House of Leaves

Initially I was really excited. I have wanted to read this book for a while. It was supposedly a complicated experimental, weirdly formatted horror novel that was ‘very scary' to quote a vague memory I have of someone somewhere saying that. But sadly it wasn't that great. 

First off, it really wasn't that scary. There were some parts that were scary, notably one in the beginning and one at the very end. However that was really it. The way this is told in this academic analysis of a film totally takes you out of the narrative. It not only does this in tiny snippets but also in giant pages and pages long chapters that really serve absolutely no purpose other than apparently explaining the nature of an echo for 20 pages. 

But besides that, this novel was incredibly sexist. All of the female characters are described as beautiful, they mostly all fuck Johnny for some fucking reason. Vividly described sex scenes in the middle of scary passages exploring a creepy house are not only completely unnecessary and not at all adding to the plot or the vibe or literally everything, but they also show the characters to be extremely misogynistic. Not only the natator but also basically every character in this whole fucking book. It is honestly a miracle I got through it at all. 

By the end reading this had become a chore because I could not leave a 700-page book unfinished when I was already halfway through. The idea was so interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the pages of passages describing the explorations and rescue attempts. However I do feel about 300 pages could have been sliced and it would legit be better. Those extra words didn't add anything to it and only made it worse. 

I am highly disappointed and I would not recommend this at all. 

a fun and healthy challenge. i approve.

Soft DNF. I just was slugging through it and it was putting me in a slump. Might try it again later since I've heard so many good things. 

It's an homage to [a:Borges 500 Jorge Luis Borges https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1389336941p2/500.jpg]! And quite well done, too (at least up to p.50). I'd love to continue reading it but only with the attention and time that it deserves... and I have none of either right now. So, time to create a new bookshelf: deferred. Like to-read but for a future day with fewer time constraints.

I found this book immensely boring, overambitious and contrived. It took considerable willpower to get to the 25% mark in it, and when even then it did not begin fulfilling on its page-turner promise I finally gave up on it. I felt that the author came up with an interesting idea about a physically impossible house and a separate idea about wacky formatting, and then just jammed the two ideas together, with a sprinkle of dry technical datasheet style documentation about both interspersed throughout. Yes, I understand that the formatting is meant to give us the same experience as the inhabitants of the house had, but it was so gimmicky and made it all a colossal hassle. He didn't even attempt to write well, thinking that the formatting will more than make up for it. 

Gave up at 7%.

I'm doing it (bought HoL again to attempt to read it)

I don't think I was in the right mood for this book and just found myself slogging through it because it was due back at the library. I think I am going to return it and maybe buy myself a copy so I can read it at my own pace. It is most defiantly a very intriguing book!

I don't quite know how to categorize this book. I have been “currently reading” this book for over a year (I only have about 20 pages to go). It's odd, to say the least, and I can't quite figure out whether I want to finish it. It's part mystery, part horror, part science fiction, and part “non-fiction” (through an odd internal story). Give it a try if you're looking for something WAY off the beaten track.

this whole book is literally just “does anyone else in this thread smoke weed”

I got this as a birthday present when I was in 7th grade. Like any book I am obsessed with it will never leave my side. I would spend some recesses reading this, and I loved when my classmates would leaf through it and be amazed at how absurd it looked.

I have two copies now. The first one having been devoured by time. Throughout high school, when I was in a particular dark place I would just hold the book to my chest during class, re-read my favorite passages I had marked. The first copy doesn't even have a cover anymore, it's been lent out to so many of my friends.

The second copy has a hardcover and remains mostly untouched. I have it incase the first one is out of office. My point is this book is beautiful (a word which I hardly use and dislike) and it helped me out a lot.

This was a fascinating, confusing and frustrating read.

Johnny is boring and annoying. I do feel bad for him but at the same time I don’t. Now, I do feel bad about Johnny’s mom. That was sad to read about.

I loved the story when it followed the Navidson’s. That was exciting and fascinating. It made me question some things. Like… how the house is tied to the mental health of all those that are within the house. I was devastated about Tom and Jed.

Karen I didn’t really like. But that’s just because she is too weak but I was glad that she overcame a struggle for Will.

I do wonder what happened to the cat and dog.

I also think that “Mr. Monster” is a metaphor for the monster within people. Referring to the scene with Holloway during the 8 day exploration.

Also, I wouldn’t state that this was scary. It’s more psychological than horror.

As for my biggest issue with the book. The way a lot of the female side-characters are written and portrayed. It PMO. It was dehumanizing and sexiest. It’s like all the females are nothing more then a males toy and something that pleasures them. Besides Karen.

Made me hate footnotes a little less and a little more

Really liked it, thought parts of it were confusing but that is intentional. Loved the horror.

I consider myself a writer. However, I fear writing, and I fear publishing more. For, writing is agonising. And, I don't dare to publish until I really have a story to tell. My fear accumulated over time by reading more, by reading books just like this. And, I will tell my fellow writers this: If you are not really as serious as Danielewski, Borges, Tagore, Pessoa, or Jibanananda, stop writing.

The structure of this book is recursive, layered and of a madman. It is a book you should approach with an arsenal of bookmarks, much patience for multiple re-readings and the intention to read cover-to-cover— footnotes and appendix and all. While some of the references in this book are purely fictional, many are real. It is not necessary, but some familiarity with classic literature, and existential philosophy (resources like Being and Time by Martin Heidegger) can be very rewarding. I will also recommend reading Walking by Thomas Bernhard which deals with madness singularly unlike this book which deals with a lot of things. A knack for etymology and the exact meaning of words can be rewarding too.

Now about the madness… It is everywhere, and it must be relished. It must be understood on its own terms, not from our couch of comfortable 'normality'. Madness is, in some sense divine. Madness is motherly. Madness is a concentrated potion, too hard to gulp down, of the essence of our existence. This book talks about that madness, and love, and madness-inducing love, and love-inducing madness.

Most readers of this book may find the preceding paragraph needs some qualifications. The book is considered to be of genre horror, and rightly so. However, it is not a run-of-the-mill horror. I will put it in a sub-genre: philosophical horror. Because, most horror content depends on unfamiliarity, and not understanding of the situation, this book depends on understanding and examining. Instead of jump-scares and goosebumps, author brings in elaborate discussion on meanings of words like 'uncanny', 'space', 'echo' etc. so that as the meanings sinks in us in most accurate and non-trivial manner, so does the horror of the situation.

But, at the end, it still remains a story of love, or seeking, of remembering, of hope, and of redemption.

When I bought this book I didn't know if I would finish it. Reading hadn't been exciting for me since elementary school. In an attempt to get back into reading last year I picked up 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' but it took me the entire summer to finish it. Commiting to 'House of Leaves' which is just about 10 times longer and much more of a laborious read was a bold decision but it somehow paid off.

I don't think I have ever been hooked by a book in quite the way that this one grabbed me. I took this book on a trip with me where I read it on the way there, during the trip, and on the way back. This book, with its daunting size and challenging composition, took me only two weeks to finish, and I am just blown away by it.

This is one of the most unique works of art I have come across. It works as so many things at once. You as the reader can choose to engage with it as much or as little as you want. It allows for intrigue of any level and, therefore, you can choose how much you get out of it.

Even the sections that felt separate from the main story (besides the Johnny Truant sections which I began skipping, sorry) had another kind of mystery. While the story was facinating in its own way, the rest of the book centers around theories and critical perspectives in which the events, characters' actions, and even the story itself can be linked to other meanings, imply deeper themes, and even raise questions of its own legitimacy.

I love the format, the story, and the horror of this book. This feels like it will be something I come back to time and time again.

A pretty good book with a good narrative, but I feel like a collage of DFW, Nabokov and Borges without hitting the highs they achieved. The Truant sections were a drag as well.

This review does not contain direct spoilers, but I do discuss the novel in depth!

☄️ At a glance:

This book is terrifying, multilayered, complex, and lingering. It is marred by sections of meandering text and a character who inserts himself into interesting sections, breaking the pacing with his rants.

🟢 What I thought was done well:

I found a lot of Zampanó's parts were intriguing and often horrifying in the way that makes events linger in your mind. The idea of writing something with the intent of making it feel like an academic study, especially of a visual medium transcribed into text, was very well done and a unique take to follow.

The actual horror elements were also done with so much thoughtfulness and intent that, as mentioned before, scenes often linger with me. I loved Zampanó's writing style and his way of describing things. The story itself is very interesting as well and it's also explained in a way that captivated me throughout the text during his section.

I thought the characters were also very complex and well described. I love how the author doesn't just present us with characters, but also has other in-universe characters discuss their intentions and complexities like a real media analysis.

I loved the ending. It concludes things nicely while cementing that feeling of lingering dread the novel had built up until that point.

♦️ What I didn't enjoy:

Truant's sections usually drove me nuts, especially when he interrupts something interesting happening to describe something completely unrelated and often uninteresting. He goes on long rants stemming off of a vaguely related word or sentence written by Zampanó and it can go on and on for

pages. Every female character Truant meets is A) ogled by him for being super hot, B) often super intelligent to, of course, complement their super hotness, and C) immediately an object of sexual desire and he has sex on paper with, I swear, 9 out of the 10 women he meets. I was genuinely hoping that by the end of the book we would find out that all of the women he apparently had sex with didn't exist and it was all a mind trick.

90% of the horror of this book originates from Zampanó while Truant mumbles in the background trying to add effects. There were a few interesting parts from his perspective but I wasn't a fan in general. I understand why Truant needs to exist for the story's sake, but I feel like if the unrelated shit he talked about was trimmed, the book would be at least 1/3 shorter. Every time he would start talking, I often had to resist the urge to skip to the next Zampanó bit.

🏠 The takeaway:

The horror of the domicile is strong here, and I enjoyed the idea of taking a place (a home) often considered to be a safe space and turning it into something terrifying, existential, and cold. But if I'm being frank, giving this book 3.5 stars is generous considering how often Truant's sections made me want to put the book down. It felt like trying to read a book while an annoying sibling is whispering varied words relating to genitalia in your ear. I hated the treatment of women in this book. While Zampanó never discusses women in an objectified way (the way Truant does), other male characters not associated with Truant often treat Karen as an object of stimulation (Holloway, Wax, several of the men she interviews about The Navidson Record are some examples that come to mind). The book didn't need any of it. The horror here is not even about misogyny, though I think that could have been an interesting lens to explore. The horror here is ████. I want more ████. I want less Truant talking about how hot woman #7 is and how despite all of these women having different names and looking different, they all melt together in my head as "woman Truant had sex with while interrupting Zampanó for the 20th time." In fact, writing this review made me realize I think this book deserves 3 starts instead of 3.5.

The synopsis is compelling. As is the opening page's warning: “This is not for you.”

After reading the intro and some of the first chapter, then flipping through the rest if the book to see what lay in wait, I decided to turn the book back in to the library.

In my 20s, I probably would have stuck with this book because it's clearly intended to be a challenge. A challenge in the form of a big middle finger to the reader. As a previous spinster-cat-lady-turned-stepmom-of-3, I cannot devote the attention this gauntlet requires. Maybe one day, I'll give it another go, but until then, one less book on my list of almost 2,100 to read!

Not bad, not great. I probably didn't understand half of it, whereas the other half was either thrilling or boring. 

I went through every footnote and reference that was actually inside the book, and that too was a mixed bag. Sometimes it was interesting, sometimes it just kept referring back to itself which got frustrating.

I think I would've enjoyed the story of The Navidson Record on its own, as Johnny Truant's bits were just incomprehensible most of the time and not really much of interest until towards the end when he finally let go of the drugs and sex.

On the good side I was reminded of Susanne Clarke's Piranesi, which is one of my favourites and has a similar labyrinthine feel to it, although a lot more literally than this!

This book is a lot of work and felt gimmicky in parts. But: It is also layered and rewarding and like nothing else I have ever read! 

What to say...

Friends in my spec-fic book club have been talking about House of Leaves off and on for a while. I took one look and said, “not for me, babe.” A few weeks later I was having drinks with some folks and one asked something to the effect of, “do you like ergodic literature?” After ensuring they hadn't said, “erotic literature,” I replied, what the hell is ergodic literature?”

A while after that, I was in my neighborhood bookshop looking for a copy of something I can't remember. I was in a money-spending mood and saw House of Leaves poking out of the shelf, one copy, already a little removed. Is this for me?

I opened it up and thumbed through. One of the first pages proclaims, “This is not for you.” Well, we can't have that, can we? But $30 for an odd book that I might hate? I was in the right mood for it.

I did a lot of chuckling as I read, because it started to teach me a lot about how I read and interact with books. A bit in, I caught myself writing a note, asking a question in the margin. I thought about that. Here I am, asking a question in the margin (asking who?) of a fiction novel that is essentially about an academic write-up of a movie that may or may not exist, about a house that may or may not exist, that may or may not (but definitely isn't) be cousin to The Doctor's TARDIS. Oh, and there are footnotes by not one, not two, but three different sources and connections to not one but two appendices.

It's just clever! I enjoyed engaging with the story. Decoding messages in an appendix after reading 50 pages of someone's descent into mania and psychosis - why not? But decoding a second message in the same place? That practice making everything else suspect (do the dropcaps mean anything? Does the translation say what the editors, what JT, says???).

All very, very, fun for me. I loved the constant in and out of the multiple stories, the intentional immersion breaking, the mystery. Nothing is true, but everything is true. Who can you trust? It's a work of fiction, what's it matter? Why are you flipping back to a piece of paper that's in a collage to identify a symbol, what are you some kinda nerd?

I had a really, really, good time reading this. I may have looked a nut rotating it and taking pictures and flipping them so I could read other parts, but it just tickled my fancy. I'll let other, smarter, folks talk about what it all means. I just had a good time.

I did the unfortunate thing of reading this during the Covid-19 pandemic. And boy was that a choice. I was already feeling quite claustrophobic just from quarantine, but this book did well to amplify that feeling tenfold. If you like unsettling and creepy feelings of paranoia, this book is for you. Danielewski does a fantastic job with spacial awareness in this one. And he gets very psychological with it too. I felt as though I was going crazy reading this manuscript too. Felt like I was right beside the characters within the book. Its delicious. And I was and am obsessed.

31.1o.2o17My copy has been delivered today, yay!!!I hope it's as good as it looks

Brilliant and confoundingly strange. To quote a post I once saw responding to how it’s read: “With a headache and joy in my heart.”