A review by macroscopicentric
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

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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