I absolutely LOVED Piranesi. Susanna Clarke's ability to create an atmosphere and setting that feels so real and immersive is incredible. Also, the fact the it was written with the journal entries was so unique and genius and it worked amazingly. The book needs sooo much more attention (especially since it's under 250 pages and a stand alone! Read it people!). Also, have you read C.S. Lewis' Narnia series? Because Susanna Clarke clearly drew LOTS of inspiration from the Narnia series, especially the Magician's Nephew. Throughout Piranesi there are some little nods and references to Narnia which I loved so much, since I have a ton of nostolgia for that series. Anyway, just a cool element that made the story even better for me.

@t3cchan

3 жыл бұрын

Highly recommend House of Leaves if you enjoyed the setting of Piranesi.

Piranesi's premise sounds like something I've wanted to read for years but have never been able to find or even describe. Definitely adding that one to my tbr!

@gurentgc3546

3 жыл бұрын

Same

@itsjustbree9267

2 жыл бұрын

It's unlike anything I've ever read. Hope you enjoy! I definitely did.

@CarasGaladhon

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it was really special. Hope you read it

@lianneeden4873

Жыл бұрын

@Jacqueline Salinas I did get to read it! Finished it within 24 hours, which probably tells you how much I liked it haha

@CarasGaladhon

Жыл бұрын

@@lianneeden4873 awesome :)

“Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is 245 pages YOU CAN DO IT!” Merphy will you be my personal trainer?

@N.Traveler

2 жыл бұрын

I seriously would like some kind of 'reading coaching' from Merphy. Her passion really rubs off on me. But I guess that's what the buddy reads are for.

Piranesi is one of my fav books I read this year so far. I can see why some people might not like Piranesi and I’ve seen people call him dumb and ignorant. But in my opinion, he is innocent, not ignorant. And I want to protect him at all cost. He was the perfect protagonist to deliver this story through. SPOILERS : When the book ended and Piranesi had to leave the house, I was so emotional and I was like “Nooo!!! Go back to the House!!! Just Go Back!! Don’t go the human word!!” I can see myself reading this book atleast once in every year because of how much I loved exploring the House. It’s short and truly great for escapism.

@itsjustbree9267

2 жыл бұрын

He's also a really kind and gentle person. I think for some reason that gets conflated with stupid these days? Maybe there's just been too many stories with genius jerks and stupid nice people? But I love how Piranesi is obviously a scientist type of person and very smart, while also being so kind. That's my favorite type of character.

@CaptainThugRdx

2 ай бұрын

I saw the ending differently..staying at the house devoid of human connection is no way to live for too long..it taught him empathy and the ability to find beauty in the real world.

Piranesi is a masterpiece. SPOILERS BELOW From absultely beautiful writting to the everchanging setting of the house, to the slightly macabre story. The feelings I had while realizing who the other "people" were and who HE was while he didn't, is indescribable. I wanted to stay in the House forever, just like Piranesi, I quite didn't feel ready to leave. But Clarke really finds the perfect balance to make it work.

I absolutely loved The Bone Shard Daughter! So glad to hear that you loved it that much, too. Great reviews, Merphy!

Piranesi is one of the best books I've ever read. It was so weird and unnerving but beautiful and haunting at the same time. Just great to read.

I read The Bone Shard Daughter earlier this year and loved it so much. The more time that passes, the more I look back and realise how much I enjoyed it! The magic system was so interesting and I liked that the world building was done gradually without info dumping. I can't wait for the sequel!

I just read Piranesi last month based on two friends’ recommendations, and it was really good! I discussed it with them and they talked about how it was an allegory, which made my appreciation for the book deepen so much...

I read Piranesi earlier this year, and it was one of the most beautiful and haunting novels I'd read in *years.* And I hated trying to recommend it to my friends, because it often boiled down to "I don't want to tell you much, because it's better the less you know going in, but TRUST ME IT'S AMAZING!"

@corneliastreet2491

3 жыл бұрын

My kind of book. Say no more, no synopsis necessary. I’ll take your word and skip this video until I’ve had a chance to read it :)

@abigase135

2 жыл бұрын

Same here! I always recommend picking it up without knowing a thing about it because the vibe it starts with and the vibe it ends with are completely different.

@corneliastreet2491

2 жыл бұрын

@@abigase135 intrigued! I have it on hold at my library rn

@itsjustbree9267

2 жыл бұрын

Same! I'm like, I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything, it's just really really good 😅

@corneliastreet2491

2 жыл бұрын

About 1/3 of the way through it and very invested :)

Piranesi's premise sounds very similar to House of Leaves, which is in my top 5 books of all time. Highly recommend checking out House of Leaves if you haven't already! Will definitely be giving Piranesi a read.

@kyleeaton6770

2 жыл бұрын

I second the House of Leaves recommendation but with a warning. While the concepts are very similar (expanding house that's really hard to understand, the sense of impossible vastness Merphy describes, the dramatic irony of knowing things the characters don't) and both are works of genius, the tone is VERY different. House of Leaves is incredibly dark, violent, and horrifying throughout, while Piranesi is like a gentle forest clearing where darkness waits just out of view

@williamthach7

2 жыл бұрын

I want to read house of leaves but find it intimidating based on everything I’ve heard

@t3cchan

2 жыл бұрын

@@williamthach7 I first read it in middle school, so I don't think it's a tough read in terms of writing style. If you're talking about subject matter though, then I would trust your gut based on what you've heard and your own tolerance. I will say that it is an incredibly rewarding and thought-provoking book, so I highly recommend you give it a shot. I find new things to love about it every time I go back and give it a reread.

Piranesi easily became one of my favorite books after I read it. The journal entries were *so* good at creating suspense, I inhaled it.

Loved Piranesi- glad you did too! And you (and Udy) have convinced me to add Bone Shard Daughter to my TBR.

Another thing that makes The Bone Shard Daughter easy for beginners is that Andrea Stewart writes exposition in one of the most digestible styles I’ve ever seen. There are extremely few info-dumps in the book (trust me I was looking) which was extremely impressive.

Piranesi was such a beautiful and unique story. Very slow moving, but the pacing fit perfectly for the story. The best way I can describe it is it’s like slowly putting a puzzle together and the further you go the more everything falls into place.

I can't wait to read these books love you Merphy get so many good recommendations from you! Thank you so much for everything you do! You're a delight!

I've never seen you talk so fast about books, your excitement is so clear 😃 both will now be on my tbr!

Piranesi was an Italian artist who was name-dropped in Jonathan Strange, in the chapter where he’s visiting the French immigrants he hired to engrave illustrations for his book. His most famous collection is entitled Imaginary Prisons.

These were two of my favourite books this year! Glad to hear you loved them☺️

I LOVED The Bone Shard Daughter, so glad it's getting more popular! And Piranesi has been on my TBR for a while, now I'm even more excited to read it!

Piranesi, I loved it. I already read it twice and planning a third read through for the next month. It and Strange and Norrell put Susanna Clarke on the list of my favourite authors.

Just finished Piranesi and loved it! Thanks Merphy!

Piranesi was absolutely brilliant. The sense of blurring time was especially meaningful during the pandemic. There was the Month Where My Most Meaningful Interactions Were In Morrowind, the Month When The Cat Arrived, the Month of Despair, the Month When I Mastered The Dungeons, the Month of A Million Movies, etc.

I have been wanting to read both of these books and now you have convinced me to bump them towards the top of my TBR!😍

Yay both of these are on my TBR! Seeing other people hyped always makes me even MORE excited!

I am glad I found your channel! I started watching bc of the One Piece reviews but I have looked into some of your other videos ever since, and I am now reading some books again! I stopped reading after my daughter was born and I am so glad I am giving myself some time to pick up the hobby again! Ty for the recommendations I am loving Mistborn!

I loved reading Piranesi, too. I read through the first chapters slowly, because I wanted to picture, in my mind’s eye, what the halls and vestibules looked like, and imagine the scale of the statues as best I could, so that I could vividly “walk along” with Piranesi on his trek though his world. There is one other story that it reminded me of: The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges. Though the plot is completely different, the idea of an “infinite” building struck a familiar cord.

@mithramusic5909

Жыл бұрын

It's funny, I just watched an interview with Susanna Clarke and she name-dropped Borges as an influence. You're picking up on something!

"Piranesi" is my favorite book of all times. I return to it everythime I need to see myself reflecte in a character, when I need the words to express the truth within my soul, when I need to be comforted.

I just finished the Bone Shard Daughter after watching your favs of the year video, and I LOVED IT! I was hooked from the first page and so thrilled about how many unexpected turns the story took. Mephi is the best animal companion ever.

These books sound so amazing. Adding them to my TBR!

Oh my goodness your description of bone shard daughter is the only one that has made me want to go out right this minute and buy the book!

Going to check these out! Thanks for the recommendations!

I loved both of these so much!! And in fact, Piranesi may be one of my all-time favorite books. Want to re-read it soon! And very excited for the next book after Bone Shard Daughter, too!! So many exclamation points!!!

Piranesi is SO GOOD, and I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Also, your perspective about magic was really interesting!

i read piranesi earlier this year and very much liked it, your very articulate and thoughtful review reminded me why i fell in love with your channel years ago :-)

All the post-it tabs!!! Ahhh!!! 😍 Thanks for recommending these - off to the bookshop now. 😁

Well you sold these to me! Okay it wasn't a hard sell, both are on my book shelf, but I just haven't reached for them yet. You've changed that and both have jumped to the front of the TBR! I'm going to read them in the order you reviewed them in, with the hopes I love both and with the knowledge that The Bone Shard Emperor is releasing this November so it shouldn't be a long wait if I want to jump right back into this world!

So its 5am I should go to sleep. Murph: check out these books I love Me: *reaches for kindle*

@alb0zfinest

2 жыл бұрын

It’s kind of annoying though how her videos never show up on my subscription list. Each time I want to see her videos I have to specifically search for her channel. It’s especially bizarre how her subscriber count hasn’t really grown as much when at one point she had more subscribers than Daniel.

I just finished reading Piranesi after watching this video yesterday and I've got to say it might be my favourite book of 2021 so far? Just wow.

I'm adding both of these to my TBR RIGHT NOW!

You definitely sold them to me! Goes straight to my tbr.

I really like your description of Susanna Clarke's magic. I'm someone who was so taken in by her presentation of magic as real that, while reading Strange and Norrell, I actually was googling the footnotes to find out if these societies and such actually existed. Where I most loved that book were the vast sections that made magic seem like a part of us, and I less liked what turned into the main plot with [spoilers] and [spoiler] world.

I am so glad you liked Piranesi. It's one of my favourite books of the year so far and I've read a lot of good books this year so far. I've been recommending it to everyone. Bone Shard Daughter is on my TBR for September as part of a project reading all the novels on the British Fantasy Awards 2021 Shortlist.

I have listened to Piranesi 12 times this year and I still can't get over how good it is. I want so many more books that evoke that same feeling/vibe.

I just finished Piranesi today (because of the buddy read! just joined the patreon! woo!) and adored it. It didn't quite go in the direction that I would have preferred but it was still so stunning. Writing and world was gorgeous.

Oh I just finished Piranesi about a week ago, I didn't even know it was on your tbr! Omgggg i loved it so much

Definitely going to read both of these - Bone Shard Daughter has been on my TBR for a while, after this it's getting moved up the list lol. Piranesi is a book that I've heard a lot about but never enough for me to put it on the TBR, somehow? It's going on now though. Thanks for the recommendations, Merphy!

PIRANESIIIIII!!!!!!! WE CAN BE BELOVED CHILDREN OF THE HOUSE TOGETHER!!!!!! I do need to reread the bone shard daughter. I just felt really meh towards it and I don't know if I was just in a contrary mood (like always) or what. Hopefully I like it more on a reread ......

I'm honestly really surprised how similar my tastes are to Merphy. She's never steered me wrong with a recommendation

Thanks for the review will be getting both for the books

Piranesi is one of the two best things I've read this year (the other being This is How You Lose the Time War). It's just absolutely fantastic

I want to read both of these. Thanks for the reviews.

me trying to figure out my September TBR: Should I read Piranesi in September? Merphy, 2 seconds later: Piranesi book review! ...is this the universe trying to tell me something?

PLEASE do a full review with spoilers for Bone Shard Daughter. Please!

I just finished Piranesi yesterday and I LOVED it. I know it's going to be one of those that stick with me forever

Yes,I bough The Bone Shard Daughter a couple days ago and plan to read it until The Bone Shard Emperor launches in November.Glad you loved it.

Im so hyped to read piranessi!

Your joy for bone shard daughter is giving me life 💜💜💜

LOL literally finished Piranesi last night and was gushing about it to my friend on discord and then I opened YT and saw you posted a video gushing about it too :D Will you please, please, PLEASE, do a dedicated video for it? Pretty please!

I LOVED Piranesi. A literary masterpiece! Its beautiful prose, dark atmosphere, and slowly unfolding mystery is captivating, and its protagonist is such a beautiful innocent soul. On The Bone Shard Daughter, which I began shortly after, I gave up less than a third into the novel. Enticed by the premise, I didn't know it had multiple POVs, let alone five of them. But watching your review and reading the other supportive comments, I might give it another try.

Piranesi is freaking fantastic! I am so glad that finally one of my favorite Booktubers is loving it too :)

I got my work's book club to read Piranesi. I haven't read it, just started it today, and I'm intrigued!

Just finished Piranesi a few days ago, it was soooooo fantastic! Totally different from Strange and Norrell but so enthralling.

Omg Piranesi!!! It is a TRIP and no mistake! I loved every syllable of it. You HAVE to do a proper full review so we can all commiserate about how blown our minds are 😁

Popping The bone shard daughter on the list! 😊

I did a double take when you said Piranesi was 245, I have been putting it off because I thought it was 800 pages like Strange and Norrell.

These books are both on my TBR now.

I have both of these books and gifted piranesi to my sister and she absolutely loved it. I can’t wait to read them both because I’ve heard that they are both fantastic.

I read this after this video. It was a great recommendation. 👍

I've heard great things about Piranesi so I'll definitely be checking it out soon.

Only halfway through the video but OMG. I NEED to read Piranesi ASAP.

Thanks for the vid

The Bone Shard Daughter was my favorite debut of 2020, and I JUST read Piranesi and really enjoyed it. Was not expecting it to be so dark though.

I really liked your review of Piranesi, I'm deffinetly interesed in the book now. And Bone Shard Daughter sound like cool fantasy that every fantasy fan could like, magic system sounds so intruguing.

I really need to read Piranessi, it sounds very much like something I would enjoy. Bone Shard Daughter was one of my favorites I read last year and I am very excited for book 2 to come out soon!

@myriamlaviolette1119

2 жыл бұрын

What are you waiting for to read Piranesi. READ IT NOW.

The way you described Piranesi, especially the awe inspiring magic and the atmospheric but mysterious setting, reminds me of the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

@booklanerecommendations

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I've heard a lot of people love both of these. I really enjoyed both as well, but not necessarily for similar reasons. The Night Circus has one of the most beautiful writing styles I have ever read, and the writing style in Piranesi can't top that for me, though it is still well done. On the flipside, I thought the characters in The Night Circus were very weak, whereas I loved Piranesi's main character and his unusual (and sometimes flawed) way of interpreting things. But yeah, the setting was definitely good in both books.

For some reason your description of it being a sentient house made me think of the movie Smart House, and I can’t get it out of my head

I'm excited to start Piranesi. I looked for it under fantasy in Banes and Noble and didn't see it but had to go back to that mall the next week and noticed it walking in under fiction. I hope to start it next month. I'm ending the slog in WOT and I'm alternating it with light reading with Guards! Guards! I plan on hitting Piranesi after my second Discworld book, Mort. So much to read; so little time!

I just finished Piranesi... Really loved it. One of the more unique books I've read in a while! 😊

I just checked out The Bone Shard Daughter from the library!! Hoping to get to it very soon!!!

+1 for Piranesi. Great mystery with the reveals handled well, and a subject that could’ve been awkward in lesser hands.

I’ll definitely read these because I have a memory loss story in the works, and I need to learn more of how to do that. Plus I loved Strange and Norrell, so I’ve been hoping for an excuse to bring Clark’s other book to the top of my To Read list. 😅

Piranesi is one of my new all-time favs! :)

All right... **adds to TBR** 👀

My book club just finished the bone shard daughter! We loved to story and it was great book to have discussions on! We're planning to continue the series!

More video to come nakama

Piranesi's house sounds a lot like a forgotten fantasy series I read. Not sure if the series had a name, but the books are called 'The High House', 'The False House', and 'Evenmere' by James Stoddard. Not saying Clarke is stealing from it, as the books all sound like different animals, but it is a distinct comparison.

I thoroughly enjoyed Piranesi although I intend to read The Bone Shard Daughter later in the year on my TBR.

Two of my favorites I've read this year. Easy 5/5 on both for me.

Hey, I'm a recent sub, I've just started getting more into reading fiction, which one of these do u think I should read first? Love all your videos btw, been binging them the last couple days😁

I don't want to live in the House but i would love to visit often. Beautiful story. Made the mistake of thinking i could listen as i fell asleep. Gave in at 3:00am and started a pot of coffee. I was sad to see it end. Did not expect to enjoy BSD and figured it would join the many YA DNF on my list but that was not the case. Really enjoyed both books.

What you said about how magic would look in our real world is so interesting. Because if it was something we could understand, put rules around etc, it would be science.... Which i think means there IS magic in the world, doesn't it?

@TheGreatPower365

3 жыл бұрын

Sort of. Science can only answer questions about which an experimental hypothesis can be formulated. No experiment = no science. The classic example would be philosophical questions of meaning, like "does life have a purpose?" or "does God exist?" about which (despite claims to the contrary) science has to remain silent as there is no good, experimental data to work with. The same also applies to material questions that are not open to investigation within our current capabilities, like "how common is life in the universe?" One day it is conceivable there will be sufficient data to make a good estimation, but at present science has little to say with any degree of certainty because there are so many unknowns and too little we can test at present.

@corneliastreet2491

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheGreatPower365 Tell that to theoretical physics lol

@TheGreatPower365

3 жыл бұрын

@@corneliastreet2491 despite the name (purely) theoretical physics is a branch of mathematics. No hypothesis with a testable variable? No science.

@corneliastreet2491

2 жыл бұрын

My thing is always if it has science in the name, it’s not actually science 😂 Political science? Social science?

The Bone Shard Daughter's magic system sounds vaguely like my new WIP so now I have to check it out

Piranesi is so awesome. One of the best books I have ever read.

I was in dilemma for Bone shard daughter, but you sold it to me!☺️

Piranesi is the best book I’ve read since House of Leaves, which is saying a lot.

I listened to piranesi as an audio book and it was phenomenal

NEED!!!!

Even though I did not like the ending for the book, I do have to say I, personally, do not know how it could be improved, given that I'm not a writer haha, but I ABSOLUTELY adored the character of Piranesi and Clarke's writing is gorgeous.

Some books are just special really. Sakira really likes books