I'm getting behind in my book reviews.
I've completed three books that I haven't posted about yet, one that I finished as far back as late June early July. I would throw them all into one large post but given that I don't have much to write about these days I'm more inclined to trickle them out one at a time, much to the dismay of the block chain. So anyway let take a look at what I have to say about Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
This one I actually finished very recently. I'm reviewing them out of order now.
The book is about a man name Piranesi who lives in an infinite labyrinth that he calls the House. The house is made up of an infinite number of hallways, vestibules and staircases, all of which are lined with an endless number of marble statues. Piranesi spends his time cateloging the statues and doing a few other routine tasks. On the lower levels of the House is an ocean that constantly changes with the tides. On the upper levels are sky and clouds. Piranesi is there alone except for for some birds and one other person, known as "the other," who he sees twice per week. The two inhabitants are searching for a great and secret knowledge.
In the begining I was somewhat struggling with the book. Not much was happening and it was mostly just describing the house that is like what I mentioned above, just a series of halls and statues. It was repetitive and I was getting bored.
I also didn't like the constant repetitiveness of the descriptions of the locations within the house. They would be described as the "Second South-Western Hall" or maybe the thirteenth Northern Vestibule. This type of description happens throughout the book on every second page, sometimes multiple times per page. It was meant to demonstrate the vastness of the house and the confusing maze like setting of it all but I found it very difficult to read and so so repetitive. It slowed the reading process down and I also started to find that there was no real need to keep track of where the protagonist was within the house. Once it had been established that the house is vast beyond comprehension I really stopped caring if he was in the 13th hallway or the 72nd. I eventually just skipped over all of these types of descriptions and just read "the hall" for simplicity. The entire book is set within a hall or vestibule, so yeah I get it, you're in a hall.
At 30% of the way (I was reading on my kobo) I considered stopping out of boredom. I ended up pushing just a little further and at 35% I actually became interested. A mystery started to develop and I became curious at that point.
I did find the book to be a little predictable though as well, and at 50% I started to anticipate a twist coming that was obvious and I was able to call it by the end.
All in all I found this one to be a little predictable and repetitive but it was also interesting to read the mystery unfold and it was short enough that I was able to power through the boring parts.
Overall I gave it a 3 out of 5 in the end. A decent and entertaining read in my opinion but easily forgotten.
