Title: Piranesi

Author: Susanna Clarke

Publisher: Bloomsbury 2020

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 243

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: UnRead Shelf; Winter TBR

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.

Oh my oh my oh my… I might have liked this one even more than Clarke’s early novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Clarke knows how to create a world that sucks you right in and doesn’t let you leave, even after you finish the book. It took me about 10 tries to get past the first line as it’s just so strange and interesting. That sounds terrible, but I mean it in the best way possible. Clarke just dumps the reader in and we’re left to puzzle out what is going on. Samesies with Piranesi. Apparently we are all in the same boat stuck in the house attempting to unravel all the mysteries. I loved all the random references Clarke wove through the statues and occurrences in the house. I was pulled along until the very end, even after the mystery was resolved. Extra point, I love how Clarke doesn’t feel the need to completely tie up all the strings before ending the book. Overall, this was such a beautiful book. It might even end up on my year-end Top 10 list.

Next up on the TBR pile: