crusoe's Reviews (239)

I really liked this book, especially the slow unraveling of Myself's mystery and the descriptions of the House, but I think I was led astray by all of the positive reviews. 

Because, while Piranesi is a good book with an interesting format and mystery, I have read similar books that are similar in subject that hit a little harder and push the boundaries a little further. (A personal favourite is Beneath the world, a sea.) So ultimately I was a bit disappointed by the end. 

It hurts me to give this manga such a low rating because I really wanted to like it but it was very underwhelming.

I like the format of shorter stories but I wish these characters had more time to be fleshed out because they all had interesting relationships and personalities. It'll also forever be a waste that Nagabe didn't do more with the magic aspect of the setting.

What the other reviews say about the toxicity of the portrayed relationships is also 100% true. Unfortunately, the manga relies on a few very harmful relationship tropes found in other anime and manga (e.g. dubcon, characters who look like siblings (but aren't technically) with sexual tension, etc). A warning of this would've been nice and this manga should certainly not be advertised to teens. 

P.S. I did read the relationship between the younger and older dragon more as a father/son relation because of the explicit mention that the younger one is an orphan. But because this book is explicitly advertised as BL, I understand why people interpreted it differently. 

While I don't think the mystery of this book is as good as the one in the first book, I do think that the way that it builds on the story improves the first book. 

The characterization and exploration of characters from book 1 is brilliant, showing us a different side to characters we only really saw before in the context of the Andie investigation. It makes them more real, three dimensional and nuanced. The same happens to pip; negative aspects of her character are amplified and shown in a new light. The ending is also devastating. If you've read the first book, you have to read this one too.