![]() In Part III, Piranesi comes across an old man, who he nicknames the Prophet. One day, the Other tells Piranesi that someone (who they nickname "16") may show up, but that "16" is their enemy. Piranesi also forgets things and loses track of time, but the Other does not. ![]() The Other, however, is able to procure things like blankets, shoes, etc. Piranesi survives by fishing, gathering seaweed and collecting fresh water from waterfalls. Piranesi helps him with this research, but he doesn't really believe in it. The Other believes that the labyrinth contains a Great and Secret Knowledge. Part II, Piranesi meets with the Other, the only other living person there. The lowest level floods continuously, and Piranesi has located the skeletal remains of 13 dead people in the labyrinth. I’d give Piranesi 5/5 stars as honestly I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope I may have convinced others to give the story a go.Part I introduces Piranesi, a man who lives in a grand, 3-tiered labyrinth, filled with statues. I just had to find out what was going on. ![]() So much so that I ended up reading the book in one sitting. ![]() But I pushed myself through the confusion, and by around page 70, the infinite labyrinth of The House had swallowed me whole. If I absolutely had to pick something that I didn’t like about Piranesi, it would probably be that I found it hard to connect to the story at first. “Beauty of the House is immeasurable it’s kindness infinite.” Even though Piranesi finds a way out of The House and becomes Matthew once more, The House is still with him – the last line shows that The House still has a hold of him, it reads: It was fascinating that you can feel the transgression of Piranesi realising who he is, and his mind and memories coming back to him. There was a clear sense of character all the way through the book, even though Piranesi doesn’t know (and doesn’t question) his past or present. Because of this, I felt like I was learning things about The House and the Other alongside Piranesi – the slow story-telling builds tension that creeps up on you and becomes quite sinister. At the same time, the reader is always kept at a distance. I really liked that the reader was referenced in the book, and how this almost broke the fourth wall. Through his entries, we learn Piranesi is not alone in The House, in fact he is one of the sixteen people who have ever existed including himself, the Other, the thirteen skeletons that he’s pieced together – and Sixteen, the reader. The book is written in diary entries as Piranesi attempts to record his daily life in The House. Something about the book I adored was the incredible world building: I could clearly visualise what the halls, vestibules, statues, everything looked like. The book opens to the narrator, Piranesi, describing his life in The House, an endless collection of halls and vestibules filled with an eccentric assortment of statues, windows that stretch to the stars, basements that flood with the crashing tides. It is a story that is confusing and disorientating, but it works. If it is at all possible, Piranesi is the kind of book that you should approach knowing as little as possible about, so as to not spoil the delicious mysteries it brings and the ways in which they are unveiled. My top book of 2021 is Piranesi, a fantasy story by Susanna Clark, released in 2020. But I am quite fortunate in that a lot of the books I did get a chance to read, I massively enjoyed and they have instantly become some of my favourites that I’ve ever read. What with being a third year, transitioning into fourth year at university and working during the summer – I honestly didn’t get much free time to read. Reading in 2021, for me at least, took a back seat.
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