Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

108 reviews

mooonyaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment

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

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

ivana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious

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

4.25

The reading experience of this was like nothing I've ever read and probably will ever read again. I loved how it mirrored what was happening in the story. I actually enjoyed Johnny's footnotes and the rambling nonsensical tone a lot more than most seem to have and I had a harder time with the pretentious fake analytical tangents from The Navidson Record

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Colonisation

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, and Rape

singrequiem's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

I normally DEVOUR books. Especially dark, challenging, flawed, experimental books. This book, no joke, took me literal YEARS to finish, primarily just because of how much Jonny Truant sucks. He sucks hard. I went on forums to ask people to convince me not to just skip all of his notes and story. I’m glad I’m finally through it. I can appreciate the mastery that Danielewski has over the intricacies of his manuscript, the attention to detail, the world building, the control of tone (especially when switching between academic and informal writing styles) but this book was just a slog. I could rant for paragraphs, but I will try and boil it down to: it’s really not that creepy, and the most interesting parts are buried in jargon and presented dryly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence

Minor: Gun violence and Vomit

Existential dread and unanswered questions

blueshirt's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Interesting premise and structure, but I found most of the characters unlikable and kind of boring. 

- Johnny Truant's sections are so self-indulgent/-congratulatory. I have no patience for some misogynistic twerp's #sodeep musings.

- I'm never actually convinced that Navidson is a good guy. He just makes one stupid, selfish choice after another. I'm glad Karen cheated on him and I think she should do it again.

- Karen's character is defined solely by her beauty (or lack thereof, at the end) and how much she Needs A Man. Gross.

- The children are not real characters, they are given no depth or development. 

- Reston has no purpose beyond talking about how cool Navidson is.

- Tom is great, no notes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Pedophilia

yaslanna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction and Suicide

Minor: Infidelity and Panic attacks/disorders

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

It’s just a normal book. 🙂

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It’s just a normal BOOK. 

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It’s just a normal book. 🙃

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence