REVIEW: Piranesi

By Denise @ Life With No Plot on June 13, 2026 • ( 0 )

About the Book

Title: Piranesi

Author: Susanna Clarke

Series: none

Genre: Fantasy, Mythology, Magical Realism

Pages: 245

Edition Read: Paperback

Dates Read: March 11 – 15, 2026

Blurb: 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.

Review

I had fallen in love with Susanna Clarke’s writing ever since I read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. She has this beautiful quality to her prose that completely envelopes the reader into her fantasy world. So when I saw that she had another book out that I had completely missed, I had to read it.

Piranesi is one of the most unusual books I’ve ever read. The story world is just . . . one huge building that the main character appeared in one day with no memory of any other world, and he just goes with that. Piranesi wanders the various halls and corridors, keeps meticulous records mapping out the building and it’s various oddities. There are tides that come in and out, completely flooding entire floors. There are statues everywhere. There are the remains of other people who once lived here (or were trapped here). Piranesi chronicles it all and loves this place that has become his home in the years he has lived there.

There is also the Other, another man who visits Piranesi. From the beginning, even though he acts kindly towards Piranesi, there was this weird sinister quality to the Other. Who is he? How is he related to Piranesi? What is he trying to do? As the story goes on, you find out about more and more people who have visited this realm and some of what became of them. It’s a mystery within a mystery within a mystery.

I had a hard time putting this book down, even when I had to in order to clear my head and figure out what was going on. Because of how strange it is, this book is definitely not for everyone, but I absolutely loved it.

GoodReads rating: 5 stars