Sati Marie Frost’s Reviews > Piranesi > Status Update

He knows about crisps and fish fingers and sausage rolls. Why does he not question why he knows these things, or what they are, or where they come from? He seems utterly complacent and uninterested in the weirdnesses that occur.

He remembers what petrol smells like (and presumably what petrol is).

He’s finally wondering something!

He knows how to read. He knows what canvas and rubber are. He knows what shoes are! Where did he learn these things?

P does not seem to be questioning where his clothes or journals or the statues came from at all, which I find incredibly odd. The House is all there is, and there have been fifteen people in the world. How does he think the statues were made? He is the most uncurious narrator I have ever encountered - and claims to be a scientist! It’s quite creepy.

Ah, seaweed can be used as fuel. Fair enough.

“I fetched him a blanket and hot soup made of seaweed and mussels.” How are you making hot soup, Piranesi? This is the strangest amnesia I’ve ever heard of, and I say this as someone who’s suffered amnesia at least twice. The Other’s machines (?) are “shining device[s]” but P clearly has some way of cooking, and probably not a wood fire given that there are no plants. Gas?

I am already just about ready to rate this five stars. It’s just so WEIRD. But sometimes weird books become mundane halfway through, or more commonly are let down by bad endings, so I shall restrain myself until I’m done. But I wish I had this much imagination.

I do like an unreliable narrator, and Piranesi is an interesting one. He (?) remembers some things but not others - and his memories contradict. One moment he dreamed of a faun in a snowy forest, the next he wonders if trees exist. What sort of amnesia is this?

This is fascinating already, but may be too stylised for me. The capitalisation irritates me.