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adrian_bubie's review against another edition
3.0
I picked this up after finishing House of Leaves last year, looking for something similarly creepy, complex and weird. The Familiar has at least some of the third - but not in abundance, or at least, not in a way that makes you want to read further. The pace of this book is very slow; exacerbated I think by the myriad of characters who, if the story had focused on one in particular, could have created an interesting narrative, but instead jumps back and forth at seemingly arbitrary points to create a disconnected mess.
The use of text styles and font manipulation, which was used to great effectiveness in Danielewski's other work, also disappointed me. There WERE interesting and meaningful uses on occasion, adding emphasis or helping to literally "paint a picture with words", but otherwise it did not add anything to the story and felt almost forced. I would have much rather seen it used more infrequently to help highlight the important parts of the book than see it used on almost every page until it becomes almost mundane.
The book is not all bad though, and to give it some credit, it is the 1st of 27 volumes, so much of the groundwork for the full 'meat' of the story has to be laid out here. And setting up the characters is not always the most interesting thing (though in this case, some characters like the Detective Ozman and Xanther's familiy were a pleasure to learn about). Though there is no unifying thread yet, all the individual pieces have some driving force that keep it from feeling like a waiting game of "when is X going to meet Y?". Especially near the end, there are some strange and creepy revelations that will reward those who see this book to its conclusion -- Let's just hope the second volume can speed up the action.
Final thoughts: would not re-read or recommend to someone unless they have read Danielewski before; will try out the second volume, though.
The use of text styles and font manipulation, which was used to great effectiveness in Danielewski's other work, also disappointed me. There WERE interesting and meaningful uses on occasion, adding emphasis or helping to literally "paint a picture with words", but otherwise it did not add anything to the story and felt almost forced. I would have much rather seen it used more infrequently to help highlight the important parts of the book than see it used on almost every page until it becomes almost mundane.
The book is not all bad though, and to give it some credit, it is the 1st of 27 volumes, so much of the groundwork for the full 'meat' of the story has to be laid out here. And setting up the characters is not always the most interesting thing (though in this case, some characters like the Detective Ozman and Xanther's familiy were a pleasure to learn about). Though there is no unifying thread yet, all the individual pieces have some driving force that keep it from feeling like a waiting game of "when is X going to meet Y?". Especially near the end, there are some strange and creepy revelations that will reward those who see this book to its conclusion -- Let's just hope the second volume can speed up the action.
Final thoughts: would not re-read or recommend to someone unless they have read Danielewski before; will try out the second volume, though.
forcefedglass's review against another edition
3.0
What the heck did I just read? A bottle of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap?
the1germ's review against another edition
DNF @ 580 pages. I started reading this in January/February 2020 and it proved to be way too much work of a read for me to focus on with uh, everything else that rapidly went down that year lol. 2020 was a bad year in reading for me even with easier stuff I tried. I've now set it aside too long and it's just too daunting to get back into. I give up.
Overall I love the format and quality of this book. Just the physical act of holding this book to read felt like a rich experience, and I wish more books were printed this way. Thick, quality paper. Flexible, sturdy cover and binding that you can lay open before you without damaging it. A RIBBON! All the colors and interesting formatting. If more books were printed like this, even without Danielewski's experimental typography, I promise people would opt for print over ebook more often than not.
But I think I liked the idea of this book more than I really liked what it is. Some of the characters I really enjoyed and wanted more of - but MOST of the characters were completely incoherent and I didn't care enough about them to do whatever puzzling Danielewski apparently expected me to do outta this jargon. The bulk of what I read was, sadly, very tedious. Since this series has been cancelled anyway I'm not motivated to continue.
Overall I love the format and quality of this book. Just the physical act of holding this book to read felt like a rich experience, and I wish more books were printed this way. Thick, quality paper. Flexible, sturdy cover and binding that you can lay open before you without damaging it. A RIBBON! All the colors and interesting formatting. If more books were printed like this, even without Danielewski's experimental typography, I promise people would opt for print over ebook more often than not.
But I think I liked the idea of this book more than I really liked what it is. Some of the characters I really enjoyed and wanted more of - but MOST of the characters were completely incoherent and I didn't care enough about them to do whatever puzzling Danielewski apparently expected me to do outta this jargon. The bulk of what I read was, sadly, very tedious. Since this series has been cancelled anyway I'm not motivated to continue.
mikefusco's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
sad
fast-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
3.5
steeltoejilly's review against another edition
5.0
Mark s. Danielewski’s imagery and writing styles are a work of true art. I am blown away by his ability to create incredible stories that confuse, surprise and delight you. I am so excited to see where this series goes.
cryo_guy's review against another edition
4.0
An ambitious start. I liked it. I like how he's building and deconstructing his narratives at the same time. There's also a lot of cool stuff he does with fonts and word shapes and the thoughts of internal monologues sectioned off by elaborate schemes of different parentheses.
It takes some getting used to all the different narratives that start out. I found I definitely liked some more than others.
It's not quite as gripping as House of Leaves, but I imagine since it's a 27 volume thing, it will take a while to develop more. It just gets to the point where you can see threads beginning to emerge and possibilities of how they will intertwine. It was good enough that I would read the second volume, but I'm hesitant about committing to buy 27 of these large books. I would need a bookshelf just for them. Who knows.
It takes some getting used to all the different narratives that start out. I found I definitely liked some more than others.
It's not quite as gripping as House of Leaves, but I imagine since it's a 27 volume thing, it will take a while to develop more. It just gets to the point where you can see threads beginning to emerge and possibilities of how they will intertwine. It was good enough that I would read the second volume, but I'm hesitant about committing to buy 27 of these large books. I would need a bookshelf just for them. Who knows.
chandler_lane's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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? No
4.0
Wut
heatdistraction's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
kmhst25's review
2.5
Components of this book:
- Genius - the House of Leaves magic isn’t totally lost here. The fresh ideas and perspectives still have the power to wow.
- Tediousness - some of these pages are damn near incomprehensible. With House of Leaves, you ignore a long list of examples and you don’t miss any plot—it’s an inconsequential shortcut; with this book, the actual content is confusing and muzzed up, multilingual, highly technical, with individualized slang and dialect. It’s a frustrating experience unless you conveniently ignore anything you don’t understand, which feels like cheating and certainly seems more likely to carry consequence than ignoring lists of brand names.
- Chronic Man Disease - so extremely male, even if it is about a little girl. Men dreaming of assaulting random women, men sleeping with their wives but not sure if their wives even enjoy it, men remembering sleeping with their coworkers whose only role in the story is to be someone that the man remembers sleeping with. All of the weird sex from House of Leaves that made you go “why is this even in here?” but with less genius and even less readability.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Body horror, and Sexual violence
Minor: Vomit and Misogyny