Piranesi Review

                         

 

GoodReads:

Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides which thunder up staircases, the clouds which move in slow procession through the upper halls.

On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food and water lilies to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone. Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims?

Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.

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

My Review

Starting this, I worried I’d made a mistake in purchasing the book! I wasn’t able to dive into the writing style, the story had taken me off guard and confused me.

The first hurdle to get over is really just understanding this is not a house in conventional terms. I think that slightly disappointed me, I was hoping for this huge labyrinth of a house but it’s really something more unique and I will not go into too much detail but think more corridors.

So a lot of the disconnect was me getting over my expectations.

I did very much enjoy our Piranesi, what a delightfully unique character in a very unique situation.

It’s more of a mystery that hides under the daily life of Piranesi, who is the only one who lives in the house aside from ‘the other’ who seems to vanish and go as he pleases about the house, which is so massive that Piranesi isn’t bothered by this fact.

The other though seems to have information beyond Piranesi’s capabilities to gather but he’s not worried, the house provides everything he needs, and the other’s experiments are not too much of a focus for Piranesi. In fact, he’s considering not doing any more experiments, why would he need to when he’s content where he’s at?

But, now there’s a new person in the house, one that threatens to destroy what the other and Piranesi have in the house. While the other warns Piranesi away, curiosity takes over.

The house provides, Piranesi isn’t lonely with the birds and exploration of the house to take up his time but what this new person represents could shake the very foundations of Piranesi’s life.

The mystery thus begins to very slowly unravel itself and the twist is built up to nicely, you begin to understand things Piranesi may not yet and his discovery of things are wholly atmospheric and tense.

One of my favorite parts was Clarke’s skill in describing the house, the isolation and barren feel to the house, you could hear the water and birds, feel the cold seeping in from the marble and imagine the statues as if they were right there in front of you. It was quite impressive who Clarke transported me into this book.

Let Clarke take you on a journey through Piranesi’s world and to discover the answers to a mystery Piranesi is unaware of.

4/5 Cups of coffee from me! A solid and unique read!