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surrealirist's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.25
kate4ez's review against another edition
3.0
For the most part, I enjoyed Zampano's discussion of the film. The description of the events in the house were engrossing. It was a clever send-up of academia, although it dragged a bit when he delved too deeply into the ironic criticism.
Johnny's footnotes were tedious, with the stream-of-consciousness sex-fueled rants juxtaposing highly sophisticated language with crappy grammar. I've developed a deep hatred for courier font. I did finally get to the point where I was interested in his story towards the end, but wow, his parts were a hard slog through most of the book.
I understand why the author chose to format the book the way he did, but understanding it didn't make me enjoy flipping this brick-like tome every which way just to read the next few words. It reminded me of unwearable fashions.
Overall, I didn't hate it, didn't love it. The style was too over-the-top and distracting for me to be able to lose myself in the story.
Johnny's footnotes were tedious, with the stream-of-consciousness sex-fueled rants juxtaposing highly sophisticated language with crappy grammar. I've developed a deep hatred for courier font. I did finally get to the point where I was interested in his story towards the end, but wow, his parts were a hard slog through most of the book.
I understand why the author chose to format the book the way he did, but understanding it didn't make me enjoy flipping this brick-like tome every which way just to read the next few words. It reminded me of unwearable fashions.
Overall, I didn't hate it, didn't love it. The style was too over-the-top and distracting for me to be able to lose myself in the story.
blurrypetals's review against another edition
5.0
This book opened a hole up in me I didn't know existed. I have rarely ever been afraid of the dark and I still am not, but now I am and always will be afraid of what is in the dark, what darkness represents, and how infinite and endless darkness can be. I have little else to say, as this book left me speechless. I definitely know I will always be searching for answers to the mysteries in this labyrinthine abyss of a novel and, if I ever do find answers, I'm sure that won't be enough. Because this book changed me. It left a hole in me, it will never again be filled. That, at least, I have an answer to.
notquiterockstar's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
alixelix's review against another edition
5.0
Stay with it, there are some parts that are hard to push through, but it's 100% worth the payoff. I've never had a reading experience like it.
fizzylights's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
melitrophium's review
I tried to read a digital copy, but it's by far too confusing. Maybe someday I'll give it another shot as a paperback.
wille44's review against another edition
3.5
House of leaves is a labyrinthine, three pronged nested tale of a deadbeat reading an academic study by a blind man of a home movie filmed by a photographer exploring an endless, dark maze spreading beneath his house. The novel circles and jumps between these three perspectives constantly, with the ominous, otherworldly house as the horror focal point, the work of academic criticism about it an often very entertaining satire of the bluster and navel gazing nature of art academia, and the deadbeat reading about it after the fact a juxtaposition of crass vulgarity cutting amongst the more erudite writing of the other two sections.
The post modern, ergodic structure of the book, a narrative that moves in fits and starts, the story and pages themselves spreading and contracting, falling apart and reforming in strange ways, all work wonderfully to inform the horror and suspense of the story itself. And these first two layers, the horror of the house itself and the dry, sometimes funny, sometimes thought provoking academic survey of it’s aftermath and meaning, are really fantastically realized, and could serve as one of the best literary horror works ever written.
Could is the big operative word there, since the third throughline, the drug addled, sex crazed Truant sections of the novel are unreadably bad at times. Seemingly written to give the novel some lurid pop in between the better written sections, we are forced to read about Truant’s many, many sexual dalliances, written by someone with apparently a very remote understanding of how such acts actually transpire. The first book I think I’ve ever read that made me audibly groan, these juvenile attempts at palette cleansers alongside Truant’s falling into disarray as he delves into the mystery are thematically consistent with the novel as a whole, but really bring down with sophomoric fixation what is otherwise a well done story. All in all House of Leaves is equal parts impressive and disappointing, certainly a book that I think will provide diminishing returns as its prospective reader grows in age and maturity.