Synopsis
Piranesi is the the journal entries of the titular Piranesi as he exists in and describes the strange world he calls his home. This place, and endless maze of rooms, staircases, statues, and tides is home to Piranesi, 13 dead, and the Other. As the reader progresses through his writing the oddities of this world, exactly what it is, and what Piranesi's place in it begin to be unraveled.
Review
This book is everything that I wanted to see out of [[There is No Antimemetics Division]]. It is told through journal entries in a manner that feels realistic enough while still detailing enough verbatim dialogue to not lose the audience. The mystery of who Piranesi is, who the Other is, and why they're in this place is brilliantly teased to the reader in the first few pages. Within the first part of the book Piranesi explains how he counts the years for his journals and remarks that its strange the first few of his journals were labeled "2011" and "2012" because he cannot remember what could have been so important 2000 years ago to start counting his years based on that. This is such a masterclass in show-don't-tell and succeeds in building dramatic irony early that keeps the reader invested up till the very end of the book as they learn the secrets of the House with Piranesi. The ending does lack a certain amount of dramatic weight, but I think it forgoes that weight in favor of a more realistic conclusion. Although this initially caught me off guard I struggle to find fault with it in any tangible manner especially since not-Piranesi gets to explore an amount of agency that he has not been afforded through the rest of the novel because of the Other.
Closing thoughts
This short novel only took me a few hours to read, and was the type of "I just can't stop reading" book everyone wants to be able to pick up. If you're at all interested in the premise or even just vivid descriptions of strange statues I highly recommend committing the 4 hours to this book that it asks for and you'll find yourself thinking about it for days.