Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

La casa de hojas by Mark Z. Danielewski

89 reviews

bokslukaren's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

3.0

You know what they say; one man's unpublished essay is another's hookup journal and spiral into insanity! 

Get your notepad (physical or digital) ready, and while you're at it you might as well grab a mirror, because this book requires you to twist and turn with careful and thorough attentiveness to have a chance at being deciphered and comprehended! House of Leaves is an analytical and detailed essay (including footnotes) about a documentary, as well as reactions to said essay. With foreshadowing, insanity, mental illness and riddles hounding every corner of every page and swirling around in the reader's head, notes offer a necessary stability. This book is intensely unsettling and somehow still managed to keep my attention despite the 700 hundred page essay-style confusion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Mental illness, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

thesuperawesomesarah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Medical content, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

hedsek's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

So many thoughts, so little energy. Maybe I'll return here at some point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Car accident

fl0ralaura's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

This book, in form alone, is wildly inventive and imaginative. When I heard it took the author 10 years to write, I believed it instantly because this is so much detail and so many hidden clues and puzzles between these pages. I love “weird books”, books that play with form, and books that riff off the familiar. I was shocked by how touching I would find aspects of the story especially Karen.

That being said, this book is disturbing and creepy. The first half in particular caused related nightmares of unheimlich architecture. The Minotaur story, especially as it relates to themes of fatherhood and shame were particularly moving. 

My one real critique is that in parts of the second half it drags a bit and I, at times, found Truant’s purple prose boring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

mybookishdelights's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

This book was a T R I P! It was hard to get through and I kept wondering "will it ever end??" but the experience is something I will never forget. I will likely even reread it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Cursing, Death, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism and Addiction

corsanglais's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and War

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

No surprises why this became as big as it is - "House of Leaves" captures the zeitgeist of late-90s existential dread and the earliest Internet "mysteries" pre-creepypasta. I read this in 2015 in Alaska and recall feeling like Danielewski didn't really know how to end it. I still stand by that: while I like the overall story of the tapes, Johnny's story feels so aimless as to belabor the point of its own aimlessness. The final chapter (added after the book's initial publishing) is unnecessary; the story works better when Johnny isn't ruminating and self-aware of his being overwhelmed by the book. Some of his terms of phrase are hilarious; the opening page's statement of Johnny being covered in blood "but it's not mine" is such transparent in-media-res spookums. I did find Pelafina's story much more heartrending this time around.

Glad to revisit, probably won't do so again. There's stuff I just prefer more, though "House of Leaves" certainly sparked a flame that burns for good reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

cryosphinx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

I didn't get too much of the 'horror' aspect that some people experienced. There is some upsetting moments but nothing that kept me from sleeping at night. It's convoluted, a maze of a book but SHUT UP JOHNNY it delivered on what I think it set out to do. No other book as a subreddit of people constantly having to check with others "Hey, is this a misprint? Does anyone else have this in their edition?" and that's kind of special. But I can also totally see how it's not for everyone (This is not for you). But it's like playing a puzzle game in book form and finding that the journey is better than the destination. But what puzzles are actually puzzles or just things to drive you nuts? That's sort of the point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mental illness, Rape, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent

mattyb2851's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

If you are a fan of existential, cosmic horror, stories about love (and can it prevail?), textbooks, unreliable narration, and exploring the strengths of printed media, the do I have a book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

nerdkitten's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Fatphobia, Genocide, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Vomit, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War