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melliedm's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
House of Leaves is a stack of papers containing the academic paper an old shut-in wrote about a possibly non-existent documentary film, compiled by a young man who filched the work in progress from the old man’s apartment after he died. And all of that is put together by another editor. The piece is layered, absolutely, but not in an organic way, and not in a compelling way, just in a patience-testing way.
The academic essay goes from recounting the exact moments of the film to pontificating on echoes to recounting the moments on the film in a format that had me mourning the many trees turned to pulp for the thousands of copies of this book. (Single paragraphs, single words, single sentences at “””evocative””” angles, pages dedicated to telling us that what should be on the page is missing.) the essay is dotted with hundreds of footnotes, which are almost all meaningless, and stretch the read time unnecessarily. The essay is not all bad. On occasion there is something interesting raised, or a tension that begins to build… Each time something intriguing begins to happen in this recounting of the documentary, though, in comes the footnote from our other writer.
His name is Johnny Truant and he does drugs and drinks and has a lot of sex—graphic sex, sex written from the perspective of someone who clearly fetishizes women, to the point of fetishizing their skin colour if they happen to not be white. His constant interruptions to the essay are eyeroll inducing because nothing in his sob story is interesting, nothing in it is gripping, nothing in it makes him a character I feel interested in learning more about. I thought perhaps we were supposed to hate him—but then comes in a letter to the editor from an 18 year old girl who knew him talking about how cool he was. Uhhhh, what? So here I am, reading the women he objectifies in his life as the character objectifying them, but this “from the horse’s mouth” moment tells me that nah, you’re reading it wrong. Christ on a stick. This of course culminates in some horrific, gender-based violence later on, which is followed by some strangers wondering if this mysterious Johnny Truant ever got the love he deserves UWU
Gag.
In short, House of Leaves could have been a perfectly fine story about a strange house and the impact it has the relationship between the couple the documentary follows/is made by, which is the only effective throughline in the book for me. Unfortunately, the author or someone in his circle must have thought that wouldn’t be good enough, so he instead became the thing the first few pages try to satirize: a boring, pretentious attempt at making a mountain out of a molehill.
YMMV.
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Forced institutionalization
bi_n_large's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Suicide, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer and Rape
rgraham's review
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol
kkalicky94's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Abandonment, and Alcohol
zaphod_beeblebrox's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Suicide, and Car accident
Minor: Cancer, Incest, and Rape
tristemono's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
adverb17's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol
Minor: Infidelity, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Car accident, and Death of parent
ggcd1981's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape and Excrement
sonnygrey's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death, Infidelity, Rape, and War
katenovah's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Alcohol
Minor: Death of parent