#the way it acts as an anchor for piranesi. god there's so much to say about the house.

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yeah but genuinely piranesi inspires such a feeling of longing and solemnity in me... the nostalgia for home and the acceptance of growing older. can i get your thoughts on it!!

OH GOD I don’t even really know where to begin, I’ve been trying to put my words together all night!! I feel like there’s so much I want to say but I don’t know where to start.

I guess I will start with how I felt just after reading it, which was just like such an indescribable feeling of hopefulness for the future. I love stories like this that focus on real aspects of life in a fantasy perspective, especially with the way this story handles the situation of trauma and recovery (at least this is the conclusion I ended up with). And the entire time I felt so involved with the story and the way it is read as if piranesi is writing to us directly through the whole thing, which in a way he was or was writing in hopes of someone reading it which idk I just adore this, I think it just is such a fun way to involve the audience. And I like that we can directly see his growth through the story, from childlike wonder to his better understanding and the great reveal at the end. I do agree with your sentiment of growing older cause this does reflect that aspect in such a large way.

Piranesi as a character and who he becomes at the end i just can’t help but cling to. There’s so much I want to say about his entire character, who he was and who he became but GAHH I DONT HAVE THE WORDS. Please just know that I love him dearly and I am completely attached to his character. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since I started reading (though to be fair this is only day 3 haha). Either way, I love him so fucking much jfc I am clinging to him with my entire life!!!!!!!!

I think most importantly I love the message of the book. I love the setting and the way it utilizes this as a way to push its message, or at least the message I got from it in the end. That trauma can and will change us against our will and despite becoming entirely new people, we still must care for our self as if we are caring for the people we once were. And even in the situation where trauma is not a factor, we still do change as people from who we once were when we are younger. I feel like I am not wording that good at all haha but I tear up thinking about it a bit. You cannot ever go back to being the person you once were and that’s okay. It just means you should strive to care for your current self because that person you once were is still apart of you and you should strive to care for them and yourself in turn. (I also find it so weird and ironic that I was just discussing this topic with a friend sometime last week, where I described how detached I feel from my younger self to the point where she is apart of me but I am not her and that I feel like because I’m the one that lived in the end, I will take care of the body she left me and the people she left behind in her shape. So when I read that part about Piranesi taking care of Matthew, I had to actually take my break at work just to sit and dwell on that. IT SCARED ME A BIT AT HOW ACCURATE IT WAS TO HOW I FEEL BUT GOD DO I ADORE THIS BOOK FOR IT. its just odd that i had been meaning to read this book for a few months now but i only just chose this week to read it. funny how it all works in the end)

I feel as though I’ve gone way off topic lolol but yes!!! I ADORE this book in its entirety!! I love the world building and just everything about it makes my head spin with glee!!! I definitely want to do a reread sometime soon once I get the book (I typically listen to audiobooks at work!) because there’s so many parts I loved that I’d want to further dive into. I JUST. THIS BOOK. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. There’s very much more I want to say but this is as much as I could get out of me atm!!!