A review by nookofley
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

5.0

"The House is valuable because it is the House. It is enough in and of Itself. It is not the means to an end,"

I have never had a book made me stay up the entire night just to finish reading the book. I would say this book is worth every of the hype and I am glad I borrowed this book from the library. I delved right into the book so there is some easter eggs of the book that I discovered midway reading the book. For example, the MC is given the name 'Piranesi' which is the name of an Italian artist who was famous for his works containing a labyrinth-sort of effect (not familiar with paintings or arts, so please bear with me ahaha). This is similar to the House that is mentioned in the book. It has a labyrinth of halls and vestibules each filled with statues of its own and our MC is extremely great at venturing and keeping track of every halls he has visited.

Spoiler

Just like that at the end, the police officer who saves Piranesi is named (and called) 'Raphael' and has a very healing and calm aura. She is said to be very resilient and whenever she appears in the book, she seems to have a positive effect on the people around her. Similarly, Archangel Raphael is known as the angel of healing.

I love the complexity of the characters, how their minds starts working as soon as their subjected to long periods of loneliness and being a part of a cult. You cannot hate or love the characters because you'd still be thinking about why they act the way they do and how their mind works and then the book ends. The book is a pretty quick read and you might find it lengthy (and annoying even) when the book begins with a LOT of description of the statues and vestibules itself. But, you need to stick around for a while to reach a beautiful journey that will unfold along the book.