Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

16 reviews

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.

popiloey's review against another edition

mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Torture

Minor: Gun violence

nox_is_lost's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Death, and Kidnapping

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death, Animal death, Torture, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Slavery, and Ableism

careohleen's review against another edition

mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, and Torture

Minor: Racism and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

chrisljm's review against another edition

mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Despite the short length of the book, it is a slow start full of world building. However once you get past that it is so incredibly captivating, and I come to realize how amazing the world building is. Although Piranesi isn’t the only character, he is pretty much the only character you see majority of the time, but even so he’s engaging and the storytelling is fantastic, immersive, and so unique. I loved how soft the fantasy elements were and the way the novel was structured. Basically everything that I found slightly confusing at first were all things that I came to appreciate and really enjoy. 

I think Susanna Clarke deserved the awards she got for this book, and I understand why I heard so much praise for it, but I can also see how this book wouldn’t be for every type of reader. Luckily, I enjoyed it immensely and I found that this is the type of story that lingers and leaves a lot to think on afterwards. One of them being that personally, I would love to see The House because to Me it sounded beautiful despite its solitude. I also think it would be interesting to see how other readers viewed The House, in a personality test type of way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Excrement, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Vomit

Minor: Slavery, Suicide, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture

allegrabelle's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Piranesi was well written and sucked you in with a sensation of being alongside the narrator in a haunted and beautiful place. The parallel set up of both the mysterious universe in which it is set alongside the narrator's small but important interactions felt very real and very important. The author's ability to create suspense and tie in clues throughout the text was well done. 

Enjoyable, fun, with an interesting plot. I would recommend for someone who wants to delve into fantasy but has found some other novels, completely devoid of a connection with our 'reality' more challenging to bite into. The overall plot was interesting, and the conclusion of the novel was still surprising, although not entirely a cliff hanger that carried through to the end of the novel. 

Good dialogue, emotional characters, and a fun haunt. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Death, and Torture

divya_s's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture and Slavery

ginny_lind's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Confinement, Gaslighting, Murder, and Pedophilia

madmantha's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Grief, Violence, Emotional abuse, Slavery, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Stalking, Abandonment, Child death, Cursing, Dementia, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Vomit, Deadnaming, Torture, Trafficking, and Gun violence

The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.