Piranesi is a mystery/fantasy novel written by Susanna Clarke. This novel is super short. It’s only 245 pages so I have to keep the summary vague and brief to avoid spoilers. This story details a house filled with statues and devastated by ocean currents. The halls of this house are vast, seemingly never-ending. In this house, we follow a man named Piranesi and his quest to learn the magic and mysteries that live in this world.
If you’ve read or watched other reviews that say this novel is an ‘instant classic’ their true. This book is magic. From start to finish Clarke’s prose mystifies and ingratiates the reader. Her description of the halls, statues, and ocean is quite magnificent. The element of fantasy that lives inside this book feels tangible. As the reader, you feel like you can grab the magic that exists in this world and hold it.
There isn’t much else that I can say about this novel without spoiling the plot. What I will say is that there is a trail of breadcrumbs that leads you through the story. With each event or item (breadcrumb) revealed you are given information about the world and Piranesi. It is a wonderful way to reveal the hidden mysteries that live in this world and it worked perfectly in this novel. It provides the story with almost perfect pacing.
This book is special. This is a novel that everyone should read once in their lives.
Go check out Piranesi!
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