Review by nehaanna - Piranesi

nehaanna 's review for:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

4.5

adventurous 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: Complicated

I can confidently say that I have never read a book like this before, and probably will never read a book like this again. I picked this book up because it has been mentioned in various reading circles a good piece of background literature prior to reading RF Kuang’s “Katabasis”. And I can easily see why. This book blends literature such as “The Magician’s Nephew” and “the Allegory of the Cave” into a work of speculative fiction and world building that crosses the genres of magical realism, fantasy, and thriller. There are strong elements of Grecian and Roman philosophy and literature in this book, while also keeping a firm foothold in reality. If I were a high school English teacher, I would make this required reading for my students as it is a short and relatively fast paced read.

I go back and forth between giving this book four and five stars, and ultimately landed on four just because I would have liked to the ending fleshed out a bit more. In spite of that, though, I found the world building and prose to be highly captivating and enjoyable, and loved the narration of the story through journal entries. This was such a welcome palate cleanser after reading “The Poisonwood Bible” which made me deeply regret reading at times. Overall, a really well done read that I can anticipate being used in high school and collegiate level literature classes!

Content Warnings