---
title: Piranesi
type: Book
date: 2020-10-09
rating: 7
author: "Susanna Clarke"
genre:
year: 2020
status: Finished
tags:
image: piranesi.jpg
colorSortKey: [0, 22, 0]
---


There's a lot to like about this book. The narrator (both in an audiobook and a diegetic sense, though I think the former certainly accentuated the latter) is terrific; the Borgesian framing and setting (and central mystery) is really fun and interesting; it is extremely well-paced and padded so that it never outstays its welcome. I found myself weirdly disappointed with only two things: the "twist", if you could call it that, is pretty immediately obvious (gee, I wonder what a "shining rectangle" could be!) and the denouement/climax felt extremely pre-ordained: not a single scrap of the final 20% of the book was surprising or interesting, even if I thoroughly enjoyed how you get there.