The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
LENGTH: 245 pages
GENRES: Fantasy, Literary, Fiction
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing
RELEASE DATE: 15 September 2020
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
There is one other person in the house–a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.
For readers of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane and fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe, Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.
My Review
‘I said that this is a perfect world. But it’s not. There are crimes here, just like everywhere else.’
Oh. My. Stars. What an amazing little read this book was. Piranesi has been on my radar for years, but I’ve always put it off for various reasons. But I finally got around to reading it, and I’m very glad I did. Because this was a very good book.
I’m not gonna talk a lot about the stuff I usually talk about in my book reviews – and as a result this might be a shorter review – because I don’t want to ruin the experience of reading this novel for anyone who might read this post. Because the thing I absolutely loved the most about this book was how you could slowly piece together the plot and the backstory and the way all the characters (alive and dead) related to each other. It was a bit of a slow burn in a way, but a fantastic one.
I enjoyed following Piranesi’s journal entries and observing how he viewed his world. I think I said it in my first Emily Wilde review and I’ll say it here: We need more epistolary novels! The other characters were interesting as well – I especially found Piranesi’s evolving perception of The Other and 16 to be fascinating.
Perhaps that is what it is like being with other people. Perhaps even people you like and admire immensely can make you see the World in ways you would rather not. Perhaps that is what Raphael means.
The way Clarke describes here world is beautiful and otherworldly. The Labyrinth is serene and whimsical and mysterious and terrifying all at once. I especially enjoyed the Coral Halls – they sounded absolutely breathtaking. Her writing is also very, very good.
This novel was an even bigger breath of fresh air for me because it was a much better reading experience than the last book that I read and reviewed. I’m always nervous about starting a new book after reading a book that I didn’t care for or outright hated. So it was wonderful to read a book that I really, really loved.
I’m also looking forward to the Laika adaptation (probably) coming out a few years from now. I think they’re perfect for adapting this particular book, and hope that they do it justice.
So yeah, I know this is a shorter book review – especially compared to my last one – but like I said, I don’t want to taint any one’s experience reading Piranesi for the first time. Because it truly is an actual reading experience. So just read it – I think most people will really enjoy it.
As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
See ya ~Mar
The sight of the One- Hundred- and- Ninety- Second Western Hall in the Moonlight made me see how ridiculous that is. The House is valuable because it is the House. It is enough in and of Itself. It is not the means to an end.