Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

274 reviews

aas's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Child death, Vomit, Confinement, Death, Blood, Murder, Violence, Grief, and Kidnapping

cepbreed's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Beautiful, atmospheric, confusing. Piranesi was a book I forgot about for a long time before rediscovering it in my downloads while searching for something to fill up my time on a long plane ride. The writing is beautiful, the descriptions are so atmospheric, but to me, especially in the beginning, it was confusing and therefore unattractive. Nevertheless months later I rediscovered it and finished it and I am so glad I did. Clarke tackles many concepts, but I am most invested in her concept of identity.

Spoiler

Matthew, Piranesi and then the man become of escaping the labyrinth are of the same body, it is their minds that differ. The three have common threads in interests and dislikes, but ultimately are far more different. To Clarke identity has to do with continuity I think. When Piranesi cannot remember writing in the first 21 journals he attributes those to Matthew. And when both identities don’t know what to make of the original world a new identity is formed all together.

I appreciate the meticulous effort put into crafting this story and world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death

averi's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

jovial_glider's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Confinement, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Excrement and Murder

malb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Confinement, and Death

miller8d's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I loved that this book felt like a refreshing escape from the normal structure and narrative that many fiction books follow.

Spoiler

I was surprised by most of the book, and deeply appreciated that the magic of this universe was both fantastical and simple, both logical and inexplicable. I found myself confused about the storyline/losing focus frequently throughout the book, which normally would bother me, but it felt like I was experiencing the same thing as the narrator LOL, which I enjoyed. I found the narrator’s genuinely kind soul very touching and deeply enjoyed the process of discovering what had happened. I didn’t realize it was a mystery novel until halfway through which is awesome. The well-established isolated world meant that, with the appearance of each new person or information, it was genuinely shocking. Very interesting and refreshing read.

Also, I pictured The Other as Brett Goldstein.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Kidnapping, Gun violence, Dementia, Confinement, Murder, Mental illness, Grief, Death, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Vomit and Violence

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Trafficking, and Blood

Although this book covers many dark topics,

Spoiler

beyond the main topics of confinement and kidnapping and gaslighting,

there are very few graphic descriptions of physical violence or torture. Like for example,

Spoiler

there is a gun and attempted shooting, but nobody actually gets shot, and there are no graphic details about it, etc.

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was slow, strange, but also meditative book. The house contains the ocean.  Piranesi, the character is naïve, and full of wonder at the world that he lives in, isolated, but very willing to explore the ruins he is in, and depend on himself.

The juxtaposition of how isolated Piranesi is with how he revered the natural world… it’s heartbreaking. his acceptance of his position in the world is both something that inspires hope in survival and ingenuity, but also built up the sense of frustration with how stuck he was. 

The twist of the book was fascinating, and some thing that turns so much of the perspective of Piranesi on its head. 

This is one of those books that I can’t stop thinking about long after I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Confinement

Moderate: Death and Mental illness

The content warning is a big one:

Spoiler

Piranesi was kidnapped and tortured, gaslit into believing his new identity

lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

What a strange and suspenseful little book. I won’t say much to avoid spoilers, and I do feel like I wanted a little more closure at the end, but definitely worth reading if you can handle epistolary style (journal entries).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Confinement, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death

eauderat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Toxic friendship

blueberrypi's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

It started off a little slow for me and took me some time to get into it but I ended up really enjoying it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Mental illness