Reviews with content warning for Blood - Piranesi

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Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

38 reviews

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

PIRANESI is melancholic and contemplative, a meditation on an existence which is as familiar to the narrator as it will likely be bewildering to the reader.

The prose is immersive in both style and content, gradually explaining what’s literally happening even as the narrator often misses the significance of what he’s relaying, or places a different importance on it. The setting is known to the narrator, his sense of the world is that he knows his place within it and the shape of its peculiarities, though there’s always more to explore. Since the reader necessarily is outside of that understanding at first, it provides for slow revelations and discoveries as the contents of his explanations begin to, gradually, make sense. Towards the midpoint it becomes that I could guess at things he didn’t yet understand, providing some of the great feeling of guessing the solution to a mystery early. The ending, however, plays out in a way I didn’t predict but which feels suitable.

I feel so peaceful, after reading it. There’s a kind of happiness from listening to someone talk at length about a thing they love, and Piranesi loves The House. It’s not all great for him, especially when plot things ensue, but vast stretches of the book are filled with the love and care of someone who pays intimate attention to something which fascinates them.

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bronzeageholly's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

Content Warnings

zanni_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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macroscopicentric's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

5.0

I LOVED this. Like Clarke’s other book Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, this book plays with postmodern fiction devices, although definitely in a different way. Most noticeably, both because of its narrator and his own heavy reliance on his journals, it has a much more obvious narrator’s voice than the fake academia vibe of her last novel. Because of this (and also Piranesi’s personality), Piranesi feels a lot warmer and more hopeful to me. Piranesi is occasionally annoying but mostly a delight, his journey of self-discovery is engaging, and I also found the overall plot and structure of the book extremely satisfying. It even encourages the reader to index the novella itself as Piranesi indexes his journals. I was extremely curious about what worldbuilding would reveal itself next all the way through, and I’m already looking forward to a reread now that I have the benefit of understanding what’s going on.

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