Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Piranesi

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Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

17 reviews

chrisljm's review against another edition

mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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? Yes

4.0

Despite the short length of the book, it is a slow start full of world building. However once you get past that it is so incredibly captivating, and I come to realize how amazing the world building is. Although Piranesi isn’t the only character, he is pretty much the only character you see majority of the time, but even so he’s engaging and the storytelling is fantastic, immersive, and so unique. I loved how soft the fantasy elements were and the way the novel was structured. Basically everything that I found slightly confusing at first were all things that I came to appreciate and really enjoy.

I think Susanna Clarke deserved the awards she got for this book, and I understand why I heard so much praise for it, but I can also see how this book wouldn’t be for every type of reader. Luckily, I enjoyed it immensely and I found that this is the type of story that lingers and leaves a lot to think on afterwards. One of them being that personally, I would love to see The House because to Me it sounded beautiful despite its solitude. I also think it would be interesting to see how other readers viewed The House, in a personality test type of way.

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honeyvoiced's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

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sarah984's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow. I don't even know what to say about this novel that won't spoil the experience for anyone thinking of reading it, but I really enjoyed this. The descriptions of the world are fascinating, the main character is charming and his ways of thinking are described in a way that makes them make sense, and the plot took plenty of turns.

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morgcxn's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

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leduyhxxng's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

The writings and narrative voice in <i>Piranesi</i> put you in a particular state of mind, one that feels religious and melancholic. Yet it does not overdo anything to the effect. If I could smash a book, this is it. Everything about this piece of literature is perfect—I rest my case.

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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

I’ve always said that I like happy endings, and happy stories in general, but that’s not it exactly. Rather, I like my stories hopeful—if the overall message is about how sad and pointless life is, I absolutely do not want it. The premise of Piranesi is pretty bleak, and I would argue that it fits firmly in the category of dark academia, but Piranesi is one of the most stunningly kind and hopeful characters I have ever had the pleasure to read about.

This book is pretty light on action and heavy on description, which I loved and felt that it built the tension really well. I’ve always liked stories where the setting becomes one of the characters, and the House was such a beautiful example of this. I loved Piranesi’s relationship with the House and with nature in general. He believes so firmly that he is loved and will be taken care of by them.

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the vibe):

Bittersweet. With a story like this, there could be no truly happy ending, but this ending was about as good as it could get.

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

4.0

I think what I liked the most was Piranesi himself as a narrator, how we slowly discover the house and the story connnected to it from his point of view.

It is a very imaginative story and certainly very unique, I was really captured by the first half and I still enjoyed the second one, but I think that as the plot progressed and we discovered the darker aspects of it, some of the initial brillance got lost, at least for me. It was still a very enjoyable read that I had trouble putting down (a good half of it I read in just one sitting) and a very well crafted story.

I also had some personal quibbles over the treatment of certain topics (mailny the only depiction of queerness and also a quite fatphobic description at the very end of the story that really annoyed me) that dimmed my general enjoyment of the book.

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