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piranesi - 100% review
Monday, May 22nd, 2023 02:58i think i'm sad about how this book ended. but let me retrace the story to see if that's true.
( spoilers inside )
what to do with a story like this, in full? i suppose if the story had been about matthew rose sorenson, the investigation would have continued. the ritual, explained. the world and worlds beyond, explored. and it would have been a very different story than the one that landed here. and i suppose if the story had been about the beloved child of the house, it would have stayed a story about the House and its endless mysteries. how do you tell the ending of a story about infinity?
i loved this book. i loved to contemplate the far off places the narrator was describing to me. i enjoyed hearing how much he loved to be there, to be one with the House and to entrust his needs to it. i loved the idea of this house being a place that real people could go to, with a little magic to get you there. i loved that the house was equally magnificent and dangerous. i truly appreciated how the format saved until the very end the answer to the question, "why is he in this place at all?" and i am glad that it's still a place he loves.
what a confusing book. i had come here intending to write about how this book felt disappointing, to talk about how the ending felt abrupt, ketterley's plotline too dismissed, the ritual/arne-sayles' story all but breezed over... and all of those things are still true to how i feel. but. the thing i've come away with more than anything is how much the narrator loves the House. and i do too. i'm glad to have spent time there. how terrible to have gotten caught up in the horrendous storyline of whatever arne-sayles was up to, what ketterley was up to in full, when all the narrator ever wanted to do was to live in the House forever. but knowing that you can always come back, and that it is not the only world you may occupy? that you have lived in another one and can live there again? i suppose it's only natural to come to the decision that you may as well have a go at living there. it doesn't change how you feel about the House to leave it. that's still the place you come from, no matter where you go.
i think i'll leave my rating where it was. 7/8. i truly wish there had been more about the other side, about other characters' intentions, about being informed by former splinters of self about the world you're navigating. but what was there was really, really good.
( spoilers inside )
what to do with a story like this, in full? i suppose if the story had been about matthew rose sorenson, the investigation would have continued. the ritual, explained. the world and worlds beyond, explored. and it would have been a very different story than the one that landed here. and i suppose if the story had been about the beloved child of the house, it would have stayed a story about the House and its endless mysteries. how do you tell the ending of a story about infinity?
i loved this book. i loved to contemplate the far off places the narrator was describing to me. i enjoyed hearing how much he loved to be there, to be one with the House and to entrust his needs to it. i loved the idea of this house being a place that real people could go to, with a little magic to get you there. i loved that the house was equally magnificent and dangerous. i truly appreciated how the format saved until the very end the answer to the question, "why is he in this place at all?" and i am glad that it's still a place he loves.
what a confusing book. i had come here intending to write about how this book felt disappointing, to talk about how the ending felt abrupt, ketterley's plotline too dismissed, the ritual/arne-sayles' story all but breezed over... and all of those things are still true to how i feel. but. the thing i've come away with more than anything is how much the narrator loves the House. and i do too. i'm glad to have spent time there. how terrible to have gotten caught up in the horrendous storyline of whatever arne-sayles was up to, what ketterley was up to in full, when all the narrator ever wanted to do was to live in the House forever. but knowing that you can always come back, and that it is not the only world you may occupy? that you have lived in another one and can live there again? i suppose it's only natural to come to the decision that you may as well have a go at living there. it doesn't change how you feel about the House to leave it. that's still the place you come from, no matter where you go.
i think i'll leave my rating where it was. 7/8. i truly wish there had been more about the other side, about other characters' intentions, about being informed by former splinters of self about the world you're navigating. but what was there was really, really good.
