House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of House of Leaves
Book Review: A thrilling ride though the psychology of the brain on the brink of madness...
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is wonderful. It is written as if it was an art film. It draws you in and forces you to experience what the characters are experiencing. Very enthralling.Book Review: A unique reading experience
Summary: 5 Stars
"This is not for you". The dedication of this book. Perhaps it should read "this is not for everyone". It seems to me that you either love or hate "HOUSE of Leaves". I happen to fall into the former category.
I really have not encountered another book like this. Maybe I should get out more. I don't know. But the "HOUSE" owned me the entire time I was reading it. It is a book that literally involves you -- turning it around, flipping forward and back, deciphering codes...
Now, it really isn't as scary as everyone seems to be saying it is. Of course, I haven't found many novels very scary lately... Creepy, maybe. But not nightmare inducing. Although, I did have some pretty vivid dreams... The premise is quite thought-provoking and mind-bending.
Sure, sometimes the tricks seem a little cheap (word painting, where Danielewski forces you to read sentences from bottom to top to reinforce that the protagonist is climbing, for example) but even then, I thought that these effects were useful, and more than anything - fun! I mean, why not challenge the notion of the novel form? For those who say that this is not original, then what is the other 99% of fiction currently on the market? And just what *are* you reading, anyway?
The story invoving Johnny Truant, the "editor", was at times, a little tiresome (there's only so much stream-of-consciousness writing I can take...). But, in the end, you see that his story is essential. I'll just go out on a limb here and say that the folks who are preaching to others to skip the footnotes because they are superfluous are really missing a large part of this story. Perhaps, the *real* story. I don't want to say any more than that, other than that you shouldn't take this book at face value. It's certainly about more than a HOUSE.
Now, not to seem hypocritical, but some of the footnotes *are* superfluous. They serve to make the fiction seem less like fiction. And why not? I think that people are smart enough to realize what can be skimmed and what can't. If you can just immerse yourself in the "HOUSE" I think that you, too, will find yourself lost in it.
For those who are looking for something different and are willing to put in a little effort: Highly Recommended.
All others... well, you're missing out.
Book Review: A unique take on horror
Summary: 4 Stars
I must admit: This was the only book I've ever read that truly scared me. Despite it possibly being "gimmicky", it is an intelligent read, as it twists between so many styles of writing; mainly the documentarian Zampano or the avant garde Johnny Truant. I'm not sure which style I liked more, but it was a good mixture. The hundreds of footnotes, however, I found unneccesary and a joke after awhile. Maybe they were meant to be over-the-top or they just came out that way. Still, the book is extremely complex, mood provoking, and epic in scope. Definitely recommended for any horror fans or for people who want a scary novel with a bit more depth. Since this is only Danielewski's first novel, he's definitely an author to keep an eye out for.Book Review: A very different tale of horror
Summary: 4 Stars
Danielewski's book has a very original approach to telling a horror story. While there might be some comparisons to The Blair Witch Project, the book doesn't have that film's immediacy, but fortunately, it also doesn't have its tedious argument scenes. The detached nature of certain parts of HOL's narrative makes this book a little less effective than it might have been -- in other words, there are times when we're reading someone's interpretation of another person's transcript of someone else's home videos -- but the way in which the story is told is fascinating, and there are some genuinely spooky moments. Danielewski employs themes of loss, separation, fear, and love to excellent effect in all three narratives.Book Review: A wholly remarkable book, but not for everyone
Summary: 5 Stars
The other reviews listed here give a pretty good impression of what the book is: its layered plots, its broad scope, its unconventional conventions. And people love it or hate it. A surefire sign of great art is that it arouses passion, and whether that passion is in support of the work or in its derision is immaterial. That's my opinion, but be warned: House of Leaves certainly isn't for everyone.There are a lot of people, traditionalists, die-hard Hawthorne and Melville fans, who will dismiss this novel as a pile of post-modernist putrescence. That's fine -- its very creative and pretty out-there, both in its concept and its approach. Those who do dare to pick it up, be sure to have about a week set aside to be consumed by this thing.
It's a dense book. Very dense. I have read it several times, very closely, and I know that I've only seen a third of what's there. Everything has something to do with something else -- there are no insignificant details, no fluff, in this book. And the overall effect of the plethora of STUFF here is remarkable.
You may not be sure of everything that's in there, but you intuit it. You start to get the feeling that Johnny Truant warns you about in the very beginning. As you give yourself over to the book, as you get absorbed into its world, Truant's paranoia creeps off the page and into the reader. It's scary because of the layers, and each voice's belief that the story it tells about is fiction; The Navidson house seems an awful dream, Zampanó approaches the film as fiction, Johnny doesn't know what to think -- he's just engrossed in this bizarre world, trying to put it all together and make sense of it, and "The Editors" raise questions as to whether Mr. Truant is even a real person. The reader, meanwhile, takes on much the same job as Johnny, trying to piece it all together, to find some hidden detail that will unlock these stories, tell us whether they really are fictional. As a reader, you start to doubt. The world gets that shimmer. And at the very end, you realize what's been going on. It's scary while it's happening, but ultimately it's pretty darn funny, as well; the real world is just another layer to this book.
The book asks more of the reader than any ordinary novel; you have to work with it, jump backwards and forwards to reacquaint yourself with some clue, read with a suspicious eye, sometimes set it aside and think on it. In the end, though, it's a gripping experience that's very repeatable and worthwhile. Like everything in the novel, there's something there -- it's just tough to put your finger on it.