Reviews tagging Slavery

Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

44 reviews

bridgetbry's review against another edition

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

5.0

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troldmand's review

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dark hopeful informative mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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? No

4.0

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alexxm13's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-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

Spoiler First of all the parallels between this and “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley is beyond my brain power to wrap around, I will be spending hours on reflecting and contrasting how this masterpiece is so similar to one of my fav classics. Looking for dark academia vibes but its not “the secret history” with overachieving students but also similar to “Frankenstein”’s writing style of scientific characters and agony? Yea this book is for u . Ok before I dive deep into why this book is so good, I will be honest that the first 100ish pages I wanted to dnf it umm not that it was bad it was just at a pace where nothing much was happening and it read like a journal of someone’s that I couldn’t care less about and also I just was not in the mood to read this sort of fiction BUT for the past 2 days I sat down and forced myself continue this and thank fuck I did. I sat outside with the sunset going down in the back with my oversized hoody and after 3 hours I started to rlly enjoy it, things were happening and that moment of “wow this is so powerful” yeah that happened like 10 times while reading it. The last half of this was incredible and made me want to consume it all in one sitting . Okay putting my eng lit brain on and comparing the parallels between the characters; the other (victor Frankenstein) and Piranesi (monster) is just uncanny. u have a mad scientist who just wants to know beyond this one world and what else exists after death and creation of a world and life who legit kidnaps his “friend” as he manipulates him so he can get recognition and feed into his hubris, hamartia if u will  (look at me go Shakespeare class) and due to this overly ambitious goals this in end destroys him. Anyways paralleling to victor who is also this drop out student but still wants to continue with his wild research about creation he creates a “monster” due to his ambition to prove his worth. And then the victims; Piranesi who is this clueless man and has been driven to madness for however many years trapped in “the house” who was manipulated by his friend who brought him to this world, just like the monster who is also quite clueless but “misery made me a fiend” and at the end these victims destroy who betrayed them :) . Anyways back to the book, my analysis can pause for now its 11pm and I should just chill my brain but anyways there are so many quotes and themes I adore in this, eg; “the one who will never submit to being driven mad by you” CAN U HEAR ME SCREAM? This is a literal lovers to enemies line and im on the floor because of that because the connection these two characters have is like a stab in the heart and I know when I read “vicious” by ve schwab it will do the same for me ugh . Also I love the mc like he’s so lovely and selfless and the last few chapters made me rlly sad that he can’t remember his family after son long being trapped and he didn’t initially want to go home as he thought this new world is his home, but he was just lied to for years and found these skeletons and looks after them as he is that lonely but im so happy that he was able to find a genuine friend; Raphael who wants what is best for him and not for the sake of fame or money or the greater knowledge which is a key theme I want to expand on more tbh .Was this book initially a 5 star? Absolutely not, before the past 2 days of reading the 2nd half this was going to be a 2 but the angst, the meanings, the quotes, so many things made it a 5 and I 100% recommend for anyone to read this esp for people who want dark academia style books that are not hyped because this deserves love!
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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective

4.5

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sonlight21's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

If you like academia, wether that be light or dark or whatever, you would enjoy this book. I have never gotten into that genre/trope before but it was interesting. I loved the writing style it was beautifully lyrical and simple to understand. It didn’t feel like the author was trying to be overly intellectual or talk down to the reader. 
However this book fell a little flat for me. I think that many people would adore this book and many people may not like it. Personally it was just kinda there for me. I could see the plot twist coming from the fist chapter, and I don’t know if that’s because I analyze peoples writing too much or watch too many mystery shows but when the “plot twist” came I was like FINALLY. I also went into the book completely blind. I didn’t read the back cover or anything about it. 
If you enjoy the academia trope you should give this book a try! 
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paracosmicmess's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

4.0

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sabrinalefebvre's review against another edition

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

5.0

The first 5 pages were a sludge to get through but after that I was hooked. The mc was such a pleasant character. I loved hearing his thoughts, which is surprising because I usually prefer 3rd person Povs.
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harmonique's review

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adventurous inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

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chrisljm's review against another edition

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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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bhelena's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

i'm not as into Haunting Houses as some other readers i know yet i still couldn't put this down. wah. that said that odd vague undercurrent of homoerotic homophobia confused me in its random unparsability
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