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A review by stephanieridiculous
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.
Despite this being on my book shelf and TBR for literally over 10 years, I'm ditching this after like 130ish pages. The primary story, about The Navidson Record, is absolutely fascinating - truly intriguing and I'm upset that the parallel story about Johnny Truant is so crude and unnecessary.
I knew that there was sexual content in the book, but what starts off fairly mild, or at least brief, escalates into graphic scenes that literally have nothing to do with the plot and actually serve no purpose - other than, I suppose, to demonstrate the MC needs to document his prowess or somesuch garbage.
The presence of sexual violence is also unsettling, including a message that you are forced to decode yourself from a woman in an institution who is trying to get help from her son via a coded note where she tells him she's being raped by staff. Which, at least at 130ish pages, isn't resolved in any kind of satisfying way. It also seems every named woman in the narrative (aside from the daughter of the Navidsons) either exists for a male fantasy and/OR has been the victim of sexual violence.
I was excited for weird, creepy, unsettling, and disturbing insofar as the House went. I am uninterested in what that seems to be wrapped up in.
I knew that there was sexual content in the book, but what starts off fairly mild, or at least brief, escalates into graphic scenes that literally have nothing to do with the plot and actually serve no purpose - other than, I suppose, to demonstrate the MC needs to document his prowess or somesuch garbage.
The presence of sexual violence is also unsettling, including a message that you are forced to decode yourself from a woman in an institution who is trying to get help from her son via a coded note where she tells him she's being raped by staff. Which, at least at 130ish pages, isn't resolved in any kind of satisfying way. It also seems every named woman in the narrative (aside from the daughter of the Navidsons) either exists for a male fantasy and/OR has been the victim of sexual violence.
I was excited for weird, creepy, unsettling, and disturbing insofar as the House went. I am uninterested in what that seems to be wrapped up in.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Sexual violence