House of Leaves

3.5 Rounded to a 3

There is a house...a seemingly normal house. A house that suddenly has a new closet...walls that don't match in length from the inside to the out...and a hallway that appears out of thin air. So of course what happens? People go into the hallway... get lost, get found, disappear for days on end, and just can't let go. What happens when they are lost in there? What do they see?

A film begins circulating that glimpses into the unknown hallway known as The Navidson Record. Johnny Truant discovers a manuscript written by a recently deceased man named Zampano, that is a study on said film. So begins the madness as Johnny tries to piece together the notes and pages of what Zampano has left behind.

I really wanted to love this one more. It started off grabbing my interest and sucking me in immediately. However, trying to read through the many, many pages of footnotes (that are chapters on their own), and the haphazardly thrown together clips and pieces within a page (that are meant to be that way) I quickly became irritated.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the idea and the thought put into this book. It just didn't thrill me to have to turn the book upside-down, sideways, caddy corner, and all manor of 360° reading. Not to mention having to read paragraphs backwards.

That being said, the story itself was right up my alley. What horror fan doesn't love a house that mysteriously has closets and hallways appear out of nowhere...where items disappear, walls move, and growls are floating around but can't be pin pointed? I know some will love this type of book and initially I was into it but 400pgs later and it's a bit cumbersome and annoying and took away my enjoyment of the story.