Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

57 reviews

soapyporridge's review against another edition

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

• 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? It's complicated

4.5

 I am indefinitely biased towards this book as I did my dissertation on it so my rating is more of a consequence of personal opinion and attachment than based upon the craft. That being said I still find the ways this book pushes the boundaries of the media to be important. We view books to be isolated incidents when they are far more capable of stretching past the limits of their pages and binding than we can ever fully grasp.
 I know it has many shortcomings. I know that some of it will always just be out of reach of my understanding and some of it will make me angry and frustrate me but I am ok with that.

I took my morning walk, I took my evening walk, I ate something, I thought about something, I wrote, I napped and dreamt something too, and with all that something, I still have nothing because so much of sum’thing has always been and always will be you.

I miss you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Vomit

otherworlds's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Wow. This book is disorienting and haunting in the best kind of way. It re-envisions the concept of horror itself, subverting expectations of the genre in a terrifying way reminiscent of half-remembered nightmares. It puts words to that wordless instinctual fear of the dark, the impossible, the unknown and unknowable. At the heart of this story, though, is intertwining narratives of trauma, grief, and love.

I highly recommend it! That being said, please heed the trigger warnings and take care of yourself while reading this book. It's very graphic and upsetting at times, especially if you're already prone to derealization or paranoia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Cursing, Confinement, Islamophobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Incest, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Blood and Suicide

Minor: Animal death

Unreality and paranoia. May be triggering for psychotic/dissociative readers.

charlieleelee's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

mosslover's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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

I'm not even sure what to say in this rating -- the book was dense, confusing, full of characters we either don't like it don't get a chance to connect to and YET there's so many incredibly beautiful passages and haunting moments that make me reluctant to give it any less than a 5. My advice is to read it only if you're feeling adventurous. Also: I read it as an ebook, but I picked up that I was missing a lot of stylization etc available in the print version so I'd recommend you get a physical copy if you can.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Sexual assault

rebeckareads's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Rated 9.2 using the CAWPILE rating system.

I'm still nursing a book hangover after finishing House of Leaves last night, so I'll try and make this review brief(er then the book itself).
Cosmic horror and ergodic literature are both things I have a weak spot for (if done correctly). That combined with the fact that I suffer from claustrophobia, resulted in this being a very tense, challenging read for me. It would have been a solid 5 star read for me but... I don't know, something just rubbed me the wrong way about

the ending and how it altered my perception of the book. It made sense and tied in nicely to previous events in the book - I just didn't like it personally.

Call me petty but it annoyed me enough to take 0.25 stars off.'

UPDATE 22nd July 2021: I just watched NightMind's video series analysing HoL; it made my jaw drop and up my rating to 5 solid stars. It basically did all the hard work for me and made me understand and analyse the book in a different way. Now I desperately want to re-read and annotate this. (The first part of NightMind's series can be found here: https://youtu.be/kfVztT3UeYw)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug use, Grief, and Sexual content

Minor: Infidelity and Rape

parttimerarebookdealer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Suicide

jessd47's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Confinement

Minor: Alcoholism

do not read if you are afraid of the dark/confinement