A review by vlpfeiffer
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense

• 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

4.5

I am still, and probably will still be, processing this book for many months to come. I'm going to say right now I am feeling solidly at 4-4.5 stars for me. The things I enjoyed most about the book also dragged it down at times when I just felt lost and stupid, which is of course the point the majority of the time. A lot of the really dense science especially weighed me down from full enjoyment, like the breakdowns of different uninteresting aspects where I just wanted to get to the point already. But again, that feels like it's part of the point of the whole thing. It's structured in such a way that if you were to get ANYTHING out of it you have to slow down and put in the work to understand. It forces you to slow down and refuses to 'get to the point' by making you bounce around and understand all of its context within the context of its 3 storytellers. There is just so much to go over and discuss and I don't even know where to begin.

I am absolutely grateful I waited until the end to read the Whalestone Letters. It left me in such a state of 'OH SHIT, NO WAY' that I am now fully convinced this entire thing was written by Pelafina', with Johnny maybe not even existing, OR by Johnny. Zampano absolutely DOES NOT EXIST. And the correlations between so many pieces of evidence between Ash Tree Lane and the Whalestone Institute, as well as the Pelican Poems are just too numerous to allow me any other conclusion.

I'm now going to spiral like Johnny and read a million theories and I know this book will be in the lexicon of my mind for the rest of my life.