Not an easy book to review as I don’t want to ruin the slow unveiling of this surreal and magical journey.

Piranesi lives alone in a building with thousands of rooms, millions of unique statues and an ocean alive in the maze of halls. He is alone except for meeting with The Other twice a week.

I loved Piranesi’s innocence and kindness. It was interesting how he survives in this odd environment and spends his days. The story meanders a bit before you are given enough to figure things out but it is well worth the ride. Not sure how Susanna Clarke came up with this story but I am very thankful to have read it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

"Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has."

I was instantly curious after seeing that tagline for this book, and I was not disappointed. It's just as dreamy and gently weird as the tagline suggests, and I loved it. What is the House? Who is Piranesi? HAS he always lived there?? I devoured the whole book in a matter of hours, I was constantly so curious to see what was going to come next.

I'm hesitant to describe anything about the book because I don't want to set any misleading expectations or accidentally spoil it.

The only thing I do want to note is that the experience of reading this book reminded me a lot of the experience of reading Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation" (the book from which I very lovingly stole the name GhostBird to use online). I got the same sort of sense of wonder and curiosity and desire to explore a slightly spooky world to figure out its mysteries in both the House and Area X, so if you read "Annihilation" and liked the experience, then definitely go for this one.

PS: I liked it so much I've preordered it in hardback, despite having received a free NetGalley copy to review! I want it to sit on my bookshelf :)

Excellent, immersive read. It reminded me of Morgernstern's "The Starless Sea." Definitely for those who like to suss out a mystery and love the fantastical.

Clarke always manages to capture the ephemeral and the impossible, and "Piranesi" is no exception. This novel is both deft and murky at once, providing readers with a charming but unreliable narrator as a guide to the labyrinth. We follow his lantern willingly, happily, because Clarke has enchanted us enough to do so -- and what we find as we walk is an aching story that seeps into our bones. "Piranesi" is for all magic-seekers and would-be magicians, for everyone who has asked what it means to walk unseen paths, and for those who suspect it may cost more than we understand.

Susanna Clarke is one of my go to authors to recommend to people looking for something different. Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is always at the top of my recommendation list and I was ecstatic when I heard about her new novel. Set in a mysterious house, seemingly only inhabited by Piranesi and a vast multitude of statues, and the occasional Other. Until one day, there are signs that there may be another in this infinite realm. Written with an almost dream like quality, Clarke has once again delivered a fantastic story and created a unique reading experience that I did not want to end. This will easily be one of my top reads of 2020.

Any attempt to describe this would lack that fundamental, synergistic component that makes it worth reading in the first place, so instead of typing myself into a corner I will bestow on Piranesi this highest of praises: I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time.
Apropos of nothing: For me, this was better in sips than gulps.

Brilliant and unique story bound to please readers of author. Her story telling is masterfully crafted.

Piranesi is the sole inhabitant of a gigantic, mysterious 'house' with endless rooms full of statues and an ocean in the lower levels, which surges upstairs during high tides. Written in the form of his journal, Piranesi guides us through his beloved labyrinthine house and introduces us to 'The Other', a sporadic visitor to the house and the only other living human being in this world...or so he thought.
Susanna Clarke's lyrical and hypnotic writing pulls you into Piranesi's world, enveloping you in the mystery of the house and question of how he came to be there.
For fans of 'The Starless Sea' and 'The Bedlam Stacks'.

A delightfully weird interpretation of the myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth.

Piranesi lives in contented ignorance inside a crumbly, watery labyrinth, knowing not where he came from or how he came to be there.

Despite knowing only one other person and being largely amnesiac of his own history, Piranesi isn’t bothered by his strange domicile, at once infinite and a prison.

But when strange signs start showing up that there might be other living beings lurking in the labyrinth, things start to get really interesting.

If you’re familiar with the myth, it’s easy to identify the Theseus, the Daedalus, and even the Minotaur of the story. Still, to strictly label it a “retelling” doesn’t do Clarke’s work justice, given the creativity and atmosphere she employed in this odd and wonderful novel.

Piranesi isn’t quite as exceptional as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but it’s a great read in its own right. And while the two stories and settings don’t have much in common, fans of Strange and Norrell will undoubtedly recognize Clarke’s unique voice and wry humor.

A young man in a House full of Statues journals his experiences. On the surface, this seems like a lovely life where he has all the fish and supplies he needs while interacting with only one other human, called the Other, who meets him a couple of times a week. But cracks come into this perfect world, and readers will soon realize there's more than meets the eye to this man, whom the Other calls Piranesi, and exactly why he's at the House.

This book is about as different as can be from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and still be in the fantasy genre. It's short, tightly plotted, almost a thriller and told entirely in journal entries. The reader knows more than the protagonist all along, but he's such an innocent that you can hardly get annoyed or fault him. I was driven to know the whole story, and read quickly. There were a few nods to The Chronicles of Narnia that I enjoyed discovering, too.

In Piranesi, Susanna Clarke introduces readers to a fantastically strange world contained within the infinite halls of the House. One of The House's occupants is Piranesi, who explores his world with reverence and curiosity, unaware that his is not the only world. Told through Piranesi's journal entries, Clarke slowly reveals the wonders of the House, from the marble halls and stairways, to the hundreds of tiny and towering statues, the trapped tides, and the ocean hidden within its walls.

The journal entries allow readers to connect intimately with Piranesi's thoughts and feelings, revealing him to be an innocent, gentle, and brave narrator. His courage in confronting the unknown is extraordinary. I would have followed him through the labyrinth of halls to the ends of world!

Though I would have liked a longer book with more explanation for the world, such as how it came to be and why the it manifested as a House full of statues, the mystery of the House and Piranesi's life within it absolutely captivated me! This book is delightfully strange and beautifully written! I would highly recommend it for fans of Erin Morgenstern and Madeline Miller. I cannot wait to share this world with others!

DNF.

I finished 25% of the book and put it down. I wasn't sure what was the plot was supposed to be about. Nothing was happening and nothing made sense. I thought about picking it back up to continue but then realized that I didn't want to sit through the incoherence just to try and figure out what the story is about. Sadly, I'm not going to finish this book. I loved Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but this one is so abstract that I don't want to try and give it a chance.

Thanks to Netgalley for giving me a ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the author who gave us her magnum opus 16 years ago, but this slim tale captured my heart with its meditations on identity, trauma, community, and purpose. The narrator is one of the most decent people I have ever had the pleasure to read about. Clarke manages to build a beautiful world with just the right amount of exposition and description, skillfully doled out over the course of the novel. I highly recommend this book, particularly to readers of Erin Morgenstern and Philip Pullman.

I’m a huge fan of Clarke’s but this novel left me cold, bored, and confused. I will always talk her up to readers, but the latest is a disappointment to me completely.

Spectacular and dreamy. It's definitely one of the best books I've read this year. The writing is enthralling and the story is so fantastic that I can't stop thinking about it.

Susanna Clarke creates a beguiling, sometimes sublime labyrinth world based on the “imaginary prisons” of the 18th-century artist Piranesi. Questions of selfhood and agency are core to the plot.

The antagonists could have been developed and made more believable and three-dimensional. Clarke’s choice of a first-person narration limited her ability to accomplish that, but the voice of the “Beloved Child of the House” is distinctive.

The setting — an infinite House of half-ruined classical architecture, statues and stairs, with “Tides” rushing and crashing against the walls — is what I’ll remember and what I’ll want to revisit.

Reading this book was like experiencing a very vivid dream. The setting is captivating and tangible. The story reveals itself slowly and inexorably. I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell; this book is completely different. I really enjoyed it and I think that the House and its inhabitants (both living and dead) will stay with me for a long time.