Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Piranesi

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

120 reviews

novemberreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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shannabanana6's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a really cool sci fi book. The world of the Labyrinth was so cool and Piranesi's love and reverence toward it and the world is admirable, to find beauty in everything is not easy but I think that's the moral of the story here. There's also some more intense aspects too which is kind of a strange mix of trauma/sadness and love and beauty. I found the resolution at the end of the book rather satisfying although I want to know more bout how he's getting on in this new world.

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ambers's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I'm of two minds about this book. I read the whole thing in one sitting, and I honestly thought I was going to give it 5/5 stars. Then, as I started to think about it, I changed that to 4/5. At the time of actually siting down to write this review, I've dropped it to 3.5/5.

Why? There was obviously plenty that I loved, given my knee jerk reaction. The lush writing, the strange ecology, the dreamlike quality and its descent into nightmare - all of that was fantastic. Unfortunately, I can't get past the author's choice to write her only gay character as a predatory villain with a pattern of taking advantage of younger men, including lumping his sexuality in with his 'transgressive' nature (which explicitly includes several despicable acts). It isn't that queer characters can't be villains (although I would, honestly, caution authors to be careful of that regardless - being aware of harmful tropes is important), but this particular blend of using sexuality to highlight someone's perversion is harmful and dated. The longer I sit with that, the more I sour on this book. It's a real shame, because Piranesi could've been something beautiful.

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queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition

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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

3.5

The mystery was intense and it had me hooked start to finish. I loved Piranesi as a character, as tragic as he was. It brushed right up against the myth of the Labyrinth, but it wasn't so overt that it felt redundant.

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themirrorball's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective relaxing 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

5.0

i absolutely loved this book. the prose was fantastic, and created a vivid world that i missed whenever i wasn’t reading the book. piranesi is honestly the most pure thing to ever exist, i love him. the pacing of this book was perfect, with just the right combination of world building and plot. towards the end, i could not put it down. this book was definitely an amazing surprise.

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pastelmeganes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

I felt the beginning of the book was a real drag to tread through. The halls and scenery were very daunting to keep track of. Besides certain locations reference multiple times, i kinda just ditched trying to understand where everything is. I enjoyed keeping track of things though piranesi’s journal entries. It was nice and gave me ini

Spoiler

idk why but the biggest plot twist for me was that Piranesi was half black this whole time! Idk why but i just pictured him as a whole white man. Also i feel i needed more on 16/Raphael. I feel she kinda got thrown in?? Something about her being a big center of the final act made me feel a certain way. I wasn’t too shocked that Ketterley was the main antagonist, it was more the way it was presented that made it enjoyable.

Spoiler

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