Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

72 reviews

cmuise's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

magicant's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

lindsaylhunter's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The sheer amount of work, energy and intellect that went into the crafting of this book is nothing short of extraordinary. This is one of the most challenging books I've ever read and, I'll admit, the only reason I sat down to read it in the first place was because of its insane formatting. Tense, creepy and downright unsettling, this is one of the only books I've ever read that left me with an uneasiness that has bled into my dreams.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gun violence

Minor: Infidelity and Rape

joshoonet's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective 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

3.0

• The very core story of the Navidson Record is incredibly interesting and thrilling. I love the descriptions of their explorations and the uncertainty that comes with them.
• Zampanòs huge passages of discussing certain words and picking apart their meanings nearly made me stop reading, out of pure disconnection with the content. Even if it related to the core story. My god.
• Can only recommend checking out the appendixes as one goes along, they provide a more thorough understanding of the text. Although the same can't be said about the hints to other chapters. That got too confusing for me.
• LOVED the code that could be found and potentially deciphered here and there. I'm sure i missed some too.
• Overall: high concentration needed to read this, but worth it in the end. I'll keep thinking about it for a while, but won't be picking it up again anytime soon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Long, purely informative passages about the background and meaning of specific terms or topics can be skipped or skimmed. On the topic of sexual content and misogyny:

truant's stories are laden with viewing women only as sexual objects; these parts can be skipped without losing too much of the plot.

reggiethebird's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape and Vomit

blobvis's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Alright people be like "I can't describe this book" and I think they're not trying hard enough lol

Anyways, this books follows the story of Johnny who found the so called Navidson records, an essay about a film that probably has never existed and is written by the man who lived in the apartment before him. As the reader you are experiencing the story of Navidson at the same time as Johnny is. Which it think it pretty neat. What makes this book fun however is not the endless, quite boring footnotes with Johnny's drugs and sex life, or the long explanation about why there is a parallel between Navidson and his brother and a part of the Bible. What makes it interesting is how the writer uses lettering, spacing and the layout of the pages to emphasise the scenes. Something that made me laugh in wonder because I did not expect to have tot turn the book upside down to read it further.
Sometimes the pages only contain a few words making you turn the pages quickly and feeling the tension of the scene and the feelings of the characters in twofold.
As well as I think that it's interesting that the deeper Navidson goes into the house the more unstable Johnny becomes. I really like how there are so much parallels between the essay and Johnny's life, and between the characters in the essay itself (although the essay seems to be mainly written to find those parallels). I do love the editors' footnotes, they made me laugh. And in the end I didn't mind Johnny's footnotes that much because they became less frequent and more focused aka he stopped doing drugs and stopped talking about how much he fucked. And I did like reading his last notes on the book.

In any case I basically read a rather interesting essay instead of a book so 4 stars because it's just really creative and I love creativity 

And as I heard there are some secrets in it too as well as an dedicated community to find it. Not my cup of tea but maybe for others the reason to read it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

booksaregodly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent

bealittlebrave's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

akiram's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

It's hard to put into words the rollercoaster of emotions this book made me go through. I loved and I despised at the same time, it was gut wrenching in a lot parts and heartwarming in others. Altought the text is at times difficult to read because of its structure, I think that it's worth the struggle. Would not recommend to everyone because it can be triggering at times and it's a massive book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

gentle_garbage_baby's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Very interesting plot and an enjoyable yet challenging read for the most part, but I couldn't rate it any higher due to the way women are written in the book. Aside from one or two of the female characters, they're treated very much as sex objects throughout the novel and it can be very off-putting and quite annoying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Car accident, and Alcohol