Complex, dreamlike and fascinating. I put down my Kindle and immediately ordered this book.
Clarke's style stands above bring the flow of myth to her story the reader is left longing for more.
Like the tides in the House, Piranesi's world might be ever changing yet always the same. A mystery I am
eagerly anticipating to finish.

Thank you netgalley for giving me an ARC sneak preview.

A perfect excerpt, and my finished copy arrived in the mail yesterday! Can’t wait to read the full books!

3.5-3.75

This DRC was another excerpt, so my review is based on the excerpt.
After reading the excerpt, I had to take a moment to analyze what I had read. This excerpt gives a brief picture of the story. You have the main character, Piranesi, in a house full of statues and halls. He is the only human being along with the Other, and they meet up twice every week. They are scientists and Other studies Piranesi as his subject.
I had to slow down to read this one. It took time for me to get used to the setting. You have enough information to explain what happens in the house and who dwells in the house. There is a mystery element to the story, and the excerpt leaves you hanging there with this puzzle to ponder over.

I'm rating it somewhere between 3.5-3.75 because it is too early to comment on the book. This book is for fantasy fiction lovers out there.

I am thankful for the option of reading this excerpt so that I could see that this book is not like Clarke's previous novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. From the description I also thought it might be a bit like The Starless Sea, but I just wasn't transported with Piranesi the way I was with either JS&MN or TSS.

Having read and loved both Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and The Ladies of Grace Adieu, I am eagerly anticipating Susanna Clarke's new novel.Piranesi. After reading the excerpt, my anticipation has only grown.

The Title character, Piranesi lives in a world which is a house of three stories - the seas on the bottom story, the people on the second, and the clouds and skies on the third - and endless corridors and rooms. Each room is filled with statues of many styles and subjects. The only person Piranesi knows to be living is a man he calls The Other, although there are skeletons of others here and there in the World.

The set up reminds me much of Peake's Gormemghast, with the statues and endless rooms, and the Pan-like Faun who meets a small girl under a lamppost can only be Mr. Tumnus with Lucy, I think.

Looking forward to reading the rest.

What a teaser!

I was very happy to receive the excerpt for PIRANESI because I was unsure if this would be a story for me. But I found the writing it quirky and engaging. I really wanted to keep reading and see what happens in this unusual world and uncover the mysteries with Piranesi.

This is a Book of The Month book too, so if you are looking for an unusual type of mystery novel, then snag this now. It definitely reminds me a bit of The Starless Sea. It’s a book I could take my time with and get lost in.

I’m happy I was approved for the excerpt. I’m not sure if I would enjoy reading a book that is styled like this. Her other book series, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, has a cult-like following but I haven’t read that either. Maybe that would be a good intro to this author’s writing style.

It's written in a particular style, usually found in fantasy or harder SF, which involves a lot of random proper nouns, and I always struggle with that, not least because it immediately gives rise to questions about the logic of how things are named/referred to.
Wonderful. Lost memories and closed environments and unreliable narrators and untrustworthy companions.

Sorry, I did not realize this was an excerpt. I don't have the kind of blog that reviews excerpts. My assumption is always that, if the book as a whole is any good, publishers will make the whole book available for review. Providing only an excerpt suggests that something awful is being hidden.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Publication Date: September 15, 2020
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Description from NetGalley...
“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 and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.“
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Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury publishing for this digital ARC (excerpt).
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My thoughts...
I’m a big fan of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norris and the t.v. series was also fantastic. This whole concept and new world is exciting. I cannot wait to read more of Clarke’s book. Now, I’m just hoping to get the full version/copy of the book to give a complete review (crossing my fingers).

I received an excerpt of about 100 pages of this book, so I will be updating my review of it once I have read all of it in its entirety. For now I will write a few of my initial thoughts.

This is unlike anything else that I have read by Susanna Clarke so far, but just as whimsically brilliant. As the reader, you are thrown directly into the mind of Piranesi and the sprawling labyrinth of a home that he inhabits. It is altogether confusing and disorienting, yet something about it is also familiar. I am intrigued to see where the corridors of this World take me and to learn more of the stories of the statues and the people who once inhabited this World.

“The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; it’s Kindness infinite.”

Piranesi is the collected writings of an inhabitant of a House called The World. Three floors and hundreds of rooms, The World is an apt name for it. I found this to be quite charming. By all accounts it IS like reading a journal; rambling in a way thought can be. There certainly is a lot to find out about the House and its occupants and I am certainly looking forward to reading the finished book.

The excerpt length is perfect. Enough to experience the writing style, the setting and feel out the voice of the ‘narrator.’ The World and its many halls are waiting to be explored. I personally am ready to be swept up in it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the excerpt copy for review.

This is my first book by Susanna Clarke and I must admit that I’m awestruck by the world building and magical realm. The opening chapter is an eye catcher that pulled me into the world of Piranesi. This book is different from other fantasies that we all have read before. The story keeps you glued and you will enjoy it as much as I did. The writing of pretty simple and easy to understand. The elements of the story are quiet different and I enjoyed thoroughly knowing about them.

Overall it’s a must read book and highly recommend this book to all fantasy lovers.

I began reading this excerpt and felt I was reading into a book very similar to The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and while I enjoyed that book I was not ready to dive into another conundrum that was similar right now. I may choose to read this book in the future, it's premise and characters are strong and interesting,but after the previous long but enjoyable read I was looking for lighter fare.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA (Publishing) for providing an excerpt of Piranesi in exchange for my honest review.

I'm not familiar with Susanna Clarke's work but I've heard that her writing is magical! Piranesi sounds downright weird, yet I am utterly intrigued by it. The description reminds me of an M.C. Escher graphic art piece - a labyrinth of halls, infinite walls and endless corridors - all so surreal and haunting. The excerpt gave me a taste of this bizarre world and has me wanting more!

I just received my copy in the mail so I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

I will definitely have to check out Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell after I'm done with Piranesi.

Wow, the excerpt introduces us to the dreamy world of Piranesi. He lives in a house with endless rooms, many statues, and booming tides. One other person, called The Other, visits twice a week. What is this place? Who is Piranesi? Why can’r he remember his past?

I don’t know—but I found this book to be so intriguing. I did just spend over a hour researching Battersea especially the online short play, No Way Out, set in the Battersea Arts Center and reading about an Italian designer of endless prisons (on paper only luckily).

I definitely want to read more of Piranesi’s haunting and surreal story. It reminds me of The Plague by Camus and my favorite Kafka tales. I will request the full book on here. Fingers crossed!

Compared to JSMN, PIRANESI is hundreds of pages shorter. Still, something tells me that Clarke’s magic is not limited here. The otherworldliness of the book amplifies the mystery enveloping the whole premise. Who is Piranesi? Where exactly is he? There are clues for the readers.

I only got an excerpt of this book but the first three chapters were really interesting and I can’t wait to read the whole book!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me an excerpt in exchange for my opinion

Well, it's hard to give any real kind of review based only on an excerpt, but I love Susanna Clarke's 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell', and the twenty or so pages I was able to read in this excerpt certainly intrigued me enough to make me want to purchase this newest book of hers.

I **REALLY** hope that I’m approved by the publisher for the full galley copy because this excerpt ends on a cliffhanger, or, rather, where the actual story starts. The excerpt is the wraparound story that sets the world-building, provides context to how this world works, who inhabits it, and introduces the narrator (journal keeper) Piranesi — who, right up until they told me to opposite, I was reading as a woman. That made it a different (though equally interesting) narrator but I shifted quickly enough. The feel of the writing reminds me a lot of Margaret Atwood and even in an excerpt that doesn’t include the central conflict of the story, the pace and storyline moved quickly and kept my interest, because as a reader, you have to figure out his world that Piranesi takes as his everyday reality.

I really hope I get to read the rest! I will probably pick it back up at some point regardless, because I want to know what the event is!