{"id":586,"date":"2020-11-11T16:31:28","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T23:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jcmckenna.com\/?p=586"},"modified":"2021-02-20T17:39:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T00:39:02","slug":"book-review-piranesi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?p=586","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Piranesi<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I had expected that after a gap of sixteen years since Susanna Clarke’s thick and engaging tome, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell<\/em>, that we were getting another fantasy of epic size. What arrived last month in the form of Piranesi<\/em> was just a little under 250 pages. Yet what it lacks in length it more than makes up for in depth of both theme and world-building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piranesi lives in the House. The House is Piranesi’s entire world, composed of infinite rooms on several levels, with the rising tides of oceans on the lower floors and the clouds and sky on the floors above. The book takes the form of his journal \u2013 and Piranesi is an obsessive diarist \u2013 as he goes about his daily routines: fishing, caring for the bones of the House’s previous occupants, and assisting the Other (the only other resident of the House) with his magical endeavors. Everything is routine until the day the Other reveals that there is another resident of the House and this resident means them both harm. I’ll say nothing else about what unfolds. This is a book best experienced first-hand. It is, hands down, my favorite book of this year (and it’s late enough in the year that I feel confident in leaving it on the top of my list). It demands multiple readings, both to savor the language and to look for the clues missed on the first read. In fact, I found myself reading the closing chapter through three or four times I found myself so gobsmacked by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piranesi<\/em> was worth the wait, and I’ll be reading it again, I’m sure, while I wait for Clarke’s next bit of magic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.\u201d I had expected that after a gap of sixteen years since Susanna Clarke’s thick and engaging tome, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, that we were getting another fantasy of epic size. What arrived last month in the form of Piranesi was just a little under…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[34,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-book-reviews"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2rDfa-9s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1332,"url":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?p=1332","url_meta":{"origin":586,"position":0},"title":"One Draft Down!","author":"admin","date":"July 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"11PM. Sunday, July 11th. I typed my two favorite words and put the first draft of a new Seraph novel to bed. 40 chapters. Just shy of 500 pages of manuscript. I am happy with the results. It took a little longer than I anticipated. When I outlined the book\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?cat=34"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jcmckenna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-11-at-11.14.48-PM-300x197.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":766,"url":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?p=766","url_meta":{"origin":586,"position":1},"title":"Seraph Cover Reveal!!","author":"admin","date":"February 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Less than a month until I release the Seraph upon the world. Today, I'm excited to share the cover. Several months ago, I commissioned Actual Magick - an artist whose aesthetic fits right in with the urban fantasy style - for some original artwork that would capture the tone of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?cat=34"},"img":{"alt_text":"Seraph cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jcmckenna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Seraph-Teaser-full.png?fit=613%2C792&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jcmckenna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Seraph-Teaser-full.png?fit=613%2C792&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jcmckenna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Seraph-Teaser-full.png?fit=613%2C792&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":903,"url":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?p=903","url_meta":{"origin":586,"position":2},"title":"Release Day Is Coming!","author":"admin","date":"March 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"In less than one week, Seraph will be released on the world. My thanks to all of you who've already pre-ordered the Kindle edition. I am beyond grateful for your support. Starting March 9th, the book will be available for immediate order at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. Within\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?cat=34"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jcmckenna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Seraph-Teaser-half.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1014,"url":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?p=1014","url_meta":{"origin":586,"position":3},"title":"Thank You! (and some updates)","author":"admin","date":"March 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi, friends! My thanks to all of you who bought the book the first two weeks of release. It's really gratifying to see the interest, and I love the positive reviews so far! If you're still thinking about buying a physical copy, let me direct your attention to bookshop.org (link\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?cat=34"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1339,"url":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?p=1339","url_meta":{"origin":586,"position":4},"title":"Let’s Plot Book Three!","author":"admin","date":"August 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a little reel about how the sausage gets made (or at least started).","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?cat=34"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":667,"url":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?p=667","url_meta":{"origin":586,"position":5},"title":"Book Review: The Ghost Dance Judgement","author":"admin","date":"January 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I really enjoyed R.S. Belcher's last outing (2017's Queen of Swords), but with it's focus on one character outside of Belcher's main setting of Golgotha, Nevada, I found myself missing the rest of the cast. Ghost Dance Judgement brings us back into the main story, and there's *a lot* going\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/?cat=34"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jcmckenna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/banner-1559400_640.jpg?fit=640%2C201&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jcmckenna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/banner-1559400_640.jpg?fit=640%2C201&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jcmckenna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/banner-1559400_640.jpg?fit=640%2C201&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.jcmckenna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/banner-1559400_640.jpg?fit=640%2C201&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":588,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcmckenna.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}