I love the character of Piranesi. He's very childlike in his curiosity and excitement, and although he loves people he's perfectly content on his own.

I quite fell in love with the character Piranesi. He narrates everything in such an ingenuous way.

You're quickly becoming one of the booktubers whose recs I trust the most! Now I gotta go buy Piranesi...

"Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke is my favorite book if all times and it means the world to me. I never felt as seen in a charcter before, so I return to "Piranesi" whenever I need the words to express the truth within my soul, to feel a wonder like no other and to be comforted.

Just finished Piranesi, it 3 am where I live 😅 I thought it was so gentle and beautiful! While there's a lot of truly disturbing things going on in this book, I still felt really safe and kind of comforted by it? Loved how many interesting concepts it touched on and how dreamy and mellow it was. Great review, I'm glad to hear another's readers thoughts on this beautiful, little story ✨

I read this last month and it was a surprising read for me and omg I connected with Piranesi so much. I felt like a momma bird while reading. When I began to be suspicious of other characters I was like, "I swear if you hurt my baby I'm gonna go full momma bear on you!"

This was one of the first books I've read in a long while I REALLY LOVED IT The whole concept of "the house" is something I've imagined for forever

Piranesi is my most enjoyable book of the year too! It's mysterious, sad exciting and funny! Piranesi was kinda adorable! I want to do a Dungeons and Dragons quest where I take ideas from this book. (Most of my groups dnd ideas are from strange and norrell. Susanna Clarke's books are a dnd gold mine)

I cried last year finishing this. Just got a physical copy and went straight to the back to read it again. I cried again

Finished reading Piranesi this morning. I really liked that you talked about how he was changing along with the revelations he was having. I think it was pretty explicitly shown when he swears for the first and only time, as if he is growing up and his mind is remembering his past

I went into this book thinking oooh a nice greek myth then about 20 pages in Piranesi introduces the biscuit box man and the fact he's SPOILER is kept in a family circle tin and I was genuinely shocked. It proper threw me and made me read more. This is one book I feel everyone has to read at least once.

I think 'Enjoyable' is the most complimentary adjective that could be used for a book, and yes I agree Piranesi was a truly enjoyable and cathartic experience! I've only just come off the read as I was fighting the hype LOL. But my goodness, not since Life of Pi or even strangely enough Convenience Store Woman, has a story made me convulse in embarrassing sobs as Piranesi has! Utterly beautiful.

Your note on the capitalisation of nouns throughout the book is blowing. My. Mind. 🤩 Fantastic review!

Talk about coming late to the party - I also resisted picking up this book and I also LOVED it once I finally did... I think your observation about the character of Piranesi is bang on, in that I *wanted* to continue to spend time with him - and thank you for the distinction you make, that the book is mysterious/puzzling but not complicated - it's puzzling until it isn't. Great review, thanks.

Just finished reading this. Same day I started it. I couldn't put it down Lol. It was extremely entertaining. The setting, the mystery, I was hooked. I think the pacing really helped keep me hooked. No area of the book felt too drawn out to me

I picked this one up assuming it was going to be another modern retelling of a myth, and I actually spent the first part of the book with this in mind, but wow I was thoroughly corrected. Your remarks are a brilllliiant summation of this book. I was enthralled cover to cover, and so pleasantly moved by Piranesi's sweet character.

And the language is so so charming.

I tried this book and couldn’t get into it, but you’ve made me want to try again! Thank you! 😊

Welp, you just sold me on Flowers for Algernon. It's been sitting on my shelf for a year untouched but hearing that I may love a character in that the way I loved Piranesi, I'm in.

(Spoilers) I would argue the book is not tied up in a neat bow at the end. Is it happy or sad? Is our narrator Piranesi or Matthew? He is now in the "real world" and knows his name is Matthew, but he does not remember his loved ones, and his rhetoric is Piranesi's. Even though he made it out of the House, will he ever truly leave the House, or is he trapped forever? Is this a hopeless feeling or a hopeful one? Does he reconcile the House with the "real world" or is he stuck in the labyrinthine House? Which would he prefer? Which would we prefer? Are they the same?

Just finished the book about thirty minutes ago. I agree with so much of what you are saying. It is engaging, brilliantly written, with magic and wonder. I fear I will get spoilery with my next comment, not in terms of plot, but with how the book made me feel by the end, so I caution anyone not to read on if they don't want to hear my emotional reaction to the ending... In short, it made really sad. Again, at the risk of sounding spoilery, the ending hit me ultimately as a kind of tragedy. Not completely, of course, as there is hope, I suppose. But what hit me was this feeling, this idea of the necessity of disassociating to protect oneself, to the extent of truly losing oneself. And the idea, at least in these pages, that, once lost, you may come partially back--- but not completely. That a part of you was gone so long, so completely in another reality, that you must stay lost. A part of you will always be in the other world. This made me sad. I still think it is a wondrous read, though.

I just reread this and it really is just the most incredible book. I feel like I could just keep reading it over and over. Just drop into the halls, breathe the air ...

I got this book because Reads with Rachel mentioned it in one of her reviews and she loved it, and she and I have similar tastes. I haven't read a book twice, back-to-back, since my childhood. Piranesi was beautiful and blew me away. That being said, I can see why some people were turned off by it--this is not a "turn your brain off and enjoy the story" kind of book. Thank you for your review! So glad I could drop this very timely comment. XD

I wasn't planning on reading this book, but now, after watching your review, I will get it! Thanks!

I cannot tell. Love to hear you talk about this book. I will now read it!!!

I just finished Piranesi and loved it! I will reread it sometime. Great review!

I read it thanks to you! And so far it's the best book I've read this year! So THANK YOU again! I loved it ♥

Just finished this and love your review! Spot on.

Got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gonna read it. Thank you for an insightful review!

Great video!! I loved this book

I am usually not a fan of overly long books. That being said, I believe that this book could and should have been longer. Or at least another book. Little over half way the author felt they had to reveal all the secrets and raced through the rest of the book. It was such a unique storyline. I felt she could have unfolded this slower and kept the beauty the book had in the first part throughout.

I adored her first book, so I was super hyped for this one. Went into it, like you, utterly blind. I was totally shocked and delighted (like you, lol). I've been trying to shove it into everyone hands since then. Glad you liked it!

Everyone I've spoken to didn't like this book. So I felt a bit alone because I loved it so much. But then I saw you liked it... so yay!

i found this book because i stumbled across the artist and loved the art so much. i was telling a friend about the art because its rad and would be cool to do a dnd game in that art and i just looked up piranesi and it auto filled piranesi book, it peaked my interest so i clicked on it and ordered as soon as i saw it was a fictional book with a super vague description and wow its so fucking good

just to add i enjoyed the calming, isolated vibes of the book. it was peaceful, a little crazy and such a good experience to read.

I’m currently reading Piranesi and I have no idea what’s going on so I’m here watching this video to remind myself why reading this book is worth it.

Yay! I just finished reading Piranesi for a book club and I was just so mesmerised. I devoured it in 3 days while working. And I’m usually a very slow reader, but this truly captivated me.

Just started the book and really enjoyed your introductionto it as I diidn't know if I was going to DNF it.- however now I am REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO READING IT.

Smashing review!

Paranesi was a really chill read

just found your channel. Interesting enough as i loved flowers for algernon and also piransei. i list them as my 2 all time favourites. Do you have any all time favourite book videos?

Having previously read Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, I felt quite comfortable with the concept of a house with an infinity of rooms and unlike Peake's unlikeable protagonists, e.g., Steerpike, I was enchanted with Piranesi. In fact he is now (along with Terry Pratchet's Granny Weatherwax) one of my all time favorite fictional characters.

Yes, most enjoyable read, and loved Piranesi too, he was the sweetest.

I was not expecting to enjoy Piranesi as much as I did!! The theory that Piranesi was actually trapped in his own mind, and Raphael may have actually been a therapist trying to understand him is also really interesting :)

❤ this book - special place in my ❤

It just came out in Brazil and I finished in like 2 days! At first I thought it was going to be a storie with the same vibe of Pan's Labyrinth by Del Toro, I really wasn't expecting how things turned out but still a great book

Thanks for the great review, this is one of my favorite books! You mentioned how notable it was that Susanna Clarke didn't write anything for 10 years after Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel. I thought you'd be interested to know that that is because Susanna Clarke developed chronic fatigue syndrome, and was mostly bed bound for almost ten years. She started writing Piranesi when her condition began to improve (though she does still have CFS). This is especially interesting because this is what inspired Piranesi. It was about her experience of isolation with the illness, though she herself didn't know it until she was part way through writing the book. I don't think she means for the book to be only or even primarily read through that lense or anything, and I don't think it's meant to be a 1:1 allegory with everything in the book representing some aspect of chronic illness. There are so many layers and meanings in this story open to so many interpetations by different readers. But that is what it meant to Clarke herself, and I think that absolutely everyone who has experienced an isolating chronic (or mental) illness--particularly one where you feel it takes a lot of your personality from you--will deeply relate to this book for that reason. I have CFS as well, and I feel I had the perfect experience reading htis book: I read it the first time knowing nothing about it, and I loved it for the great story it was, with so many interesting layers and metaphors. Then I read some intereviews with Clarke about the book, learned about her CFS and its role in this book, and was able to see the book in a whole new light that was deeply personal. One thing that is difficult with chronic illness is that so few people can relate to what your life is like. But though this book is a fantasy novel with all kinds of strange happenings, I have never felt so SEEN as a person with this condtion, as this book made me feel!

'I thought that it was going to be like watching Lost'... the other(s)? science experiments? magical land grounded in reality? Aside from its simplicity, this book reminded me so much of Lost!!

So I loved it so much, read it in 4 days. but hear me out with this comparison.it reminded me of Room if it had a happy ending and no "R" word. The innocence he is writing with but the reader can kind of figure out things through context just a bit ahead of him. He was imprisoned in a space that (as far as he knows anyway) is all there is. The capitalizing certain things and his relationship to the statues reminded me of the little boy and all his stuff he loves like family.

I love your reviews. Hello from Seoul

Just inhaled this book in a handful of hours watching this bc I need to hear people talk about it 😭 so incredible

I found it particularly delightful as an audiobook.

I love everything about the book and I strongly believe that it is the worthy winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Award. SPOILER… The book hit me differently though since I read it from an angle of mental illness, i.e. The House and its labyrinths representing different facets of his mind, Raphael as his therapist pretending to be a police officer and ultimately the switch of personalities between Piranesi and Matthew especially when he said “Hush now, I will take care of the both of us.” I seem to be in the minority here but curious if anyone else read the book that way.

Guess I know what I’m reading next

Knew nothing about this book apart from that I didn't like the title Piranesi lol. It sounds so good though! And the 1200 page novel of hers is on my radar now!

Thanks for the nice review! I didn't enjoy the book that much, but your enthusiasm and point of view are great ^ ^ A little "meta" mistery about this book (WARNING: kind of a potential spoiler here) : "Piranesi" measure things in metres...when, according to the reveal, he shouldn't, to me. Do the english readers have any hypothesis about it?

Great review. Just to note, apparently the author was quite ill for many years, so not able to write in the sustained way novels require. She says (in a conversation with Madeline Miller here on YoutTube) that it is still a challenge but possible now.

Winner 🏆

finished it last night and I just love it so much! I wish there are other books that read like this. Or perhaps I should read Clarke’s other works ? love your passionate review 💕

it was a 3/5 for me not my favourite but it was a nice read

Good comparison with Flowers to Algernon, I had not thought about It.

Bro brush you teeth. 😄 Really loved your review. Thank you. Subscribed!

ok I just finally got to this book, forgive the 2 year old video comment... lol... SPOILER OMG!!!! I was SO hoping him, the cop, and the other guy that wanted so badly to go back, would all go back together, something would happen and they'd get stuck over night, they'd wake up, *turns page* and then they all have forgotten who they actually are, and now 3 of them are trapped there! and it just LEAVES you right there! I would have GASPED out loud and flipped out to make everyone read it. lol. you know, the 3 people in the space station who haven't yet read it... im a bit late

"Piranesi" with one S ; ) like in "Easy"

Hello, great review, thank you. Does the book have any LGTBQ... character or theme? Or any hint?