House of Leaves in Bookworm Buddies

Jun 07, 2017 Wayne Barrett rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, contemporary, supernatural, mystery, horror, poetry

My first introduction to House of Leaves was a list of top Horror books in which, along with a few others, I promptly added to my trusty cell phone book list. On my next trip to the book store I came across the book and, as is my habit, I carried it, along with an armload of others, to a nearby chair and started to skim my selections.
When I got to House of Leaves I skimmed through the pages and immediately thought, Oh, hell no..

If you haven't already, skim through the book the next time you see My first introduction to House of Leaves was a list of top Horror books in which, along with a few others, I promptly added to my trusty cell phone book list. On my next trip to the book store I came across the book and, as is my habit, I carried it, along with an armload of others, to a nearby chair and started to skim my selections.
When I got to House of Leaves I skimmed through the pages and immediately thought, Oh, hell no..

If you haven't already, skim through the book the next time you see it and you'll understand my reaction.

Well, you know the old cliche about curiosity killing the cat. It seemed like every time I went to the book store I would run into House of Leaves and it was like coming upon an accident and telling yourself you are not going to slow down and look but are unable to help yourself. I started checking out reviews again and finally decided I had to read it. And now that I have, I am reminded of another cliche I often see on Goodreads. "What the Fuck did I just read?"

I am reminded of the movie, Blair Witch Project, for the reason that, like the movie, House of Leaves is presented as an actual cache of writings that has been discovered and released in a book form. Sorry if I burst any bubbles but the story is a work of fiction; a very jumbled, mind fucking, yet entertaining, work of fiction.

Actually, for someone like me who would probably be diagnosed with ADD, someone who reads 10 pages of 1 book, then switches and reads 20 pages from another, then watches 15 minutes of one of my multitude of recorded DVR shows, then scrolls through Goodreads, then reads... ohh, look, a quarter! What was I saying? Oh, yeah, House of Leaves. Well, it turns out because of the way the book is formatted, it was a perfect read for me... well, almost perfect... considering I had to stand on my head several times to read the damn thing. And now that I think about it, I should have just turned the damn book upside down! It would have saved me a kink in my neck. There were times when I had to read it side to side, upside down, diagonal, and inside out. And further help to the ADD in ME was the fact that this was a story within a story with footnotes within footnotes. (I'm enjoying this review, and no folks, I'm not on acid... not yet.)

The heart of the overall story is about a house that... well, I don't want to give away too much, but it just ain't right. There are some moments that make the book being a great horror, understandable. And other than the family who owns the house and live through an experience that would twist the the most stable of minds, there is another dark hallway of mystery concerning a young man who found the manuscript in a truck hidden away in an apartment he rented.

On the outside, House of Leaves is intimidating in its mass, but considering there are pages after pages within that contain a single word or sentence, the book is really not nearly as massive as it seems.

For a book that brought a O, hell no. reaction from me when I first encountered it, I now think that in time I would like to read it again. Now that I have seen the madness, the twists, and know the story, I would be interested to give it another go.

I'm not going to bother recommending this book to anyone. Take what I have said with a grain of salt, and make your own decision whether to want to dive in to this one. And remember, you can just turn the book upside down... you don't have to stand on your head. ...more

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Oct 02, 2013 ✨Susan✨ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror, obsessive, favorites, mental-illness, mystery, complicated, mind-twisting

Wow! A fantastic plunge into the depths of the mind. An extraordinary book that is imaginative and essentially has the rare ability to touch every reader on some level. All of the characters are connected, to this same mind blowing story, in their own very personal way. They are all so inherently different from one another but, somehow, similar because of their lifelong secrets, vulnerabilities and unique coping abilities.

The way the book moved through so many bizarre paths simultaneously, kept ...more

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Oct 08, 2013 Angie rated it really liked it

Shelves: mark-z-danielewski

This book was unlike anything I have ever read before. It's two stories running together, Johnny truant who is putting together the papers (paper, napkins,anything the could be written on) about the family of Will navidson.

Johnny had moved into the flat of zampano, and found a chest of something called the navidson report. From then on the book goes from strange to at times horrific. The navidsons had moved into a house that soon had strange hallways appearing, where it was impossible to exist. ...more

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Sep 22, 2013 Jessica Chantelle marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2025, epic

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Sep 30, 2013 Elsa marked it as to-read

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Oct 01, 2013 Sebastien marked it as to-read

Shelves: final-cut-december

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Oct 07, 2013 Brandi Six added it

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Dec 04, 2013 Rob G. marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: to-read-owned, my-collection

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Dec 17, 2013 Nellie marked it as to-read

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Nov 07, 2017 Merrill rated it it was amazing

Shelves: new-starts, dark-mysteries, strong-woman, love-triumph-all, survivors, new-classic, evil-house-and-buildings, grief-and-healing, gateway, pure-evil

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