Wow. This book messed me up.
I have been wanting to read House of Leaves literally for years. I heard about it through my sister who read a copy while I was about 14. I browsed through it and was intrigued, but it was her friend's copy and she said it was too old for me. (It was. This is definitely an R-rated book.)
It stayed on the back of my mind, but once I decided to read it, I discovered you can't find an ebook copy. For good reason. With its formatting, it'd be impossible to read if you didn't have it in print.
So I had to wait until I could check it out of a physical library. Finally I had this book in my hands, after 5 years of expectations, and honestly, I was still blown away. After finishing it, I stared at a wall for more than an hour, just processing. I don't know how long this book will stay in the back of my mind, but I know I won't forget it anytime soon.
The Cover:
The Cover:
It shows a blueprint of a house, with a large spiral staircase in the middle accompanied by a compass showing no true direction. Also, if you look at the title, the word "house" is written in blue, as it is for the entirety of this book. It draws your focus, no matter the context/content of the sentence. A+ cover
Official Description:
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.
My Description:
This book is less of a story and more of an experience. So instead of going in to the plot, consider this:
You are sitting in a room watching a scene-by-scene documentary of a filmed-but-real horror movie. It includes clips of the movie followed by a break-down of what critics thought of each scene. Meanwhile, you are sitting next to a young man who periodically pauses the video to tell you the story of his life, including his tragic past, his impressions on the video, and the current state of his unraveling mind, before restarting the video right where it left off, sometimes in the middle of a sentence.
My Review:
That is what this book is like to read. You're juggling three different storylines. The terrible house in which the Navidsons live, the world which judges their actions, and the young man who's being driven insane by the story being told.
It's a novel told in context and also subtext. I'd say about 1/4 of the content of this book is told in footnotes. You have to constantly be reading between the lines to get a full picture of the book. It's impossible to get it all the first time. I had to hold myself back from immediately rereading this book as soon as I finished it! But it's amazing, partly because of that.
The plot is exciting and horrifying. It's scary in an abstract way, as in the unsettling feeling you get crawl over you. It's the fear of the unknown that creeps up on you. (After reading this during a thunderstorm, I laid awake for what felt like hours until I could calm myself enough to sleep.) The story keeps you captivated. Even if you loose interest in one segment of the story, you are hooked by another part.
The characters were amazing. They felt flawed in a very human way. Also, the method unique to this book of presenting a character's actions and then having multiple critics break their decisions down was interesting. Each critic would rather praise or mock the character's choices in a way that can't help but make the characters deeply sympathetic even as they make choices I wouldn't have made sense of.
Characters and plot, while really good in House of Leaves, are not what make this book so intriguing. The formatting is what makes this book so cool.
During large action scenes, there is often only one sentence per page, making you physically frantically turn the pages. (Which definitely builds the tension and is super fun.) There is upside down writing and crooked footnotes. The paragraphs form shapes. Here are some sneak-peaks of what you can expect:
(Warning: actual text may include some spoilers)
Obviously, every page is not like the ones above. The formatting generally goes crazy as Johnny (our compiler of the story) does. It also gets more choppy during action scenes. The majority of the pages look closer to this format with a main body and a long sequence of footnotes:
The normal format makes it easier to read, but it still contains the unpredictability and excitement contained on the unexpected pages.
This book was just so cool and so haunting.
I could write a thesis on everything this book make me think. For example, the parallels between Navidson's careful framing in his work in photojournalism and Zampano's formatting of his documentary of The Navidson Record. Also, the fact that Zampano was a blind man, yet wrote of a man who was praised for his visual work and the fact that much of the main plot of this book was a video put down on paper and ...
I'll let you form your own thoughts and ideas. I'll leave you with this: read House of Leaves. It will make you feel the things that books should. You have to struggle with it for the first 50 pages until you get a handle of the formatting, but it will get you out of your reading slump and back into a world full of questions. Just do it. For your own sake.
Also a recommendation, when the footnotes reference the Appendixes, actually go look at them. It may seem like a long detour, but I found it added a lot. Especially the letters from Truant's mother.
Phrase:
Minotaur
I have been wanting to read House of Leaves literally for years. I heard about it through my sister who read a copy while I was about 14. I browsed through it and was intrigued, but it was her friend's copy and she said it was too old for me. (It was. This is definitely an R-rated book.)
It stayed on the back of my mind, but once I decided to read it, I discovered you can't find an ebook copy. For good reason. With its formatting, it'd be impossible to read if you didn't have it in print.
So I had to wait until I could check it out of a physical library. Finally I had this book in my hands, after 5 years of expectations, and honestly, I was still blown away. After finishing it, I stared at a wall for more than an hour, just processing. I don't know how long this book will stay in the back of my mind, but I know I won't forget it anytime soon.
The Cover:
It shows a blueprint of a house, with a large spiral staircase in the middle accompanied by a compass showing no true direction. Also, if you look at the title, the word "house" is written in blue, as it is for the entirety of this book. It draws your focus, no matter the context/content of the sentence. A+ cover
Official Description:
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.
My Description:
This book is less of a story and more of an experience. So instead of going in to the plot, consider this:
You are sitting in a room watching a scene-by-scene documentary of a filmed-but-real horror movie. It includes clips of the movie followed by a break-down of what critics thought of each scene. Meanwhile, you are sitting next to a young man who periodically pauses the video to tell you the story of his life, including his tragic past, his impressions on the video, and the current state of his unraveling mind, before restarting the video right where it left off, sometimes in the middle of a sentence.
My Review:
That is what this book is like to read. You're juggling three different storylines. The terrible house in which the Navidsons live, the world which judges their actions, and the young man who's being driven insane by the story being told.
It's a novel told in context and also subtext. I'd say about 1/4 of the content of this book is told in footnotes. You have to constantly be reading between the lines to get a full picture of the book. It's impossible to get it all the first time. I had to hold myself back from immediately rereading this book as soon as I finished it! But it's amazing, partly because of that.
The plot is exciting and horrifying. It's scary in an abstract way, as in the unsettling feeling you get crawl over you. It's the fear of the unknown that creeps up on you. (After reading this during a thunderstorm, I laid awake for what felt like hours until I could calm myself enough to sleep.) The story keeps you captivated. Even if you loose interest in one segment of the story, you are hooked by another part.
The characters were amazing. They felt flawed in a very human way. Also, the method unique to this book of presenting a character's actions and then having multiple critics break their decisions down was interesting. Each critic would rather praise or mock the character's choices in a way that can't help but make the characters deeply sympathetic even as they make choices I wouldn't have made sense of.
Characters and plot, while really good in House of Leaves, are not what make this book so intriguing. The formatting is what makes this book so cool.
During large action scenes, there is often only one sentence per page, making you physically frantically turn the pages. (Which definitely builds the tension and is super fun.) There is upside down writing and crooked footnotes. The paragraphs form shapes. Here are some sneak-peaks of what you can expect:
(Warning: actual text may include some spoilers)
Obviously, every page is not like the ones above. The formatting generally goes crazy as Johnny (our compiler of the story) does. It also gets more choppy during action scenes. The majority of the pages look closer to this format with a main body and a long sequence of footnotes:
This book was just so cool and so haunting.
I could write a thesis on everything this book make me think. For example, the parallels between Navidson's careful framing in his work in photojournalism and Zampano's formatting of his documentary of The Navidson Record. Also, the fact that Zampano was a blind man, yet wrote of a man who was praised for his visual work and the fact that much of the main plot of this book was a video put down on paper and ...
I'll let you form your own thoughts and ideas. I'll leave you with this: read House of Leaves. It will make you feel the things that books should. You have to struggle with it for the first 50 pages until you get a handle of the formatting, but it will get you out of your reading slump and back into a world full of questions. Just do it. For your own sake.
Also a recommendation, when the footnotes reference the Appendixes, actually go look at them. It may seem like a long detour, but I found it added a lot. Especially the letters from Truant's mother.
Phrase:
Misery
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BookshelfSecret
If you're looking for a good book, check out my Suggestions Page!
Happy Reading!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BookshelfSecret
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BookshelfSecret
