Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth — musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, … environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies — the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.
Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.
The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story — of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.
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This was the strangest book I ever enjoyed. It was a large paperback and the formatting was CRAZY on some pages. Plans, diagrams and text running in spirals, squares and off the page…..
The story? Even stranger. Basically……. a husband and wife get a house. The husband – in the process of remodeling – realizes that the INSIDE of the house is BIGGER than the OUTSIDE. Madness ensues……
House of Leaves is a great horror novel about a family trying to live inside a house that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. When they discover this little idiosyncrasy about their home, they launch a project to find out what is going on in their house, which leads them to discover a vast, other-worldly warren that exists between their hallways and doors, in a space that they can’t comprehend. This project consumes some of them, and threatens to destroy them.
Except it’s not about that.
It’s actually about the documentary that the father of the family films while exploring the house’s nooks and crannies: a piece of film that is exhaustively examined, deconstructed, and obsessed over by another person, an old man, who writes volumes of notes about what he’s observed while watching the film. The documentary is nearly as disturbing and hypnotic as the house itself, and the old man eventually, apparently, goes mad for his trouble.
Except it’s not about that.
It’s actually about a drug addict and free-wheeling sometimes-womanizer who moves into an apartment and finds the book (about the documentary (about the house) ). Reading the book makes him slowly lose his grip on reality.
Except it’s not about that.
It’s about you, and your role, and the fact that you’ll slowly realize that you’re no different than the protagonists in the book, reading a story about a book about a movie about a house that is so powerful that it destroys the minds of everyone it touches, no matter how far removed or how many steps exist between their own experience and the actual experience of the house. It’s about how the book touches you, and how you begin to understand that House of Leaves doesn’t refer to any crazy house that defies mortal understanding but is in fact the labyrinth you hold in your hands, the one that twists and turns from page to page with its words crawling upwards and its endless, twisted maze of footnotes.
Except that the first page says explicitly that this is not for you.
So what is House of Leaves about?
Dive into the labyrinth. If you make it back out, maybe you’ll be able to tell me.
Danielewski’s debut novel is an actual book that does what the fictional Necronomicon of HP Lovecraft or Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow purport to do: it invokes madness. Simply flipping through House of Leaves might freak you out.
But maddening though it might be, it’s not scary. It is not a horror story. If it were, the house would have a ghost.
The introduction makes it clear that this is a book about a book about a documentary about a house. The documentary in question seems like a “found-footage” horror film. That’s an acceptable trope for a story but Danielewski goes well beyond that. The everyman narrator Truant comments on the scholarly narrator Zampanò, but there’s something maddening about Zampanò’s narrative: this is a book written by a blind man.
Curious, isn’t it, that a blind man would be so obsessed with a house that has no features and no light? For him, he’s always inside that house of eternal darkness.
HOL is a very literary-heavy book. (1) The reader is required to bring a great deal to the table if he’s going to enjoy this one. Or even comprehend a small percentage. While I can envision a movie made of this book (a found-footage movie, but with subtitles and narration and cutaways to show the later commentators), it would have to be seriously paired down and most of its power would be lost. Indeed, when the book seems to end, it isn’t. More is to be revealed in those Exhibits and Appendixes.
At times, HOL is ponderous, slow, and more than a little pretentious. But it needs to be. Because even the bits that are pretentious will drive you mad.
It’s filled with mysteries and puzzles, and it’s not usually made clear when a puzzle pops up. You just have to look for it. Some, such as the missing letters and words from one chapter forming a secret message were brought to my attention by other readers. As I’ve never liked puzzles, I just skipped over some. I did make the effort for one of Johnny’s mom’s letters.
Madness is a major theme in the book, from those who lose their grip because of their experiences in the house to those who were maybe crazy to begin with or were raised by crazy parents. The house is not only maddening but madness personified. Like the time machine from a certain long-running British television show, the house in the book is bigger on the inside than the outside. Given the multitude of footnotes, I’m surprised none of them make this analogy. (4)
Humans are creatures of habit. When we pass by a door every day for twenty years, we expect it to be there tomorrow—and my, aren’t we bothered when we find it gone.
Ultimately, this is a book about that most illusive and subjective quality, human perception. A thing is only scary if you think it’s scary. Nonetheless. it’s easy to find something scary if every part of you screams that it’s impossible—but there it is in front of you.
1. There are hundreds of footnotes (like this one), but not all or even most are authentic. I don’t advise the reader to bother looking them up. But Danielewski might—he knows it will drive you crazy even faster. (2) It’s a bit of a gimmick, but it works. Most, if not all, of those seemingly superfluous footnotes really do add a great deal to the book. Without them, the story resembles an episode of The Twilight Zone. That said, I wouldn’t want to read another book written in this whacked-out style. One is enough—or as Voltaire said, “Once a philosopher, twice a pervert.” (3)
2. Due to the large number of spurious footnotes, I believe no two readers have ever read HoL in exactly the same order. And that’s fine. No matter the order in which it’s read, it’s a great and disturbing read and a book unlike anything you’ve ever read.
3. “Une fois un philosophe, deux fois par un pervers.”
4. Somewhere in my extensive collection of book of true-life paranormal incidents, I read of a factual case somewhat similar to this, at least in some ways. It occurred somewhere in the Midwest, but it involved an open field, not a house. A man disappeared in the field, in full view of everyone. Years later, his family could hear his voice in the field, telling them he was lost in a dark place.
Different formats within the book, bizarre story, not easy to read, but LOTS of footnotes!
Unlike anything I’ve ever read. It was a true literary masterpiece.
Easily the most unique book that I have ever read. Absolutely amazing in a very weird sort of way. Paranormal in the strangest form. Footnotes that you are dying to fact check, side stories that could have been published on their own. A true masterpiece for readers that are willing to commit to the journey.
This book is about space.
That middle space between the outside and inside. The extra space inside a closet that never ends. The extra space on the pages as the reader ventures further into the uncertain pages of an amazing book-experience. And that is what “House of Leaves” is.
Any book worth the paper it is printed on attempts to make the reader feel something. But often they do it while the reader is fully committed in the world of the book. “House of Leaves” makes you feel something in the world of the book and in the place you are reading it. It breaks the fourth wall. The first time the printed structure changes, you will step back from your reader-self and feel the book differently. And it is precisely that experience that is so marvelous.
This book isn’t a novel of two stories, but three. The two in the book and the one happening as it finds space inside you.
There is a house…a seemingly normal house. A house that suddenly has a new closet…walls that don’t match in length from the inside to the out…and a hallway that appears out of thin air. So of course what happens? People go into the hallway… get lost, get found, disappear for days on end, and just can’t let go. What happens when they are lost in there? What do they see?
A film begins circulating that glimpses into the unknown hallway known as The Navidson Record. Johnny Truant discovers a manuscript written by a recently deceased man named Zampano, that is a study on said film. So begins the madness as Johnny tries to piece together the notes and pages of what Zampano has left behind.
I really wanted to love this one more. It started off grabbing my interest and sucking me in immediately. However, trying to read through the many, many pages of footnotes (that are chapters on their own), and the haphazardly thrown together clips and pieces within a page (that are meant to be that way) I quickly became irritated.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the idea and the thought put into this book. It just didn’t thrill me to have to turn the book upside-down, sideways, caddy corner, and all manor of 360° reading. Not to mention having to read paragraphs backwards.
That being said, the story itself was right up my alley. What horror fan doesn’t love a house that mysteriously has closets and hallways appear out of nowhere…where items disappear, walls move, and growls are floating around but can’t be pin pointed? I know some will love this type of book and initially I was into it but 400pgs later and it’s a bit cumbersome and annoying and took away my enjoyment of the story.
I went into this book only knowing it was about a house that was bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. I’m so glad I didn’t have any idea what to really expect because this book was absolutely amazing. So much more than a scary story–I would actually say this is a story of love. I won’t say much more because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but this book is definitely an experience and so worth the time to read it.
The format of the book forces you to become absolutely engrossed with this friggin’ house. The visualizations leave just enough up to the imagination.
This will not be an easy book to review, but I shall try my best.
First off, this is not a book for everyone. Not every reader is going to warm up to what this book even is.
The story itself is an incredible one. Short version; a guy named Johnny finds a mysterious manuscript in the apartment of, and written by, a dead man named Zampano. The manuscript is called The Navidson Record and follows the accords of a Will Navidson and the house his family moves into. For you see, this house isn’t what it seems. It’s bigger on the inside than on the outside, sometimes only by mere inches, sometimes by miles with haunted tunnels and labyrinths which he starts expeditions to explore. Scary times follow.
But where House Of Leaves likely loses a lot of readers is in the mechanics of it all. This novel is made up of the narrative (written by Zampano about Navidson), but is then accompanied by countless footnotes and remarks by Johnny, many times of which go off into tangents that have nothing to do with the story at all. These notes are also themselves accompanied by fictitious subheadings that detail various news articles, dates of events, definitions and the like, which are used to give some semblance of confirmation of the events that are happening.
These notes, sub-notes, news articles, and even the story itself, are often broken into odd sections, sometimes bleeding into each other and cutting each other off for pages at a time. Hell, there are pages in House Of Leaves that are written upside down, sideways, in spirals, in other languages, you name it, which as a reader you’re forced to flip the book around every which way to follow. It’s supposed to give the illusion of a sort of scrap book, and in this I wish House Of Leaves had chosen to go a more visual route. If this had been more of a coffee table book, complete with actual inserted notes on scrap paper, letters and the like, it would have served the tactile nature of it all much better. As it stands, all this confusing way of reading a novel is obviously supposed to mirror the physical and existential labyrinth the characters explore within the house, but I think it’s overkill.
And then, when you finally reach the sort-of ending, it’s impressed upon the reader that they most certainly missed some things and should therefore return to the beginning and start again, looking for those clues!!
Danielewski, the actual author, is an art major/lit minor, poet, and songwriter. No doubt the guy’s talented. But there were times in the book I was just getting ‘Golly Jee, look how talented I am” vibes that I couldn’t shake.
Maybe it’s my own writer brain craving an actual defined plot, getting frustrated with the unending footnotes that meandered off into the unknown and breaking me from the actual story once too often.
Or, like I started this off with, it’s a book meant for a particular type. Not everyone will get this sort of storytelling. Myself included.
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Too much going on. Would have been better if they split up the story lines into two or three books
Very thrilling, very dramatic, very enthralling. If you miss the tiniest detail you could be completely lost the rest of the story. Everything inside matters to the ploy, and the story overall is just amazing.
It’s hard to explain how good this book is and how much I want people to read it!
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski is a creature of a book, impossible to categorize and describe by conventional means. The plot is deceptively simple- a young man discovers among a dead man’s possessions the remnants of notes for a book he was writing. The book this older man was working on is an in-depth study of a film called the Navidson Record. The short film is a “documentary” about the Navidson family who moved into a house that contained a perpetually morphing and sinister labyrinth hidden behind its walls. The film has attracted a cult following due to its sheer artistic value and the captivating mystery about the fate of those the house has seemed to erase from existence. The point of view in Danielewski’s novel switches between the young man, Johnny Trout, who becomes obsessed with transcribing the papers he has found; the text of the deceased’s collected scribblings, and a huge collection of footnotes and editorial comments. Johnny Trout becomes ensnared by the book, and he loses his grip on reality as his transcription releases his inner demons. Simply put, Danielewski has created a tome that is truly meta- a maze of interconnected narrative with its own shifts, diversions and bewildering turns that often lead to the frustrating dead ends that plague any who enter. Even the formatting of the book is not straightforward, with its varying typeface, colors, text orientation and spacing. House of Leaves is not an easy book to travel through, but it is certainly immersive and haunting for those who are willing to devote the time to digging through its depths.
I don’t know what it is about this book, but it affected me on some deep level. It’s super weird, sometimes creepy, and definitely haunting. Though it is considered “horror” it is actually a love story. The author presented the book in such a unique and interesting way, it was sometimes hard to read, but man, what a good book. I listened to his sister, Poe’s, album Haunted while I read it. It has some tie-ins to the book. Especially the song about the Five and a Half Minute Hallway.
One of the most inventive and original books I’ve ever read.
This is a polarizing book. You’ll probably find a good percentage of people giving it one star and another large percentage giving it five stars. It is so different from your typical novel that the gimmick either works or it doesn’t, with little in between.
I’d originally given this book five stars but it didn’t seem right and I couldn’t quite figure why. One hand this book is clearly a labor of love and one which the author poured heart and soul, and truly made an effort to provide a book that is unlike anything you’ve read before; but on the other hand, I didn’t find the story satisfying enough.
For starters, regardless of what you may have heard, this is not a horror story. At least not in the conventional sense. It is a psychological horror story. It is a novel about a book about a documentary that may not have existed. The narrative is presented through several voices, with each narrator having his own credibility issues. In that sense the book’s structure is truly innovative and deserves high praise for it. The voice of each narrator is clearly differentiated and you get a very good glimpse about what might be going in their head. Unfortunately, in my opinion the story lacks a finale that ties the knots or even gives you some thread on which imagine what might have happened. It feels as if you had been watching a movie where the film reel suddenly unspools to just blank film.
In some sense, this could be called the “Infinite Jest” of horror novels, as the author was aiming for a moonshot and comes pretty close to nailing it. Unfortunately, while “Infinite Jest” narrative grows stronger the further you go into the story, in this case the strands just unspool.
I’d say that if you like literature as an art form and are interested in where it can go in terms of innovative structure and story set-up this is a must read. However, if you read more for the pleasure of the narrative this book might leave you unsatisfied.
This is literally one of my favorite books of all time. I reread it every year.