Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Firstly, this is a "strange" story. How strange? Hmm. Consider if H.P. Lovecraft had an imagination of massive goodness and gentleness to partner with his skill at grandeur. That strange. Or, if the lyrics to A Whiter Shade of Pale" were expanded into a cohesive, novel-length, narrative. That analogy too might work. Consider your own appetite for "strange" before you jump in to buy and begin. This story became truly entrancing for me. A young man, Piranesi, (though that is not the name on his birth certificate, but a name given to him by the Other) lives in the House, a vast labyrinth of halls and corridors and staircases, filled with exquisite marble statues. Piranesi leads a simple life; he fishes, dries seaweed for soup and fuel, maps and memorizes the tides that at times course through the House, walks the halls in reverence, and keeps a journal, according to his own calendar, of what he observes and feels and comes to know. Twice a week, for one hour only, he has an appointment with the man known as the Other. The Other is always dressed smartly in suits and a tie. Piranesi is dressed in the rags that remain of the clothes he must have worn when he arrived at the House. Piranesi dresses his hair with seashells and seaweed. Piranesi does not know where the Other comes from or goes to outside these two weekly appointments, but believes, at least in the beginning, the Other to also live in the House. Piranesi respects the Other but is also wary of him. For the Other warns that Piranesi will go mad or be in other dangers if he does not do what the Other wants. Piranesi researches, his memories and his journals and his thoughts, and reflects that maybe it is the Other who is mad, and not he. And so ... this simple life carries on ... until there are messages left for Piranesi from an intruder, and signs of an intruder's presence. The Other warns the young man that the new presence is a mortal danger to him. Susanna Clarke's storytelling language is stately, grand, as befitting the realm in which the story takes place. She uses a language full of descriptions of statues minutely observed, loved and adored. Piranesi speaks the same language, reverence at being in the presence of the magnificence of the House. The story unfolds. There is action. Twists and turns. Then dangers. But, who is the dangerous one for Piranesi; the Other, or, the intruder? Returning to strangeness for a moment. By the end of the first few pages I was both bored and irritated. Thirty or forty pages further on I was captivated. This is NOT a "pulse-pounding page turner"! In fact, it is difficult even to ascribe a genre to it. Then, I reached a point I turned the pages as fast as I could (kindle "pages"). Hah! It is so refreshing to read something so different and that is so exquisitely plotted out and well written. And at the very last, after the final paragraph (which is resonant and glorious), I felt loss; for there is no more of this wonderful story to read.