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A review by k_aro
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Honestly, on some level I feel a little guilty giving this so languidly a 5-star review; it's not really the kind of book that exists for stars or whatever, but I still feel like it'd be a loss to not talk about it as such.
What an incredible book! I love slow explorations of a space, and this felt so widely built (even though there's still so much left unsaid and basically left up to interpretation) that it felt fulfilling even if not all the answers were stated. I guess it kind of reminds me of that encyclopedia full of stuff that doesn't exist that's supposed to replicate the feeling of looking through an encyclopedia as a kid for the first time.
The tension is also nicely built, and it doesn't really concern itself with three-way twists and distracting flashes, just a really nice story that follows through in its soft magic systems on what it talks about.
I also enjoyed the occasional flashes of second-person narration; that said, I'm kind of just in love with second-person narration as a device, so I'm super biased in this regard (the other 5* review I have up is for a largely second-person narrated memoir!)
While I'm a little unsatisfied by the unspecificity of why Ketterley did what he did, I think to some level that's not "the point" (so to speak)—he's so obsessed with something that is functionally dead that rationality is truly, on some level, false.
Anyway, I'd also like to take a little bit to talk about the lovely meditation on death and obsessions with death, not just in regards to dead people but to dead ideas, concepts, language, etc. So much of our life is living, breathing, that when something dies it inevitably takes up space; but as Ketterley demonstrates, this obsession with death is actually something quite grotesque, demanding answers out of something that has already departed this world.
Of course, that's neither here nor there; Arne-Sayles is also pretty interesting in his own right, though I'm not really sure I like how his gayness is positioned as just part of him being transgressive, but I also think I like it? I don't know, I guess it kind of evokes questions about the transgressiveness of being queer in general, or maybe transgressiveness as a whole (maybe even hearkening back to that one Carmen Maria Machado essay about being queer and fat). He's definitely an interesting character!
What an incredible book! I love slow explorations of a space, and this felt so widely built (even though there's still so much left unsaid and basically left up to interpretation) that it felt fulfilling even if not all the answers were stated. I guess it kind of reminds me of that encyclopedia full of stuff that doesn't exist that's supposed to replicate the feeling of looking through an encyclopedia as a kid for the first time.
The tension is also nicely built, and it doesn't really concern itself with three-way twists and distracting flashes, just a really nice story that follows through in its soft magic systems on what it talks about.
I also enjoyed the occasional flashes of second-person narration; that said, I'm kind of just in love with second-person narration as a device, so I'm super biased in this regard (the other 5* review I have up is for a largely second-person narrated memoir!)
Anyway, I'd also like to take a little bit to talk about the lovely meditation on death and obsessions with death, not just in regards to dead people but to dead ideas, concepts, language, etc. So much of our life is living, breathing, that when something dies it inevitably takes up space; but as Ketterley demonstrates, this obsession with death is actually something quite grotesque, demanding answers out of something that has already departed this world.
Of course, that's neither here nor there; Arne-Sayles is also pretty interesting in his own right, though I'm not really sure I like how his gayness is positioned as just part of him being transgressive, but I also think I like it? I don't know, I guess it kind of evokes questions about the transgressiveness of being queer in general, or maybe transgressiveness as a whole (maybe even hearkening back to that one Carmen Maria Machado essay about being queer and fat). He's definitely an interesting character!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Confinement, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Torture, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Addiction, Vomit, and Gun violence
While these look like a lot of intense content warnings, I will say that usually most of the things written above are not processed, written about, extrapolated on as abuse in itself (so to speak). The experience of the main character, while I do not want to invalidate as the things shown above, are not processed as such, partially owing to the fact that the main character does not quite process emotions or traumas in the same way you or I would; so rather than them being fact in and of themself, they are the textual reading extrapolated.