Piranesi

The prose, imagery, and poetic nature of the setting was what really got me to 5 stars by the last page. Honestly, I don't think I am much of a fan of mysteries, because 99% of the time I end up feeling like the mystery/plot-twist distracted me from appreciating the details in the lead-up. Obviously that is the entire point of a mystery, so this is my own personal hurdle to overcome, but once I'd finished the book all I could think was that the “mystery” was rather unimportant to what the book was actually about. As I rated this 5 stars though, I found that there was much more to digest, which made up for that rather disposable (imo) element. I really look forward to re-reading this book already knowing the answers, so I don't have to be distracted away from the more philosophical/thematic ideas.

Buyer beware though: this is not a character book, and clearly wasn't meant to be a story where you connect with and deeply understand the narrator. In the end that didn't end up negatively impacting my experience because eventually I got it, but for like 75% of the book (when I didn't connect with the narrator and I had no idea what was happening because the mystery hadn't been solved) I was definitely having a hard time because I kept expecting to understand who he was as a fleshed-out character, instead of just accepting that he was more of a vessel for observing and meditating on the book's themes.

Basically: this book has a lot of elements that I normal wouldn't like, and yet somehow does it all so well that I ended up enjoying it much more than would have expected at the start.