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Piranesi
Piranesi

Piranesi

By
Susanna Clarke
Susanna Clarke
2020 • 273 pages

Ratings117

Average rating4.4

15
Book InfoReviews20Editions17Lists114Feed53

**From the *New York Times* bestselling author of *Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell*, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality.**

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 of surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds. This description comes from the publisher.

Tags

Genres

  • Fantasy
  • Science fiction

Moods

  • mysterious
  • reflective
  • Adventurous
  • challenging
  • dark

Content Warnings

  • Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness,
  • Emotional abuse
  • kidnapping
  • Vomit

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

themelodyofspring
themelodyofspring@themelodyofspring

No in-depth review. This book is better experienced without knowing anything. Loved the prose, the characters, the setting, the House.
It was beautiful.

“The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.”

December 15, 2020
indira
Indira@indira

Piranesi is unlike any other book I've read. I'm not sure if I would exactly put this under the Fantasy genre; if anything, it's a lot more subtle and perhaps more in between Fantasy and Magical Realism. It has incredible world building, such a unique story, and for me it was the kind of book that I couldn't put down.

May 14, 2022
mari
Mari@mariadmin

Three-fourths of a book is a long time to wander endless hallways and avoid creepers in dark corners without any concrete answers or direction. I felt resigned to be a disengaged voyeur as Piranesi made his rounds every chapter. There's a vague build-up in tension the few times The Other mentions 16, but that tension eases for an uncomfortably long stretches time. Piranesi's aimlessness made me stir-crazy for something more to happen. I came to this book because of its comparisons to Circe by Madeline Miller but that's an unfair comparison. Piranesi is its own bottomless can of worms—atmospheric, moody, mysterious—everything is in shadow and an exploration. I may read this one again to pick up on key clues in early chapters, but I didn't love this book as I expected.

October 15, 2021
Emimia
Emi@Emimia

4.5/5 stars

For some reason this book actually really disturbed me. Idk what to think. I don't feel right.

March 22, 2022

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