dontjudgeabrooke 's review for:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

3.5

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I've never read another book with such a haunting, immersive atmosphere. In fact, the setting manages to feel like the central character and the bulk of the plot. While it's undeniably magical and the eventual mystery is fairly intriguing, I wish there'd been a little more complexity/depth to the plot. However, Piranesi's endless wonder and devoted care to the world around him is incredibly endearing. And the fact that the typeface is inspired by the carved letting often used for stone monuments is a very cool touch.

The story also led me down a couple rabbit holes to learn about some fascinating real-life philosophers, including: 

• J.W. Dunne: Believed our perception of time as linear is an illusion; that the past, present, and future are actually continuous in a higher-dimension reality, accessible through dreams, where we can sometimes experience fragments of the future through "precognitive dreams" due to our consciousness momentarily slipping beyond the present moment; that we only experience them sequentially due to our mental perception. This theory is often referred to as the "serial universe" concept or "serialism." (Arrival, anyone?)
• Rudolf Steiner: Believed a non-material, spiritual world influences the material world. Thought humans were once more fully involved in the world's spiritual processes but became restricted by their attachment to material things.