don’t think that detract from the story - in fact, the dawning horror was delicious. I love the character of Piranesi. He’s so charming in his innocence and it breaks your heart to go through his story with him in the best way. I will say, the beginning was a bit slow but necessary to set up the world and the ending objectively wraps things up nicely but I personally felt just a touch disappointed. Regardless, I’m sure it’s just the stuff for other people and I definitely recommend the book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement, Death, and Torture

Minor: Child death, Cursing, Blood, Vomit, and Murder

bearikatherika's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Homophobia, Mental illness, and Abandonment

turidt's review

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Blood, Excrement, and Vomit

t_belinti's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.25

It took a little bit for me to get used to the writing style and pacing. I wasn't entirely prepared for a new system of time keeping, but man was it refreshing. I really enjoyed the thought provoking descriptions of the house and the greater meaning behind the author's approach to this "Other World". Super cool concept and really enjoyed the latter half of the book as that's where the action was. Overall: 8.5/10

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping

paulipaperback's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death and Mental illness

Minor: Vomit and Murder

sirpandacat's review

hopeful mysterious reflective

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death and Mental illness

Minor: Gun violence

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement and Mental illness

kp_reads_in_the_dark's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

My face is still wet from the tears I cried after finishing this book. It's a beautiful, unsettling fable about loneliness, curiosity, and the rhythm of life - shot through with a mystery that gets more and more compelling with every page. The conflict that unfolds highlights the ugliness and violence of narcissistic men pursuing selfish goals; a story we've heard before but presented in a new way. Previous reviewers were spot on when they call this novel original and spellbinding. The lingering sensation after reading this book is one of bittersweetness, relief, and fernweh. It's a relatively quick read, but it'll grab you like a Tide and sweep you into the Lower Halls...

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexism, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

I want to think more about it - and maybe see if I can find some reviews or articles on the topic - but I want to explore gender and sex in Piranesi. Somehow it didn't surprise me that the police officer who saved Piranesi was a woman (but, at the same time, was referred to by her masculine last name, Raphael). Why did Dr. Ketterley need "a healthy, young man?" Why was Arne-Sayles' homosexuality mentioned - several times? Was it important for us to be told that Sylvia D'Agostino had "a slightly androgenous appearance?" I know this likely isn't a terribly consequential aspect of the book, but I'm still curious. So much care seems to have been put into crafting this novel that I wonder if Clarke put some of her time and energy into thinking through these particular themes; what conscious decisions she may have made about the interactions of these characters as it pertains to their gender and sexuality. Also! How much did my heart hurt when I realized that Piranesi/Sorenson had stopped capitalizing nouns in his last few journal entries?! I took it to mean that he - consciously or not - accepts that objects in the Other World don't have the magic and "awareness" that they do in the House; that the Other World doesn't speak (to him) the way the House does. It felt like the final twist of the knife in my chest, and I cried for him (even knowing that he could go back).