Reviews with content warning for Child death - Piranesi

Piranesi is a wonderful story, told in a rather unique fashion. I’ve only read a couple books that use this same storytelling technique, but Piranesi does it so beautifully.

The beginning was slow, primarily because I had no idea what was going on half the time, but that may just be me. The specificity of the house made me want to create a map in my head, and that wouldn’t go well for anyone. The size is enough to make any map-maker quit, I have no idea how Susanna Clarke kept track of it all.

Where things took a turn is the middle/last third of the book. I had finally caught up with everything, and this is where the plot speeds up. Without this section, I think I’d still be here trying to decipher this book. After reading other reviews, I feel like this is a general consensus, that the book is beautiful, but it doesn’t pick up until the last third.

Highly recommend, if not for the beautiful story, for Susanna Clarke’s magnificent writing style alone.

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billyjepma's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? It's complicated

5.0

You know that feeling you get when reading a book, the sense that usually creeps on you and whispers that you’re experiencing something you’re going to remember? Yeah, that’s what it felt like reading this.

This is a book that pulls from a lot of brilliant sources and ideas and rearranges them in new, unique, and endlessly fascinating ways. It’s a puzzle box of rewarding twists and turns that manages to be frightening in the ideas it offers but gently mysterious in its delivery of them. It’s the kind of story I loved the experience of reading, which usually correlates with books that end up becoming lasting favorites.

I will absolutely be forcing everyone I know to read this.

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erikawynn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

I loved this but I wish it didn’t end with the police coming in to save the day

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korinnagarcia's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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

4.0

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allyhoo811's review against another edition

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dark hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.0

I'll make my comments about Piranesi brief, because I believe it is best to go into this one knowing as little as possible. Piranesi had the potential to be a 5 star read for me; it was a combination of everything I love (getting thrown into the middle of the story, a puzzle box feel, dark academia, allusions to classic myth). Unfortunately, I had to drop it down a star because, for me, the journey for this one was better than the destination. The ending just fell a bit flat. I didn't really feel an emotional connection and was left wanting something different (not sure what exactly, but not what we got).

I still would definitely recommend giving this one a read!

P. S. You don't need to keep track of all the dates, locations, etc. to understand the story -- don't waste your time with that.

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angelaaaa's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

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anna_m_k's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

When I described this book to a few people as I was reading it, they said it sounded "very sad and lonely" and like something they could not read.

And it is, but it is also a beautiful meditation on existence, memory, identity, wonder, and the nature of reality. Beautiful because of its quiet sadness, it felt like stepping into an old cemetery to observe how nature has grown around the monuments to lives once lived.

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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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