Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

75 reviews

monroebays's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Violence, Vomit, Infidelity, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, and War

ethanlaz's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Vomit, Sexual content, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Violence, Suicide, Medical trauma, Dementia, Cursing, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gore, Death, Cancer, Body horror, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Infidelity, Medical content, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

cgoiris's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug use, and Cursing

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Forced institutionalization

cryptix's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is one of those books where I'm glad it exists to inspire other works that I've enjoyed, but I can't say I'm into it on its own merits.

The central plot, the Navidson Record, is great. I love the formatting tricks, the recursive footnotes, the use of empty space to mimic agoraphobia/claustrophobia and to increase the tension. The prose gets a little florid or overly technical at times but it serves its purpose, I think, as a deep analysis of a (fictional) source material. The ending is perhaps weak but a lot of horror struggles with the ending so I give that a pass.

The framing device of Johnny Truant, however, I could do without. I dislike him as a character, I dislike the gritty traumaporn he brings to the table, and I just find his sections to be tedious interruptions of the story I'm actually here for. Given he's the POV for a good half of the book, I have a hard time fully enjoying the result.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Sexism, and Rape

marielcariker's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.5

I’ve never read anything like this and maybe never will again. Fascinating and infuriating! Crazy to read something that only works as a physical book and would not translate on an e-reader. I loved the journey but don’t necessarily recommend reading unless you like a challenge. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcoholism, Death, and Blood

cowboynixan's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Debating between a 3.5 and 4 star, so it might change overtime

I truly think both the praise and criticism is super valid on both sides, its a VERY ambitious concept that you can either process as really cool and amazing or unnecessarily complecated, which in my opinion almost fits the book.

I also have talked to friends about this and everyone i know finds it overwhelming to think about starting it, but after about 40-70 pages you really get to know the flow easier and it feels less intimidating.

There was alot of aspects to this book, and it seems very overwhelming if you are looking for reviews to see if you should read this; here is my list of what i enjoyed and didnt about this book

Liked: the storyline of navidson and the house is really beautiful. If you like liminal space stuff like the backrooms this book feels like a must. The story is slow but you also want to absorb everything in the best way, so its worth it.

Disliked: very obviously, its extremely difficult to read as a normal book. All the layouts are odd, sometimes theres up to 5 overlapping concepts, and you dont have to actually read all of it. I also disliked

truants constant talk about him sleeping with every woman he meets because all of them want to have sex with him, which adds to the positive of him being an unreliable narrator

 

Neutral: this book is written mostly like an academic article. It didnt bug me at all and wasnt difficult to read but im currently a liberal arts major so this is easier and palatable for me to read this kind of writing. 

Tips for reading this:
Before reading it i seperated parts into tabbed sections - the more empty pages having larger chunks, the intertwining writing being smaller chunks. It makes it alot more digestible. Also during the intertwining stories, finish the chapter and then go back a few pages and read the other seperately.

Good luck!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicide, Rape, Alcoholism, Confinement, Eating disorder, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, and Forced institutionalization

ominousevent's review against another edition

This is a monumental construction that's formally interesting and has a lot of cool Things to notice (I'm sure there are plenty I didn't pick up on during my single, relatively linear read-through). It is also poisoned by what I'm going to call turn-of-the-century litbro edginess and misogyny, such that I couldn't really recommend it to anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Rape

hfrancesh's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Animal cruelty

halloween_writes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Rape, Animal death, Death, and Drug use

Minor: Death of parent

minzzi's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

  This is the first book I have ever read that really scared me. 
  I loved the Navidson Records, characters, the narrative and the way it was written and formatted. Truly genius. No complaints.
   However, the parts about Johnny kinda irritated me, specially in the middle section of the book. All Johnny's storys about his childhood, or the story about the dead dog were great, fitted the theme of the book perfectly, but just how convenient is it that every person who knows something about Zampanò is an attractive young woman who wants to have sex with him?
   I was having a great time learning about the terrifying maze in Navidson's house and Johnny would cut in with a random story about how he fucked a woman. It got boring quick.
   Taking that out, as I said before, everything else was amazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide