Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

56 reviews

magicant's review against another edition

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

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

lindsaylhunter's review against another edition

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

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gun violence

Minor: Infidelity and Rape

counterfeitnickel's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

A fun ghost story with an occasionally annoying & juvenile framing narrative. Playfully engages with unreliable narrators; but this is often more  exasperating than interesting. Good read for October.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

ru_th's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

Horror should have buried me. 
It didn’t. […]
Come morning I found the day as I have found every other day — without relief or explanation. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Alcoholism

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

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

Minor: Death of parent

bealittlebrave's review against another edition

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

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

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I liked it! Sometimes I struggled with its rather intentional meandering structure but I appreciated the maze it was laying out and what it was meant to evoke from the reader. I also appreciated the ways in which the book itself felt like a metaphor for the psyche of its dual book within a book authors. I will say, the book is pretty damn misogynistic, so I struggled with that a bit. But overall, it was a fun ride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Sexual content, Violence, Child abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

stefo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

 
̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶

I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to write a review on such a detailed and maximalist work of literature but here I go. I won't go into spoiler territory and will mostly just express my fascination with this book and try and get YOU to read it too :)

For what it is, House of Leaves is a difficult book for a number of reasons, the almost ironic pseudo-academic passages, our incredibly unreliable narrator Johnny Truant and his at times incoherent ramblings, the dismembered structure of the story as a whole and the incredible experimentation with page layout, typography and general weirdness of it all. But, I strongly believe that once you ease yourself into the first couple of chapters, with enough free time most of the book will pass like a breeze, or as some people may call it "a page turner". Also, there are lots of dense pages where you have to slow down a bit but some of the chapters are totally rapid-fire.

Another interesting thing about this behemoth is that I can't really restrain it to being a single genre, the top genre here on Goodreads is "Horror" but in my opinion this is much, much more than just that and to be honest I wont even try to explain it with genres, maybe the closest would be "Experimental Meta-Horror" if such genre exists.

There are so many twist and turns in the story and so many different interpretations that the possibilities of the "mystery" seem almost endless. However, I think that the best part of the book IS the journey of reading it, sure the ending is great and manages to encapsulate the chaos pretty well but I think the act of reading this thing in general is the excitement of it all, probably the most fun I've had in literature in, well, ever.

The act of reading may be fun here, but this is In my honest opinion not a funny book, it cracks some good jokes from time to time and there is some more humorous characters but again, I can't really confine it to mere descriptors since it offers a lot. Some people have stated that they found it straight up scary, some cried, some found it mysterious and some, funny and I can confidently say the book can be all that to different readers. I personally found the story incredibly sad, not in a depressing way to be honest but in a strong emotional way, accompanied by Nine Inch Nail's "Ghosts" album series this book made me FEEL a lot. Still have that gaping feeling in my chest as I'm writing this and to be honest books that manage to make me FEEL are the best, I'm also sure this book is capable of making you feel something too.

If any of this sounds like an interesting time by all means give this book a chance! Few will regret it :) Be sure to stay out of spoiler territory and don't Google much, some things are better when you don't know a lot about them. (Also, this is in no way a book to be read in e-book format, I highly suggest you buy the "Remastered Full-Color Edition" since it gives the best experience, or if you know me personally hit me up and I'll happily lend it to you!) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Body horror, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Animal death, Blood, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide

Minor: Self harm, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual assault

booitsnathalie's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

I can't stop thinking about what a nightmare this book must have been to design and print. I'm not sure any book will ever give me the sort of awe and revulsion I felt seeing a sentence span across the spine over two pages. It's obscene.

I didn't know much about House of Leaves beyond it's infamous typography, so it was surprising to learn it's functionally a book equivalent to found footage horror. It trades documentary "authenticity" for dense citations and pervert French, but conceptually I find a lot of similarities (both are primarily interested in the mechanics of their medium and how our trust in those forms can be exploited). How successful HoL is depends mostly on your willingness to indulge its most excessive elements, following footnotes to smaller footnotes and spinning the book around like it's the world thickest centerfold.

HoL slots into a weird segment of media that I conceptually appreciate but dread existing because it inevitably gets attached to the worst sort of gross art bro. It is a playful, surprisingly warm, darkly funny book, but also one that revels in masculine violence and the deification of male ambition. It is proud of its swamp, fascinated by the algae and mutated fish, but if you want to study the tadpoles you're forced to wade past crocodiles and a CW list longer than the terms you didn't read.

My metaphors are mixing and my mind is wandering, but this is all to say HoL is a challenging recommendation in 2022. A rewarding one if you can stomach the grime, but I wouldn't shame anyone for keeping it on the shelf a while longer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, Confinement, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Drug use

Minor: Child death and Bullying

laneport's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• 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: Death, Sexual violence, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Addiction, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Cancer, Car accident, and Medical content