Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - House of Leaves

Absolutely amazing read. Wish they had let me think my thoughts on characters were original though! Please stop saying exactly what I was thinking about people. It makes it harder for me to feel smart about it lol.

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monroebays's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book demands much more of you than most, but it is so worth it. I’m sure every review says it but I’m gonna say it again: I can’t describe it, really. Just give it a try.

This is a book about a man piecing together an unfinished academic book about a documentary about a very strange house. The story of the man working on the book and the book itself make up the majority of the text. As you can imagine, it’s confusing and very layered. At some point, it starts to try to loop you into the story.

Danielewski is obsessed with the mechanics of words, paper, and knowledge. This book presents you with a tangled mess, carefully curated to confuse you, move you, scare you. And because danielewski’s deep knowledge of words is on display, you’re left wondering how fully that mess can be cleaned up into a full narrative if only you read it properly. I finished the book with many mysteries unsolved, but find myself drawn back to the book again to investigate further. If you’ve read the book already, you understand why this effect is probably why the book’s horror is so effective.

At the end of the day, the story is kind of secondary to the reading experience. It’s crazy. It’s fun. It’s dark and sad and weird. Just give it a few chapters and see if it’s for you.

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ethanlaz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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cgoiris's review against another edition

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This is a difficult one to give stars. I sort of think I get what the author was trying to do. I can see multiple layers to the story, from criticising media critics to trying to evoke a deeply unsettled feeling that follows the reader beyond the book.

But there were also parts I despised. Why does every woman in this book have to be profoundly damaged? Why does Bambi never really get a personality beyond motherly concern for our main character? Why does the author try to establish deep and bleak backstories with a couple of sentences, multiple times? It's already a 700 page book, trees died for this, don't be shy, flesh it out.

I'm gonna try to do the content warnings but I'm probably gonna forget a few because there's A LOT.

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bites_of_books's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The amount of effort and work that went into House of Leaves is something that I can really appreciate. There were certain sections where the creepiness of the darkness inside the house was truly palpable but anytime that I was close to diving deep into that horror, the academic style of writing took me away from it. At times I was also really interested in the academic discussions regarding subjects ranging from physics to history and linguistics, but it was truly difficult to call it an enjoyable experience.
There are many interpretations about this book, ranging from who is narrating, the true meaning of the house, and even the timeline of events.
I don't think I can recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun book to read, but if you're into deep dives into linguistics, philosophy, poetry, physics, with two side stories that tell the stories of deeply troubled characters.

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transdankovsky's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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mimbomombo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Alright then what a weird book to start my official big-boy-book reading journey off. Also, I read this as a pdf because I started it away from home, then it wasn't in my library or cheap enough to buy, so no upside down and sideways, or even coloured text unfortunately :(

I won't lie, this book tried my patience sometimes, Zampano waffles on and on about physics and various academic subjects and Johnny interrupts several times with the latest entry in how he's slept with every female he talks to for an hour or not using a full stop for a page and a half. That being said though, the fact that it is "Zampano and Jonny" writing the book and not Mark the actual author, I don't care as much and I'm not as offended. It all builds on understanding the characters more.

The book basically reads as an academic work with references and footnotes abound, as well as several ruminations on every part of the movie the book-within-a-book is about. It wasn't my favourite style of writing and the academic style was sometimes above my abilities, as well as the subjects it covered weren't that interesting to me at times. Sometimes I'd just skip a book paragraphs if I detected a huge waffle about something I didn't care to hear 3 different bodies opinions on.

Despite all that, I did enjoy the book enough to read it quite fast. the House story was fun, I'm glad it didn't have a concrete explanation but I do wish there was more craziness to it than I got, the biggest revelation was a window. I enjoyed following the family members and the story unraveling as I went. The knocking at the door was pretty damn crazy moment.

Jonny's story was interesting to see his deterioration and the glimpses of what it looked like from the outside. As I write this I feel like the story wasn't too satisfying, but there's clearly a deeper story to be found. I was very curious about how both these stories would end up.

That's what I'll say in general about the book, I expected it to be confusing and convoluted and it was, but still more engaging than the confusing and convoluted movies I've seen. I'm not too interested in finding out all the meaning of the stories, it's not really my taste of media to leave so much out, but I'll have a look. Just like the movies I've seen like this, it probably won't sway my opinion about the book. Though, I will admit, it does give you a lot to think about afterwards. I probably should have read it slower.

See:

What is ~~the minotaur~~? what does the slashing, does it exist, does it relate to Zampano's story about the father of the minotaur loving the minotaur but having to hide it away (and how does that story relate to Jonny's vision of being lost on a ship)
Jonny and boats
House of Leaves appearing in the book as a book two times
Jonny writing the introduction of finding Zampano after already being insane for months and months
How did Zampano write a book about a movie he hasn't seen?
What did the house want? Is it God? Was it all psychologically influenced? Did it come from colonial America? It actually got Karen to rescue Will in the end, but killed others like Tom who had seemingly done no wrong.
Contrary evidence, did the actually book exist? How the does that make any sense?
What Jonny mean by "This is not for you"?
etc.

Also, the strange formatting of the text in the book was entertaining, but a bit gimmicky.

OH and JESUS the sex did not need to get that explicit, I preferred it when Jonny just wrote poetry for an entire page. Glad I'm not alone on that front.

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