19 July 2024
Piranesi By Susanna Clarke Review And Book Club Questions
Reviewed by: Melissa Ng
Quick Facts
Book Publication Date: 15 September 2020
How I Read It: eBook on Libby - borrowed from my local library
Where You Can Find Piranesi: Amazon Australia* | Kobo US* | Kobo Canada*
Piranesi Review
If you’ve seen any “must read” list on Booktube, BookTok, or Bookstagram, you will have heard of Piranesi. Everyone raves about it.
The mystery is amazing, you’ll fly through the book, the twist at the end is mind blowing!
Most reviewers say to go in blind, which is what I did.
The book is laid out in journal entry form from the point of view of Piranesi, a man who explores and documents this mysterious labyrinth of a building. It’s filled with endless halls, rooms, statues, birds, fish, and even has its own tides.
As Piranesi is a documenter, you can imagine that the descriptions are in painstaking detail. For example, he writes:
I climbed up the Western Hall until I reached the Statue of a Woman carrying a Beehive, fifteen metres above the Pavement. The Women is two or three times my own height and the Beehive is covered with marble Bees the size of my thumb. One Bee - this always gives me a slight sensation of queasiness - crawls over her left Eye.
Okay…
As you keep reading, you’ll also notice that he doesn’t follow the modern-day calendar system. Instead, he’s made up his own system that reads:
Entry for the first day of the fifth month in the year the albatross came to the south-western halls
Interesting…
As I read the first half of the book, I try to take in as much of this detail as possible. Since I’ve gone in blind to the book, I don’t know if I need to take in every single description and date. What’s important???
Do I really need to care about the statue in the north facing corner of the eighth hall to the right? I’m pretty bad at directions, so it’s both confusing and difficult to read.
Let me save you the trouble, none of those details are important. In fact, they’re completely unnecessary. You can actually skip over them entirely and still understand everything you need to.
Now, with the excessive detail aside, the mystery and suspense built up in the first half of the book is great. I can see why people were flying through it. There were so many questions to be answered:
Why is Piranesi here? Who is The Other? What is this research The Other is conducting? Who is this mysterious new person? Are they friend or foe?
Even though this book is on the shorter side (less than 300 pages), it felt like the story progressed at a snail’s pace. There are some journal entries that didn’t feel like they had any purpose other than filler words.
As for the ending of the book, honestly, it was predictable and a letdown.
I don’t think it lives up to the hype. It’s one of those books where you’re taken on a bit of a ride not knowing where you’re going, and the destination is disappointing.
If you took out the repetitive nature of the journal entries, cut down on the descriptions, and fleshed out the backstory and reveal of the mystery more (i.e. the “how” of the story), I would have rated this higher.
I can see why it’s popular amongst the book community, but it wasn’t entirely for me.
If you like a good mystery with a touch of magical realism and don’t mind skimming through a lot of the details, Piranesi might be a great pick for you. However, if you prefer faster-paced plots, this book will feel sluggish.
If you’re looking for something with a similar vibe but done well, I have two TV show recommendations for you:
Piranesi Book Club Questions
- What do you think of Piranesi’s unique way of recording time?
- Do you think Piranesi’s descriptions of the halls and statues were helpful?
- Did you like the journal entry reading experience?
- If you were Piranesi, what do you think the purpose of the research was?
- Would you have trusted The Other if you were Piranesi?
- Would you have trusted the new person if you were Piranesi?
- Did you guess the ending?
- How effective was the book in building mystery and suspense? What kept you turning the pages?
- Do you think the book lived up to the hype it received on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube?
- Would you recommend this book?
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