I think there's books you read and books you inhabit. Piranesi is the latter.

Reading this makes you feel like you're walking marble halls, makes you smell the salt of the ocean tides. It's a whole sensory dream.

I fell in love with its narrator. Piranesi is such a pure soul, so good, that his reverence for the House feels sacred, like a prayer. And me being a very non-religious person... I still felt compelled to think of the House as holy. Because he thought it to be. Because the House that was meant to be a prison, became an escape.

What blew me away was how Clarke was able to create such a world, through the pure wondrous eyes of Piranesi, in a slow unravelling narration that seemed both simple and completely mind blowing in how unique and genius it is. I was in awe the whole time of how someone could come up with something like this.

Safe to say, I will recommend this to anyone and revisit it in the future. And if you're reading this with this book in your TBR, I can only give you one piece of advice: read it.

Wow… I could not put this down… this was such an interesting read. I had no idea where this story was gonna go and I loved every minute more and more was revealed. The beginning was especially my favorite because it was so calming to be in Piranesi’s POV meandering about the halls. The rest was still great I just really enjoyed the vibe of the beginning, Piranesi’s innocence mixed with Clarke’s writing reminded me a lot of when I was a kid and I learned how to read.. how I just discovered this whole new world and was so in awe of it. Overall amazing, definitely give this a read if you want a maritime coded mystery 🌊