DNF this one as for me it took too long to get in to and the multiple timelines left the book fractured and confusing.

I really wanted to enjoy it as from the blurb I thought the premise and the concept was intriguing but for me it just took too long to get into the meat of the story and as a result I wasn’t invested in the characters or the plot.

DNF’d at 50% I did try!

I absolutely loved this contemporary romance.

Such a great book with a solid storyline and great characters.

I eagerly look forward to reading more from this author.

A definite recommend

This is a very atmospheric, wintery retelling of Faust that includes a queer love story. It was a bit plodding and thematically confusing, and the resolution didn't feel complete.

This book was so good! it was twisty and glorious from start to finish. It took me a couple of chapters to get into it and to understand what was actually happening. Although I still don't fully know what was going on I really liked that aspect of the book. The romance was unexpected but was great to read. It is definitely a book that I need to think about for a while after finishing it to fully gather all my thoughts about it.

This was an interesting book but ultimately left me feeling a bit discontented. The novel follows Sandor Esterhazy, the son of Hungarian musicians, but who himself is not talented at all. In order to remove himself from his parents' suffocating plans for him, he makes a deal with the devil: his soul for freedom. The devil ends up creating a being called a simulacrum (which Sandor calls Ferdi) -- who has the abilities that Sandor doesn't. The book goes between the 1970s, when Sandor deals with Ferdi, and then the 90s where Ferdi is by himself and trying to live among humans.

It's a very intriguing idea. but I found the story a bit lacking. I just don't feel like the story pays off in the end. But regardless, it was a good reading experience.

trigger warnings- physical and mental abuse, death, violence and usage of alcohol

the synopsis of the book was very interesting , and no doubt it did maintained its dark and beautiful theme but overall the pace of the book was very odd.

The book is a retelling of the myth Faust, with the deal made with devil and being trapped in it. Sandor's future has already been decided bu his parents to become a musician like the rest of his family, but that wasn't his true passion and to escape he decided to make a deal through which his doppelganger "Ferdi" came into existance.

the book is written in 2 povs continuously shifting between Sandor and Ferdi. Overall the book was interesting to read and getting to know the characters. But eventually due to the pace of the book sometimes I really get bored and want to stop for a bit.
so as long as you are okay with the pacing its definately a good book to read

Overall this was a beautiful book to read, but it was definitely one that took me a while to really get into. It took a couple of tries, but once I was caught up in the characters and the story I wasn’t going anywhere. This haunting retelling of the myth of Faust is gripping, and tense to the very end.

As a retelling of the Faust myth I think this novel held up really well. I studied Marlowe’s Dr Faustus in university as well as some other versions of the myth which made me familiar with the premise for this novel before I’d even started reading. It helped for me to really immerse myself in the setting and atmosphere of the story. This has become a favourite retelling of mine of this particular myth. Velentza kept what was important to make the myth visible within the story but twisted the rest beautifully to enrich the story and make it her own.

This story was told from two different perspectives in two separate times, making the narrative a little difficult for me to follow early on even though I was already familiar with the basis for the story. Once I had settled into the voice of each character and the two very different settings they were in came to love the two perspectives I was reading. Though as always, for me, with multiple point of view novels I tend to favour one point of view over the other. In this case it was Ferdi and his focus on trying to understand his past, as well as the truth of his existence – there is something about his very inhuman creation that made his character’s voice much more interesting for me to read. I did wonder how this novel would read if it was in complete chronological order, but I feel that the two perspectives over two different times adds to the mystery as well as the overall spooky atmosphere of the book.

Ferdi’s development throughout the novel was something I found most interesting as he grappled with the truth of his existence and tried to make his life his own. Though music was something he has to do, he makes it his own, and brings him connections with people he didn’t think he ever would. This is especially true of the slow building romance that builds between Ferdi and another character (that I won’t name, because of spoilers), as Ferdi doesn’t trust himself, nor does he believe a creature of his nature should be able to have a relationship that close. I loved this almost unexpected part of the novel, it, along with Ferdi’s music, brought a little bit of hope to an otherwise rather grim tale.

The Piano Room is the perfect book to curl up and read on a cold winter night from the comfort of your preferred reading nook with a good blanket and a cup of tea. The language draws you into the haunted and spooky atmosphere of this novel in such a way that you start to feel the cold yourself. That is something I loved about this novel; that while I couldn’t always connect with the characters – something which I usually rely on for my enjoyment of a book – this lack of connection was made up for in the haunting gothic atmosphere. I recommend this novel to lovers of gothic fiction, and to those who are looking for a fresh retelling of a familiar myth.

The Piano Room is a retelling of Faust, the classical tale about making a deal with the devil and not knowing what it is you've bargained for. While the deal is made by Sandor, the young son of two accomplished musicians from a long line of them and now trapped by the future they've planned for him despite his lack of talent, inevitably it is Ferdi, the doppelganger made when Sandor makes his bargain on a whim, who shoulders the burden of that bargain. Here, the focus is on the costs for the doppelganger created by the deal and his struggle to form a life in which he feels as if he truly knows who and what he is in comparison to the rest of humanity. What can you do when you were created because the person you are based on is a selfish person who is incapable of accepting or connecting with you and bent on destroying himself and you with him? What can you do if you're utterly dependant on him for your stability and knowledge of the world? What happens if this person, the only one with any investment in your existence, abandons you? Ultimately it is up to Ferdi to decide how much of his fate will be his own choosing, and how much of his past truly defines him.

This book definitely has the moody subtlety of Anne Rice's Violin and The Servant of the Bones or an independent film that draws you into the narrative with a series of compelling interactions that reveal the full story bit by bit. I could easily see this one frustrating someone who doesn't enjoy a more drawn-out narrative and a more subtle plot, but I like a good book that knows where it's going and isn't afraid to take its time.

The Piano Room pulled me in from the plot description. Sandor makes a deal with the Devil to help get his parents off his back about going to the music academy. In comes Ferdi, the doppelgänger given to him by the Devil to go take over the family talent of piano playing. Ten years later, Ferdi is living his life in Budapest with questions of who he is and what his purpose is. The book follows dual timelines of when Sandor first called the Devil, to the after effects of Sandor’s unkindness to Ferdi.

This book gave me some serious Addie LaRue vibes, which was a book I did enjoy, the plot leaves you questioning as you are reading it, almost like you are in Ferdi’s place of trying to figure out who he is. I found this modern take on Faust to be a creative take on a classic.

While I thought the plot was interesting, I found the writing very confusing, it had both too much and too little description at certain points. Plot points points kept jumping around and the constant time jumps did not help. The relationships between the characters was difficult to follow because motivations and wants changed every page.

I think this book has a lot of potential, but in its current state I found the plot confusing which made it difficult to really enjoy.

This book did nothing for me. I don’t think I developed a single strong feeling about any part of it.

This was, I think, intriguing? But ultimately—for me—slightly unsatisfying, although it’s quite hard to pin down precisely why, or what I felt was missing. It’s a pretty elusive book, all told—as could probably be an expected from a story where one of the POV protagonists has no idea what he is, and the other has sold his soul to the devil. Not a spoiler. That’s literally the whole premise. For this is a Faust … I don’t know if re-telling is the word? Re-imagining? Although I should say that while I’m familiar with a quite a few versions of the Faust story (Goethe’s, Thomas Mann’s, and Marlowe’s) I’m not sufficiently up on it that I was able to properly unpick the way The Piano Room works with, and pulls against, the framework of the original texts.

Anyway. The basic premise here is that the narrative moves between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. In the s our POV character is Sandor Esterhazy, the privileged son of a pair of Hungarian musicians who is himself utterly talentless in the musical field. Desperate to escape his parents’ unyielding ambitions for him, he makes a deal with the devil for his freedom. In return for his soul, the devil creates a simulacrum of Sandor—a being Sandor names Ferdi—who is vulnerable, uncertain and full of all the passion for music Sandor himself lacks. In the 90s we follow Ferdi who is just trying to live some kind of life among humans despite the dark and mysterious forces that pursue him.

The dual timelines and the various narrative mysteries (who/what is Ferdi, who/what is after him, where is Sandor now, what happened between them) provides strong narrative momentum for at least the first two-thirds of the book, despite the rather dreamy and languorous style (especially in Ferdi’s sections). I’m not sure these mysteries were fully paid off: the devil makes various enigmatic pronouncements about who/what Ferdi is—something Sandor apparently also figures out—that are never explained to the reader, plus there’s an on-going implication that there are other beings like Ferdi in the world. I guess ultimately the point is that these questions don’t really matter: it’s choices that matter, including Ferdi’s choice to embrace his humanity and Sandor’s choice to reject his. But. Eh. It still felt frustrating in rather the wrong kind of way for me. As in, I saw the emotional and thematic resonances the narrative was offering, but was nevertheless left picking at a bunch of nerdviewy questions about exactly what was happening, how and why.

And, to be fair to my pedantic brain, some of this was as much emotional as pragmatic. Particularly when it came to what was driving Sandor in the latter half of the book: it’s clear he’s working to undo, if not his deal with the devil, at least one of his misdeeds. But what’s he been up to for the last decade? How does he feel about Ferdi now? I wish I’d had more of a handle Sandor in general: there’s an implication that there is “darkness” in him all along, but his parents (with their insistence that he will pursue a career in music) are keeping him captive much as he ends up keeping Ferdi captive. Not that I’m saying how treats Ferdi is remotely excusable: there’s shades of Dr Frankenstein here, the creator repulsed by what is essentially his own creation.

It’s interestingly complicated. But also woolly at times. Although the atmosphere is, as promised, pleasingly gothic and I really appreciated the setting—which, in the 90s, is Budapest, a perfect city for late night reckonings with the devil, I think. Probably not a slogan the tourist board will adopt, but I meant it in a good way. It’s a gorgeous city.

Oh, there’s also queerness in here – kinda, anyway, in that Ferdi has a sort of confused love affair with an angry young man called Petar. I liked this, I think, and there’s some lovely writing around it. I just wish I understood more what was drawing Petar to Ferdi (who is kind of a vulnerable, music-playing blank for most of the book) and what, I suppose, queerness means if you’re a creature created by the devil and raised by your own doppelganger? Maybe nothing, and that’s the point. That when we need love, when we have been deprived love, the form it comes in is irrelevant.

Anyway: intriguing book that I wanted to like more than I ultimately did. Probably not a must-read, unless you’re super engaged by the subject matter.

It has, on the other hand, reminded me of my personal rules for living derived from centuries of fictional disasters:

1. When I animate a corpse with electricity and it gazes at me with its vulnerable, mismatched eyes and is all “Father…” I’m going hug it and immediately be like “I’m here, son”
2. When I build my robot and it gazes at me with its vulnerable machine eyes and is all like “Does this unit have a soul” I’m going to hug it and immediately be like “Yes, yes this unit has a soul.”
3. And when the devil gives me an exact copy of me to take care of, I’m definitely definitely at some point, when its ready, going to bang it. Because that is the only reasonably thing to do with simulacra of yourself.

This book was alright. I didn't really feel anything for it. I probably wouldn't pick it up again. It just didn't connect with me all that much.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for the chance to read this advance ebook copy!

The Piano Room was a brilliant suspense and thriller that leaves you guessing and changing sides about who done it the whole way through.
Great story line that created suspicion in more than one character throughout.
The characters were well developed. And enjoyable to follow along with.
My only downside would be to me it felt dull at times. But other than that I thought it was a good quick read.

I have never read the original so I can't really judge how was it as a retelling but as an individual book it was quite good . The atmospheric writing , the mysterious setting and characters played their part very well keeping me engaged till the end .

A retelling of the myth of Faust, told through two timelines and two points of view. The story follows eighteen-year-old Sandor Esterhazy who’s pressured by his parents to become a musician. Not wanting to follow that path and seeking freedom, he makes the deal with the devil in exchange for his soul. As a result, another being, completely resembling Sandor, gets created. Sandor names him Ferdi and teaches him piano in hopes of Ferdi being able to take Sandor’s place and live up to his parent’s expectations.

The story switches between Ferdi’s pov set in 1990 and Sandor’s pov set in 1979. Through Ferdi’s chapters we learn that he is now free and away from Sandor. We learn about his new life, job and friends but also about some things that still connect him to Sandor. Through Sandor’s chapters we are back in the past where we slowly learn what exactly happened with Ferdi and how he got away.

I decided to get this because synopsis intrigued me and it seemed like the type of a story I would like. I guessed well because I did enjoy reading this. In fact I had hard time putting it down and I finished it pretty fast because I wanted to know what happens. I’m only vaguely familiar with the myth of Faust but I don’t think it matters too much, the basic premise is pretty clear. The book feels kind of like a dark academia, but instead of academic setting it’s focused on the music and playing the piano. The story is not as much as plot driven as it focuses on characters and that crucial event which changed Sandor’s life. It’s hard to comment on much, because it’s set in a way that all of it feels like somewhat of a spoiler.

While I’m okay with multiple povs, I have to say I wasn’t a fan of them being combined with two different timelines here. On one hand it’s a smart way to build mystery around what happens where you gradually learn the truth as the story unravels, but on the other hand it makes the story progress very monotone. It kind of loses on that build up that leads to bigger events with it.

One of the biggest flaws for me is that I feel like we got to know the characters as well as their relationships with one another only on a surface level. We are mostly focused on Ferdi and it makes sense there is not a lot about him given that he was created as Sandor’s clone, but we start following his life a decade after what happened with Sandor and all of that time in between feels like a blank point. Obviously both Ferdi’s and Sandor’s lives revolve around music, but that’s seems about it. Sandor wants to be free but we never learn is there something else he likes more or does he have any other interests. After what happens at one point he becomes consumed by grief and that’s all there is to his character. Meanwhile, Ferdi meets some people that become his friends and he even starts a relationship with a boy named Petar. However, because none of these characters are really explored and because they felt quite one dimensional, it was hard for me to feel too much for them.

All considered, I did like this or I wouldn’t rate it so high. Really loved the mystery and dark elements of it. There is a certain uniqueness to this story and the way it’s being told, I just wish characters were a little more explored.

I can't comment on this as a retelling,having never read the original story.
In its own right its entertaining,a tiny bit sinister,and I wasn't entirely sure where it was going,the whole time hoping only the best for our likeable character.
Enjoyable.

The Piano Room was a good bock that fell just a short of being great. It had a good plot, but it was often confusing. I also wasn’t a big fan of the time skips. All around it was entertaining and I enjoyed the mystery of it. I enjoyed the characters and getting to watch different relationships and their dynamics.