A review by fiphillips
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

4.0

Piranesi is a wonderfully imaginative novel with beautiful imagery, hence the 4 stars. I’d heard so many people piling praise on this book that I really wanted to like it. Don’t get me wrong – I loved a large portion of it, but I found myself detached from the characters. The back story of Arne-Sayles and his followers was tipped on its head and revealed piece by piece from a side character’s point of view with increasing speed as the story progressed past the halfway point. The use of an unreliable narrator was interesting, adding to the mystery, but I was honestly disappointed by the ending. Once the final drama had unfolded, the story just drifted off.