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House of Leaves

by Mark Z. Danielewski (Goodreads Author)

4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 · rating details · 38,495 ratings · 4,141 reviews

Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth -- musicians, tattoo artists, programme...more

Paperback, 736 pages

Published March 7th 2000 by Random House (first published January 1st 2000)

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Community Reviews

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Sep 17, 2012 Mickey rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wish there were someway that a sigh could count as a book review.

House of Leaves is a really, really damn good story. It's about a guy named Johnny Truant who finds a manuscript in a dead man's apartment. Said manuscript is entitled the Navidson Record. It's essentially a dissertation on a documentary of the same name, by and about a man named Will Navidson and his family. Navidson lives in a house that is larger on the inside than it is on the outside, sometimes only a small fraction of an in...more I wish there were someway that a sigh could count as a book review.

House of Leaves is a really, really damn good story. It's about a guy named Johnny Truant who finds a manuscript in a dead man's apartment. Said manuscript is entitled the Navidson Record. It's essentially a dissertation on a documentary of the same name, by and about a man named Will Navidson and his family. Navidson lives in a house that is larger on the inside than it is on the outside, sometimes only a small fraction of an inch larger, sometimes miles.
After a quick bit of research Johnny figures out that the Navidson Record, and pretty much everything related to it, does not exist. Johnny becomes obsessed with the whole thing and it drives him crazy.

I think it's a really great story. However, House of Leaves is the perfect definition of bullshit.

You see, it's got an experimental narrative. People will tell you that it's hard to follow, but those are probably the same people who told you that the Matrix required multiple viewings to understand. The book is written by a fictional character named Zampano, he is the dead man I mentioned above in my synopsis of the story. Johnny Truant, who is more or less the books protagonist, chimes in via an introduction and constant foot notations that he's added to Zampano's work. Most of his foot notes however meander off into him rambling about things that have happened to him in his day to day life (mostly fucking a million super hot babes). It should also be noted that the Zampano character has made a retarded amount of foot notes. See, not that complicated.
What really got my goat here is all the goddamn, cutesy little "look how clever I am I"/"I'm a major in art and a minor in lit" bullshit. It starts off simple enough with that kind of stuff. Every time the word "house" comes up the text is blue, no matter what language (and there are several), no matter what. That's a kind of cool little thing, I'm ok with that, but then Danielewski decides that he's going to masturbate from page 119 to page 709. There are annoying text blocking boxes in the middle of about thirty pages that contain text in them that is so clipped and cut off that you can't read it. You have to turn the page sideways and upside down continuously for hundred page stretches at a time, and these pages tend to have a small paragraph at the very best (often times only one or two words), making you flip through the pages very fast. There are footnotes all over the fucking pages making it a big pain in the ass to know what you are supposed to be reading and in what order. Then at the end he has the fucking gall to imply that there are hidden messages encoded throughout the book and you should go back and find them. It is a seriously frustrating book to read.

There is no doubt that House of Leaves is extremely clever, and it's undoubtedly the most exhaustive work of fiction I have ever read. The foot notes alone, which I gather are 98% referencing material that does not really exist, are impressive. Danielewski really worked his ass off on this and it shows. I respect House of Leaves, I cannot stress how much I loved the story, but I pretty much hate the book.

This book looks at you with this smug fucking smile on it's face, daring you to say that you don't like it, knowing that masses of people are going to go along with it because they don't want to look stupid. That's what this is. It's the fucking Radiohead of books. Well, House of Leaves, I am not stupid and I'm calling your bullshit. Fuck you.(less)

709 likes · like · see review

Jun 23, 2007 Jake Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Ambitious enjoyment-seekers

So there's a definite cult around this book, and I am one of the many who drank the Kool-Aide and never looked back.

Here's a little anecdote that speaks to the possibilities of this book:

I was an RA my junior and senior years of college. One year I had a good friend of mine living in my building, and upon one of her visits to my room I put The House of Leaves in her hand, telling her that she should read it. A couple of days later I was in my room, awake at some unholy hour due to my vampiric s...more So there's a definite cult around this book, and I am one of the many who drank the Kool-Aide and never looked back.

Here's a little anecdote that speaks to the possibilities of this book:

I was an RA my junior and senior years of college. One year I had a good friend of mine living in my building, and upon one of her visits to my room I put The House of Leaves in her hand, telling her that she should read it. A couple of days later I was in my room, awake at some unholy hour due to my vampiric sleep schedule, and there's a knock at my door. As an RA this is a rather unsettling experience. On the other side of that door could be a drug overdose, suicide attempt, food poisoning or any other host of problems we're warned about as RAs. So tentatively I open the door and am relieved to find that it is not some horrific medical emergency, but simply my friend. Except my friend looks haggard. Her hair is unkempt, there are bags under her eyes and she is slouched forward, breaking her usually quite nice posture. In her hand is The House of Leaves. We stand there, silently measuring each other up, and then my friend rears back and throws the book at me, then walks away. Such behavior is not terribly unusual for this friend of mine, so I make a note to ask about this later and then go back to bed.

The next day I call up my friend and ask her what exactly was the deal. "I hadn't slept in two days," she said. "That damn book kept me awake. I couldn't finish it, I couldn't sleep with it in the room, I had to get rid of it. That book fucked me up." To this day she still can't bring herself to finish reading the book. And so.

The book has an amazing way of crawling beneath your skin and taking root. When I read it my sleep schedule, already astoundingly bad, became even more irregular and bizarro. I started looking at things differently. The world changed. Not in any big way, but there was a definite shift, and that's the way this book works. It comes at you sideways. People who just see it as a gimmick, in my opinion, are trying to hit the book straight on when you just have to give into it. It's like music, which isn't surprising seeing as how Mark Z. Danielewski's sister is the recording artist Poe, who came up with her album Haunted in tandem with Danielewski's writing of House of Leaves.

There are sections of this book I found so surprising and affecting that I had to put it down and give myself a minute to take in what I'd read and go over it in my mind. Every person I've ever met who has read this book has had something to say about it, something more personal than just "Oh yeah, I liked that," or "It's overhyped." There's a visceral reaction this book can elicit, and I find that fascinating.

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday and she mentioned something David Mamet said once, something along the lines of "When you leave the theater wanting to discuss the play, that's a good play. When you leave the theater wanting to discuss your life and the world, that's art." I like that definition, and I think it applies to House of Leaves. Conversations about this book never stay on the book, they branch out into other areas and interests, they can't help but grow longer and deeper, not entirely unlike a five minute hallway.(less)

309 likes · like · see review

Jul 03, 2010 Aerin rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anne

Shelves: horror, well-that-was-awesome, americana, twisty-turny

"If he had seen the termites, he wouldn't have died."

This is a riddle my sister told me when we were kids. She used to bring one or two home from school a day; she got them from her gifted class I think. I was allowed to ask yes-or-no questions to try and figure them out, but this one stumped me. "The termites ate him!" I finally tried. "And if he'd seen them coming, he would have gotten out of there!"

"NO," my sister said, exasperated. "I'll give you a hint: he has an unusual profession!"

"And th...more

396 likes · like · see review

Feb 18, 2013 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: post modern horror fans

Shelves: really-big-timeconsumers, novels

It's like one of those very psychedelic albums from the late sixties, where they do all those funny stereo effects, and all that phasing or whatever it was called - all great fun but you still had to have good songs. As you'll know by now, "House of Leaves" has more tricks up its sleeve than you can shake Jacques Derrida at, but not enough tunes. There are two stories. One's about this, you know, uh, what can I say - house. Okay, all right, it's about the story of the book about the film about t...more

52 likes · like · see review

Mar 02, 2012 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who want to find their literary Everest

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: 1001 books list and an alleged cult following

Shelves: 1001-books, bookcrossing-books, arty-farty, kitten-squishers, you-are-twisting-my-melon-man

This is not for you....

Or maybe it is.

House of Leaves is not an easy book to read. It will not only challenge your ability to hold a weighty tome at numerous different angles for prolonged periods of time as you endeavour to read text which is upside down, back to front and shoots vertically or diagonally up and down the page, but it will challenge your idea of what a novel is and how a novel should be presented.

Normally I like to try and keep my reviews short. None of you (this is an assumpt...more

43 likes · like · see review

May 23, 2011 The Chaotic Reader rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone!

Recommended to The Chaotic Reader by: JSou

Shelves: horror, favorites, supernatural

My review of House of Leaves is posted on The Chaotic Reader.

35 likes · like · see review

Feb 19, 2013 MJ Nicholls rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, merkins, tortured-artists

Everyone’s favourite stovepipe-hatted feline-loving formal innovator arrived in 2000AD with this quiet little novella starring Stretchy Font Man, Captain Kerning and Bendy Page Gurl. Since then he has published a version of Finnegans Wake you have to “drive” and a book of blank space. I read the whole thing minus the last 30pp or so of the ‘Whalestoe Letters’—a tedious ripoffering from ‘Diary of a Madman’ with the typography Gogol would have used had he been granted access to Doubleday’s photoco...more Everyone’s favourite stovepipe-hatted feline-loving formal innovator arrived in 2000AD with this quiet little novella starring Stretchy Font Man, Captain Kerning and Bendy Page Gurl. Since then he has published a version of Finnegans Wake you have to “drive” and a book of blank space. I read the whole thing minus the last 30pp or so of the ‘Whalestoe Letters’—a tedious ripoffering from ‘Diary of a Madman’ with the typography Gogol would have used had he been granted access to Doubleday’s photocopiers—and was mildly impressed. I couldn’t resist seeing how Zorro had used his visual effects to service the story, and certainly, these page-bending moments are responsible for the most powerful moments in the text. Otherwise, the excessive footnotes and cute metacommentaries from Truant are tolerable, but since they only serve to buffer the horror story, it all seems a glorious waste of time—a costly, risky, showy, noisy, messy, sticky waste of time, unlikely to blow the minds of ages sixteen and up. Four stars until I hit the yawny appendix material . . . overstays its welcome, so slips down to three.

*

Previously: The “Getting Even” Review

Dear _____

I received last week a letter refusing representation by your agency, based on the excerpt of my novel Dennis & the Dictaphone. Permit me to explain some of the intricacies of my work in case my intentions were unclear. Firstly, this is an “audiovisual novel”—portions of the text are dictated to the reader (left blank on the page), while other portions are dictated by the reader, forcing the reader to complete various sections for his/herself (using their own pens or computers). The audio effect would be achieved by the inclusion of small audiophonic devices in the text (as in birthday cards, etc). Also, with each book a free Dictaphone would be issued, containing another novel co-written by five anonymous writers and read by five anonymous actors. The reader’s task is to trace which portions of the novel are written by myself and therefore form an extension of D&tD—the second half has been left blank for this purpose. It is so also unclear from the excerpt I sent that, from p400 onward, most of this novel is written in anagrams, forcing the reader to rearrange the words to decrypt their meanings in the original Greek. I also want to make clear the intricacies in the typography of my novel. Every letter Y after page 67 should flash yellow, every letter V should turn from purple to black. I also want to achieve a “lava lamp” effect on page 628, where a kaleidoscope of colours moves across the text in an ocular swirl. This is achievable with some strategic backlighting on the preceding page. I have received written encouragements from both Jeremy Irons and David Markson (the latter made when he was alive) to publish this text, so I believe it expedient on your side to take another look at the MS. Let’s see if we can make this work.

Respectfully,

Mark “Zorro” Danielewski(less)

46 likes · like · see review

Jan 03, 2013 Aloha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-horror, z-danielewski-mark, b-ghosts, a-ebooks, a-own, a-paper-book, 1-favorites, b-ergodic-literature

...Then no matter where you are, in a crowded restaurant or on some desolate street or even in the comforts of your own home, you'll watch yourself dismantle every assurance you ever lived by. You'll stand aside as a great complexity intrudes, tearing apart, piece by piece, all of your carefully conceived denials, whether deliberate or unconscious. And then for better or worse you'll turn, unable to resist, though try to resist you still will, fighting with everything you've got not to face the

...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I understand the entire conceit of mocking the turgid, pretentious, and absurdly obfuscating styling of postmodern academia, replete with footnotes sufficient to populate a Mongol horde; I appreciate the creativity towards, and playing around with, aspects of typography and color and kerning and textual direction; I can fathom the juxtaposition of the intricate and necessary edificial entries of the Navidson exploration with the jejune, supernumerary mouthwash rinse of a boastful free rider; and...more

27 likes · like · see review

Oct 19, 2008 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of metafiction, "house as a character" folks, weirdos

“Thus despite rational objections, technology’s failure is overrun by the onslaught of myth.” – pg. 335

This quote that I have taken completely out of context is probably the best one sentence summary of this book that is possible within the fractured confines of human communication, thus I will resort to the grocery list format.

‘House of Leaves’ is a masterpiece of metafiction, told in “documentary” style. I will attempt to unravel the layers of storytelling here, there are very possibly even mo...more

42 likes · like · see review

Oct 23, 2009 JSou rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, spooky, favo-u-rites, i-own-you

I finished this last night. At about 1:30 in the morning. Honestly, I have no idea how to even begin a review for this book. I kind of have the same panicky feeling I had when people would see me reading and ask what this book was about. I started blurting out incomplete sentences and even stammering all the while. I knew there was no way I could convey the brilliance of this book in just a couple light-conversational sentences. I think that might be the same case here, so my apologies in advanc...more

23 likes · like · see review

Oct 19, 2009 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: the sick and twisted and loving it...

Recommended to Kim by: Michelle, tadpole, Gary

Shelves: contemporary, holy-shit

98 likes · like · see review

Jun 18, 2009 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Footnote lovers, Non-linear style lovers, Blair Witch Project lovers

Recommended to Michelle by: Tadpole

Shelves: novels

I’m sitting here trying to review this book, and I’m coming up with nothing. I’ve been thinking about it off and on all day.

At this point I’m tempted to just link to Tadpole’s excellent review and call it a day, but I really feel as though I should say something. After all, I loved this book, and I’ve never read anything like it. It’s a heavily annotated version of a heavily annotated version of a “factual” record about a family who moves into a house in Virginia where something isn’t quite rig...more

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Dec 20, 2012 April rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, would-marry-the-author-for-this, mystery, fantasy, favourites, loved

"This is not for you."

*this will not follow the kind of reviews I usually do, so be prepared for a conglomerate of quotes, self-taken photos and annoying html text. Also this is quite long.

All right so not only was I completely mind-blown by this book, I was also overjoyed with the fact that I actually had an excuse to use my page markers! (I had orange for quotes, pink for ideas/concepts/points in story, green for layout/codes and yellow for footnotes and references as I'm sure you all wanted t...more

17 likes · like · see review

Sep 10, 2012 Maciek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: big-tomes, books-which-say-aloha, horror, owned-books, own-in-hardcover, read-in-2012, experimental-fiction

Everything has been said but not everyone has said it yet.

- Rep. Morris Udall at the 1988 Democratic convention

I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of insuring one's immortality.

- James Joyce in a reply reply for a request for a plan of Ulysses

The thoroughly well-informed man--that is the modern ideal. And the mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a br...more

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Jan 16, 2008 Greg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: book fanatics

Shelves: fiction

This is without a doubt one of the most engrossing books I've ever read in my life. I'm almost embarrassed to admit the amount of notes I've scrawled in various notebooks while reading it. You can call this book a horror story, but you can also call it a love story. You might call it the reinvention of the novel, or at the very least it's a book that makes you question your ideas about what a novel could or should be. About where the line is between fact and fiction, author and creation, about i...more This is without a doubt one of the most engrossing books I've ever read in my life. I'm almost embarrassed to admit the amount of notes I've scrawled in various notebooks while reading it. You can call this book a horror story, but you can also call it a love story. You might call it the reinvention of the novel, or at the very least it's a book that makes you question your ideas about what a novel could or should be. About where the line is between fact and fiction, author and creation, about investing ourselves in a story we know isn't real.

At it's base, the book is about a family who moves into a new house and decides to document the experience. The family soon finds that the house is larger on the inside than the outside. Without giving away any spoilers, the story slowly descends into darkness from there. The documentary that is created of this experience, called The Navidson Record, is slowly distributed through mostly underground channels and becomes something of a cult phenomena. It plays at film festivals. Essays and books are written about it. Debates ensue about it's meaning and even it's authenticity. And in the book, and old blind man named Zampano attempts to compile and deconstruct everything written about The Navidson Record and create a scholarly work about the entire phenomena. Sadly he dies before he's able to complete his mission. But a young man named Johnny, lost in a world of booze, drugs, and women finds Zampano's unfinished work and attempts to make some semblance of what is thousands of pages of notes written in no coherent order on everything from notebooks to napkins.

The book takes the form of the story of The Navidson Record, written by Zampano, with hundreds of footnotes to the story written by Zampano. Some with just lists of names and publication dates, others with in depth analysis of ideas in The Navidson Record. Above and beyond this, Johnny makes his own footnotes, mostly talking about his life, and yet as expected, the stories slowly begin to intertwine in more and more bizarre ways. Finally there are footnotes from "The Editors" of the book, who without being able to contact Johnny directly have had to make some clarifications here and there. Along with all this there are also appendices in the back with more writings and personal information by the various characters.

If you think that plays with the idea of a novel, you've seen nothing yet. At a couple points throughout the book, the layout of the text changes as well. Written diagonally down the page, around in circles, from a few words to a few sentences on a page, footnotes that force you to skip ahead and then read your way back...This may sound gimmicky(and in a way it is), but how he uses it only serves to enhance the reading experience. In a way the structure of the book itself helps to put you in the mental state of the characters within.

But more than all the surface elements I talked about, this book is an exploration of the human psyche, about characters who are dealing with issues of identity, sorrow, loss, regret, obsession. And those things more than anything about this book is why months after reading it I'll get random flashes from the book and an irresistible urge to pick it up. It haunts you, but in a way that makes you want more.

Read it. If only just for novelty of the reading experience. As an added bonus, those readers who are truly obsessive will undoubtedly realize how much more is going on in this book and spend many a sleepless night trying to solve a riddle with no answer and reach the end of a path only to realize they've been walking in a circle. (less)

14 likes · like · see review

May 12, 2012 Bonnie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, eek-the-creepies, adult, literary-fiction

Holy crap I finished! If anyone has seen this book in its physical form I'm sure you can understand the need for celebration. (If you haven't seen this, it's a beast.)

I'm not even sure what to say about this book. So here are some random statements for you to enjoy.

This is insane. This has entirely way too many footnotes. And changing the font to differentiate between who's talking? Doesn't help. Seriously, what is the point in having the word 'house' be blue? If I ever move into a house that ha...more Holy crap I finished! If anyone has seen this book in its physical form I'm sure you can understand the need for celebration. (If you haven't seen this, it's a beast.)

I'm not even sure what to say about this book. So here are some random statements for you to enjoy.

This is insane. This has entirely way too many footnotes. And changing the font to differentiate between who's talking? Doesn't help. Seriously, what is the point in having the word 'house' be blue? If I ever move into a house that has some doorway mysteriously appear that leads to some deep, dark, cold hallway I'm not exploring. I'm fucking moving, end of. Who the fuck installs cameras all over their house? It's like Real World, just in a freaky man-eating house. These guys, especially Lude, have A LOT of sex. But seriously, what's the point in sharing this with us readers? I really couldn't give a shit less. And if Johnny Truant is supposed to have stopped showering weeks ago and doesn't really leave his house or eat real food anymore, and looks like some disgusting hobo how is he still able to hook up with all these hot babes? And how exactly does one go about having sex on a Nordic Track? Nevermind, don't answer that. Of course! That makes complete sense. You just saw the house eat someone and you decide to go explore again. Sure, why the fuck not? Maybe you'll get lucky and it's just not hungry anymore. So, he's burning that book... is that supposed to be the book we're reading and if so how did it end up in that old guys house? And I still don't understand the claw marks in the wood next to his body. Did anyone perform an autopsy? Oh! So we were also supposed to have picked up on clues in this jumbled mess? About your Mother? I can barely understand what the fuck is going on let alone find the CLUES. Is this some type of Freud thing that went over my head? I still don't get what the growling was.

So, I have one final question: Was ANYONE supposed to understand this or was the author just being cute fully intending on leaving everyone completely clueless?(less)

12 likes · like · see review

Oct 20, 2012 Vilma rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, this-is-not-a-novel

If David Foster Wallace has written with Infinite Jest the last great novel of the 20th century [1] the first of the 21th century is sǝʌɐǝן ɟo ǝsnoɥ. A family romance, horror thriller, cultural-historical essay, junkie story, marital drama, narrative experiment, porn and also the ironic reflection of all that. A metafictional, postmodern hypertext where all the literary theories of the last decades are only a dream. Or a nightmare.

And its a house.

Its an eerie book, so be warned before you ente...more If David Foster Wallace has written with Infinite Jest the last great novel of the 20th century [1] the first of the 21th century is sǝʌɐǝן ɟo ǝsnoɥ. A family romance, horror thriller, cultural-historical essay, junkie story, marital drama, narrative experiment, porn and also the ironic reflection of all that. A metafictional, postmodern hypertext where all the literary theories of the last decades are only a dream. Or a nightmare.

And its a house.

Its an eerie book, so be warned before you enter the house. ¿ What does it mean. ¿ Who benefits from it. ¿ Do you really know yourself coz you better should. But never mind, in the end you will get hopelessly lost but still being confident enough of being able to find the exit, the solution to this riddle, the ultimate meaning - if only you will search more thorough, and deeper. Otherwise you would not even engage with it, with the text, with the house.

¿ Would you

~~NO!~~

¿ YES

The innermost layer of this narrative universe is a film called Navidson Record. It describes the photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Will Navidson and the mysterious and horrible events in his little house in Virginia, where he moved in with his new wife, Karen, and their two young children. First there are only a few tiny ~~dis~~///crepancies in accurately measuring the inner and outer walls. But then a previously existing door into a dark place leads apparently into nowhere. The dimensions of which prove on closer examination to be infinite, but above all it seems that the intricate labyrinth walls, corridors, stairways and caves move constantly and distort existence. The house hides a gateway to another world, full of coldness, darkness and danger. ¿ Is it an image that Danielewski creates. At one point he talks about it that the house acts like a mirror/rorrim, its properties reflect the one who enters it (Oddly enough, it changes the geometry and the basic laws of physics (but not the time, which is obviously invariant with respect to the house (¿ by mistake or ¿ by design... )))

[-------------------------------]

Also an avant-garde film experiment

(w/ the feel of Blair Witch Project)

..............................a nightmare docudrama, an autobiographical horror thriller but presented from the beginning not directly but in the form of a footnotes-riddled essay by an quirky old man named Zampano. In his estate the hyperactive,

plagued by neuroses,

junkie Johnny Truant discovers the dis

  orderly

manuscript and works, increasingly obsessed, at an annotated edition.

Danielewski increases the complexity to the literal illegibility: The editors leave
in their own typefaces
their comments on a text, which is in form a critical commentary. The printed text is analogous to Navidsons film language, pulled out all the stops, to be read with backwards

u
p
s
i
d
e
-
d
o
w
n

passages

to concrete poetry. The novel depicts the labyrinthine architecture of the house. He plays an incredibly intelligent but perfidious doubledouble game: The horror story, which follows the usual genre pattern of the cursed house, is told with foreboding signs and anticipation, effective and hard. Wrapped in an airtight protective suit of cultural theory it seems ~~nevertheless~~ like a work of fiction, which follows its own laws.

¿ For all prey on the question of what the house re:ally is.

¿ Is it the manifestation of the mental state of those who enter it ¿ A cosmic phenomenon, a parallel universe ¿ The world of Art ¿ Is it God

Another level is the escalating footnotes. Hundreds of them. The footnotes, as well as the text bursting with names, sources, references, quotations etc pp, which are taken as true, that one is inclined to believe that it really did exist. I imagine Danielewski has nothing left to chance, but that everything has been designed with intention and respect...

_________________________

[1] Yes he has, not only if.(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Mar 31, 2009 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: someone in the mood for something "different".

Shelves: horror

NOTE: Footnotes are at the end of the review.

"House of Leaves" was my first foray into "post-modern" literature (1). I have to admit that this book "beat" me. I couldn't finish it (2). I was able to finish most of it, though, so I have a good idea of what it was about. I will say that I recommend this book for someone wanting a taste of post-modern literature without having to slog through a dense tome where the action is all internal.

The Plot

This book has a lot of layers, each built on top of...more

11 likes · like · see review

Nov 27, 2007 Cloudhidden rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

Looking for a spooky book to read around Halloween I was recommended this book by several others on a message board I frequent. Quite a few people mentioned its brilliance and the fear it put in them.

After reading it I could not disagree more.

The story is this: a family moves into a home and begins noticing physical features of their house changing. They begin to investigate, which leads to a new doorway and hall appearing where there was not one. The husband, being a world class explorer and f...more Looking for a spooky book to read around Halloween I was recommended this book by several others on a message board I frequent. Quite a few people mentioned its brilliance and the fear it put in them.

After reading it I could not disagree more.

The story is this: a family moves into a home and begins noticing physical features of their house changing. They begin to investigate, which leads to a new doorway and hall appearing where there was not one. The husband, being a world class explorer and filmographer decides to document the new house and in doing so creates a documentary, ala "The Blair Witch Project." But the book has a couple stories within the story. It is written from the point of view of some young slacker who breaks into this dead old man's house and takes the notes for a book the old dude is writing. The book and all of these notes are his reactions to watching the documentary film.

The old man's ramblings reads like a textbook, replete with tons of footnotes, fake references, poems, rantings. But we don't get to just read his reaction, or simply walk through the documentary, we have to suffer through the slacker's constant juvenile side stories and craziness.

The premise is brilliant, and flipping through the book the first time, I was pumped at the prospect of the book. The effort Daniel put into this book is exhausting to say the least. This had to have taken countless hours for the detail to all of the fake references, quotes, drawings, and footnotes, but sadly at the center is a stupid story that goes no where.

I was never scared, but rather annoyed. NOTHING seems to happen. And as soon as the story begins to move, we get a long winded worthless conversation from our main character.

Nothing is ever explained, nor finalized. This is seriously one of the most boring, meandering, monotonous books I have read.

While reading the book I found a message board dedicated to the book and its absolute greatness. It took all I had not to log in and question the taste and objectivity of these people, but if they like it, who am I to pee on them.

I do not recommend this book, but if you do read it and turn out to enjoy it, please enlighten me as to what I missed as I fought falling asleep reading these boring passages. (less)

45 likes · like · see review

Sep 20, 2007 Nathan rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People I hate.

Shelves: books-i-hope-die, fiction

One of the reviews I read of this book compared it positively (bewilderingly) to The Blair Witch Project. I agree, only I thought The Blair Witch project was primarily a ninety-minute gimmick, and not particularly engaging, at that. I should probably admit that I only made it 3/4ths of the way through House of Leaves before realizing that my skull appears larger from the inside than it does from outside. Every person I know who has a brain currently, previously, or aspires to one day have a brai...more

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May 11, 2009 Charlie George rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, 1001-list, literature, mindfuck

[Spoiler alert: you can't really spoil this story because the dominant theme here is unanswered questions, but I try to distill a number of them, so be warned.]

This book was quite an elaborate mind-fuck. The unique regression of perspectives within perspectives was fascinating, but in the end became tiresome--simultaneously the book's greatest strength and only flaw.

We all know that the written word will always be superior to any other art form because it employs the imagination to flesh out the...more [Spoiler alert: you can't really spoil this story because the dominant theme here is unanswered questions, but I try to distill a number of them, so be warned.]

This book was quite an elaborate mind-fuck. The unique regression of perspectives within perspectives was fascinating, but in the end became tiresome--simultaneously the book's greatest strength and only flaw.

We all know that the written word will always be superior to any other art form because it employs the imagination to flesh out the images. And our own imagination is a more personal, authentic, and visceral experience than anything anyone else can produce for us. I've always thought this applied primarily to visuals--characters' appearance, experiences and thoughts, the appearance of monsters, settings, the environment, world-building, etc.

The genius of House of Leaves is that it makes this principle work overtime, and extends it to the meta--to the plot itself, and to the multiple levels of reality. What happened to the two primary authors, Zampano and Johnny Truant? What happened to the whole world of the Navidson Report? We are never told. It's like an alternate reality. So throughout the whole book, my brain was working overtime trying to figure out how the state of affairs came about. We are told early on, and this was brilliant, that none of the interviewees cited had ever heard of the Navidsons, or any related events; that none of the citations (over 400!) could be located, though they are tailored to sound authentic. The "editors" claim they spoke to Mr. Truant only by phone, and have lost contact with him, as though he disappeared.

The simplest possibility is that Zampano made everything up completely. But it is clear from the circumstances of his death and the intriguing experiences of Mr. Truant that is unlikely. But if that is not the case then the alternatives are mind-blowing. How is it that "the world" such as it is, our world, so engrossed in the Navidson documentary in the 1990's has completely forgotten it? Has the house or power within it somehow systematically erased all evidence and memory of the documented events? Were the Navidson's completely snuffed out of existence? What happened to the happy ending presented on the surface? And how did Zampano and Mr. Truant (temporarily) escape the effects of this erasure? There are tantalizing hints about their character which may suggest reasons, but I don't know if it was intentional or just my imagination trying to color in gaps. I guess that means it was subtly intentional. Pretty slick.

But again, none of this is ever revealed. On the one hand it is good that my pet theory doesn't get proven wrong. But on the other hand it is bad that we never find out the truth! Too many mysteries go unsolved! Or is there a truth? Very postmodern.

On top of all this is the final layer, the materialist observation that the actual author, good old Mark Z. Danielewski, really DID make everything up. Not bad, Mark. I was really sucked in at several points, especially early on. I just found the endless footnotes and perspective changes slicing and dicing everything up to be distracting. It was too long and segmented to sustain coherence for me. Don't ask me how it could be done, but if these ideas could have been condensed from 700 pages down to a short story or novella kind of length, a nice respectable 50 or 100 pages, I would assign 5 stars in a heartbeat. Getting rid of all that blank space would be a good start; I don't see what that added, other than weight in my satchel.

And wtf was with Navidson desperately reading "a copy of House of Leaves" while trapped in the labyrinth?? Cool gag, neat trick, but damnit, it is never explained! At least I wasn't perceptive enough to find it or creative enough to figure it out. It's just sitting there happily defying logic, an inversion of the levels of perspective into an impossible paradox, M.C. Escher reincarnated and channeled into the printed word.

Another elephant in the room was the business with the Minotaur, the similarities between the house and the legend. The implication to me, and I'm sure people have very different interpretations, was that Zampano thought this was the house's true origin, but attempted to hide it by blotting it out of his writing. His erasure (and Mr. Truant's uncovering of this information) may have ironically saved it from the House's erasure, and ultimately allowed us to catch this inexplicable, partial remnant of the tale, a leaking of some alternate reality into our universe.

Even more key, unanswered questions: What is with the house's impossible age? Why and how does it cleanse itself of any inanimate objects? Or constantly change shape? What about the ever-present growl? Was that the minotaur? Or the remnants of these on other levels of reality--the claw mark in Zampano's apartment, Mr. Truant sensing the presense? Is the configuration determined by the mind of the occupants? Sometimes or always? Which occupants? The list goes on. When people gush about this book, I suspect this is why. It tricks the mind into making up our own story and explanations as you go along.
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Jun 12, 2007 Brooke rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like creepy house stories

Shelves: own, horror

In short, House of Leaves is about a house that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

A bit of a longer synopsis: Johnny Truant finds a manuscript. The manuscript is an academic article about a documentary. This documentary was created by Will Navidson, who discovers that his house is larger on the inside than it is on the outside and decides to explore the strangeness and videotape it as he goes. The academic manuscript about the movie was written by Zampanò, who is blind. Will Navid...more In short, House of Leaves is about a house that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

A bit of a longer synopsis: Johnny Truant finds a manuscript. The manuscript is an academic article about a documentary. This documentary was created by Will Navidson, who discovers that his house is larger on the inside than it is on the outside and decides to explore the strangeness and videotape it as he goes. The academic manuscript about the movie was written by Zampanò, who is blind. Will Navidson's story is told within Johnny's story as the manuscript begins to affect Johnny's life.

House of Leaves is unsettling, disorienting, and terrifying. These words describe not only the plot, but the way the book is presented. On many pages, words go up and down the page. Some parts are printed backwards. The formatting of the text often corresponds with the action going on in the words. There are small chunks where there are only a few words on each page, which, when paired with what the words actually say, creates a strong sense of foreboding. The plot definitely would not have impacted me as much as it did if it was presented in the standard format.

Since the manuscript is a scholarly article about the documentary, Zampanò's parts of the book read like one, with copious footnotes and analysis. Johnny's text reads more like fiction as he describes finding and reading the manuscript. Despite the academia and weaving between fiction and "non-fiction," House of Leaves never loses its rhythm. The academic tone also does not cut into the terror of the narrative; there were times when I had to put the book down, turn on the lights and television, and walk around while breathing deeply in order to shake off the creepiness. To this day, two years after I first read it, I still get chills while thinking about certain scenes.

The fun doesn't stop when you turn the book's final page. The author's sister, Ann Danielewski, better known as Poe, wrote her rather spectacular album Haunted to tie into the book (sample lyrics: Johnny dear don't be afraid / I will keep your secrets safe / Bring me to the blind man who / Lost you in his house of blue). Haunted carries some of the book's creepiness with it by including voice recordings of the siblings' father that they discovered after he passed away.

I really can't convey just what an Experience reading House of Leaves is. Some might find the footnotes and scholarly tone too cumbersome, but you owe it to yourself to give it a chance. And if a door suddenly appears in your house where there wasn't one before, for God's sake, get the hell out of there.(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Sep 22, 2007 Nate D rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: post-modernism, favorites

Read twice, Summer 2000 and November-December 2006.

This is one of those books that so many seem to hate, but coming back to it again after all those years confirmed to me that the book succeeds just fine on a number of levels. It can be read for a sort of existential horror entertainment, as a typographical marvel and amusement, as a diabolical Nabakovian puzzle box, or as a eerie rumination on loss and absence and how the irrevocable past impedes the present. Of course, they all work best toget...more

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Dec 03, 2007 oriana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: too-smart-for-their-own-good, why-werent-you-better

So I'm just saying that I was promised that this book would scare the shit out of me, and warp my conception of what a pomo novel could be. It did neither. The only part I remember loving was a scene where our 'hero' was in some dark crazy unplace, and he had one match, plus the book he was reading (wait, was it supposed to be this book? I forget now), and he had to light the page he was reading on fire with the match, and finish the page before it burnt up so that he could light the next page w...more

8 likes · like · see review

Nov 28, 2012 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, book-club-literary-exploration, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, contemporary, post-modernism, 2000s

Johnny Truant searches an apartment for his friend and finds an academic study of a documentary film called The Navidson Record. This film investigates the phenomenon of the Navidson’s house where the house is larger inside than the outside. Initially it’s less than an inch difference but it keeps growing. The only problem with all of this is there is no evidence of this documentary ever existing. The book House of Leaves is that academic study (with all the footnotes) mixed with Johnny’s interj...more Johnny Truant searches an apartment for his friend and finds an academic study of a documentary film called The Navidson Record. This film investigates the phenomenon of the Navidson’s house where the house is larger inside than the outside. Initially it’s less than an inch difference but it keeps growing. The only problem with all of this is there is no evidence of this documentary ever existing. The book House of Leaves is that academic study (with all the footnotes) mixed with Johnny’s interjections, transcripts from the documentary and anything else.

This debut novel of Mark Z. Danielewski tries to mix a horror novel with some romance and satire but it mainly focuses on just how unreliable a narrator can be. I’ll be honest with you; I struggled to work out if I should review this as a piece of literature or as art, so I’ve done both and you can find my art review on Knowledgelost. Danielewski has really come up with a unique idea here, it’s almost the literary equivalent of The Blair Witch Project; there is a lot happening on the pages but the reader never gets a full grasp on what is actually happening.

The first 150 pages of this book were quite enjoyable, there were some funny moments and it gave you a real feel for what was going on. But then everything turns completely weird and I found myself raging and sometimes going insane. This is by no means an easy book to read, more of an exploration in the postmodern idea of Post-structuralism. I don’t pretend to understand postmodern literature but it was interest to see what Mark Z. Danielewski does in this book.

You’ll either love or hate this genre blending novel; for me, I hated the story. I think my wife got more enjoyment out of watching me rage than I did with reading it. House of Leaves is known as Ergodic literature, which requires the reader to navigate the text in a non-traditional way; this is the first time I’ve seen a book like this. Everyone will have a different interpretation of this novel, so I would love to hear what others thought. Also make sure you check my post about this book as an art form.

This post originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2012/...

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Jan 12, 2009 Caleb J. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Holy crap, you can tell this was Danielewski's first novel. It is a fantastic experiment in meta-fiction, and I admire it for that reason, but as a narrative (or in this instance, several), it falls severely short.

The Johnny Truant arc feels like a long Palahniuk-style cliche of debauchery. It also illustrated just how arrogant and condescending Dnaielewski is as an author, because Truant frequently tells the reader how s/he should be reacting to the text as well as explaining and interpreting...more

18 likes · like · see review

Jan 08, 2008 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars

My review was apparently too long, so I'll remove the description of the book. Here it is in brief - you can get a more thorough description from Amazon or elsewhere on the internet:

Johnny acquires a stack of papers written by an old man named Zampano, who recently died. Johnny realizes the mish-mashed pages are a book, and sets out to edit it together. The bulk of "House of Leaves" is the work by Zampano, edited by Johnny. It is an academic exploration/review/critique of a movie called "The Nav...more My review was apparently too long, so I'll remove the description of the book. Here it is in brief - you can get a more thorough description from Amazon or elsewhere on the internet:

Johnny acquires a stack of papers written by an old man named Zampano, who recently died. Johnny realizes the mish-mashed pages are a book, and sets out to edit it together. The bulk of "House of Leaves" is the work by Zampano, edited by Johnny. It is an academic exploration/review/critique of a movie called "The Navidson Record" which is a documentary about a family and an odd house that is bigger inside than out. Johnny realizes the movie doesn't exist, and the extensive footnotes by Zampano are largely fake. As he works on the book, Johnny begins to descend into madness (fueled by what?), and chronicles his own story through a series of footnotes that he writes and attaches to Zampano's work. The book is actually two in one - Zampano's pseudo-non-fiction account of a movie, and Johnny's story.

-------------------------

I really enjoyed the Zampano part of the book, the academic report on the Navidson Record. I don't think I've ever read anything like it, where a neat story is told in that manner, through the layer of a critique/summary of critiques of a movie. Really neat idea. The book wasn't as scary as I'd hoped, a friend told me it was really creepy. The first page actually got my hopes up, instead of a dedication, the page just reads "This is not for you."

At points, it is suspenseful, which is a pretty good feat for a book written as a critique of a movie. I really respected and enjoyed that. As I mentioned above, I think it is a really clever way to tell a story.

One cheap gimmick that I liked, and added a bit, was that the text on a page would correspond occassionally to what is being described at the time. For example, at one of the more interesting points a character is crawling through a tiny corridor, which is getting smaller. The text is written in a small block, the next page is the same, but slightly smaller block, The next page smaller still. Cheap gimmick, but it sucked me in.

The Johnny sections I really didn't care for as much, I would actually be disappointed when Zampano's writing was interrupted for a Johnny section, kind of reminded me of "As I Lay Dying" or the George RR Martin books where a good character's section would end and a bad would begin. I just didn't care about his life - he would write about his partying times with Lude, his one-night stands with girls, and how crazy his life had become recently. The only interesting, to me, stuff, were his stories from his past, mainly as a teenager. Good stuff there and there are some connections between his life and the Zampano book.

There are some appendices at the back of the book, some with stuff Zampano hoped to include but never finished, some extra writings found in Zampano's trunk, and some stuff about Johnny. One of them are a collection of letters his mother had written him while she was institutionalized. Gave a good amount of background on Johnny and his life, and they were kind of fun to read, some hidden messages in there (nothing clever). But I think that adding to the book with that sort of stuff was a neat idea.

Overall it was OK, if you're thinking about it, I'd say read it because it's such a different kind of book. Anyone who reads a lot will appreciate it just because of the format and what the book is trying to accomplish in a different way than anything else I've read. The Navidson Record stuff was good, but the Johnny stuff wasn't on that level. I gave it 3 stars, which to me means "I enjoyed it, read it if you're interested, but it certainly isn't a book for everyone."(less)

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Jan 26, 2009 Lara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, something-wicked, 2008, very-favorites, before-you-die-1001

I read this book in one day because I was physically incapable of putting it down. I was too busy turning it every which way, flipping back and forth between its labyrinthine pages, completely absorbed in its every level. It has crept its way into my head in ways I never thought possible. I turned my bedside lamp on and off several times last night, checking to make sure the room was still as I'd remembered it, wondering if I should go and get the book and look for more answers, or if I should n...more

8 likes · like · see review

Jun 26, 2007 Samara rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: trendy fans of semiotics and the Inferno

Shelves: plainolfiction

When I think of this book, I think of a quote from Nabokov--"I want footnotes reaching up like skyscrapers!" In this book, the footnotes do climb up, rather like a noxious vine crawling up a trellis, but they also descend and wrap around your mind like cellophane.

Okay. Fullstop. Let's start again.

This book is a labyrinth. This book is a horror novel. This book is a love story. This book is all-encompassing.

This is the story of Johnny Truant and a narrative concerning a documentary never made by...more

14 likes · like · see review

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this book kind of freaked me out...	13	182	19 mar. 09:56
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About Mark Z. Danielewski

Mark Z. Danielewski is an American author. He is the son of Polish avant-garde film director Tad Danielewski and the brother of singer and songwriter Annie Decatur Danielewski, a.k.a. Poe.

Danielewski studied English Literature at Yale. He then decided to move to Berkeley, California, where he took a summer program in Latin at the University of California, Berkeley. He also spent time in Paris, pre...more

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Quotes from House of Leaves

“Who has never killed an hour? Not casually or without thought, but carefully: a premeditated murder of minutes. The violence comes from a combination of giving up, not caring, and a resignation that getting past it is all you can hope to accomplish. So you kill the hour. You do not work, you do not read, you do not daydream. If you sleep it is not because you need to sleep. And when at last it is over, there is no evidence: no weapon, no blood, and no body. The only clue might be the shadows beneath your eyes or a terribly thin line near the corner of your mouth indicating something has been suffered, that in the privacy of your life you have lost something and the loss is too empty to share.” — 632 people liked it

“Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: pati. It does not mean to flow with exuberance. It means to suffer.” — 417 people liked it

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