A review by literaryelephant
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

adventurous challenging dark 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

This is a beautiful puzzle wrapped up in novel form. The SFF element is evocative and appealingly unsettling, but the plot is driven rather by the mystery at its core, which plays out through subtle clues delivered in dialogue and small events leading up to the inevitable climax. I absolutely loved my time spent in this strange world, the only downside being that I'm a good puzzler and found the MC's revelations to be superfluous to the unspoken hints about what is happening. That the reader has more knowledge of the "real world" than the MC makes this imbalance more or less unavoidable, though easy enough to overlook while enjoying the rest of the book's content. 
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