Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

66 reviews

so_many_ocs's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault

nerdkitten's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Drug use, Child abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Addiction, Excrement, Sexual assault, Body horror, Child death, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Rape, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Misogyny, Ableism, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Abortion, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Incest, Racism, Suicide attempt, War, and Vomit

briannafenty's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gun violence, and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual assault

yaslanna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction and Suicide

Minor: Infidelity and Panic attacks/disorders

haileyhardcover's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

It’s just a normal book. 🙂

It’s just a normal book. 

It’s just a normal book. 

It’s JUST a normal book.

      It’s just a NORMAL book.

It’s just a normal BOOK. 

It’s just a normal

book.

It’s

            just a normal

                                                           book. 

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book. 

Is telling’ songs justifiably unusual sometimes trying about nothing or relatively more after loss both other or kind.

 

               

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normal  | ust a normal book. It’s just  | book. 

It’s just  | a normal book. It’s just a n  | a 

normal  | ormal book. It’s just a norm | book. 

It’s just  | al book. It’s just a normal b | a 

normal  | ook. It’s just a normal book | book. 

It’s just  | . It’s just a normal book. It’  | a 

normal  | s just a normal book. It’s ju  | book. 

It’s just  | st a normal book. It’s just a | a 

normal  | normal book. It’s just a nor  | book. 

It’s just  | mal book. It’s just a normal | a 

normal  | book. It’s just a normal boo | book. 

It’s just  | k. It’s just a normal book. It | a 

normal  | ‘s just a normal book. It’s ju | book. 

It’s just  | st a normal book. It’s just a | a 

normal  | normal book……………………. | book.

It’s 

      just

             a

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                             book

                                       .

               

It’s just a normal book. 🙃

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexual content, Confinement, Death, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Mental illness, Suicide, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Alcohol, Addiction, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Gun violence, Cancer, Death of parent, Drug use, Eating disorder, Excrement, Murder, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, and Grief

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

siggney's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Drug use, Addiction, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual assault

honest_soupe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• 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? Yes

5.0

Absolutely amazing read. Wish they had let me think my thoughts on characters were original though! Please stop saying exactly what I was thinking about people. It makes it harder for me to feel smart about it lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child abuse, Cursing, Violence, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Addiction, Grief, Sexual content, Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Gaslighting, Cultural appropriation, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

will be writing an essay on this. will be also have the greatest bit where I will point at any house with leaves nearby for any reason and say "OMG it's just like that thing!!!"

monroebays's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

This book demands much more of you than most, but it is so worth it. I’m sure every review says it but I’m gonna say it again: I can’t describe it, really. Just give it a try.

This is a book about a man piecing together an unfinished academic book about a documentary about a very strange house. The story of the man working on the book and the book itself make up the majority of the text. As you can imagine, it’s confusing and very layered. At some point, it starts to try to loop you into the story.

Danielewski is obsessed with the mechanics of words, paper, and knowledge. This book presents you with a tangled mess, carefully curated to confuse you, move you, scare you. And because danielewski’s deep knowledge of words is on display, you’re left wondering how fully that mess can be cleaned up into a full narrative if only you read it properly. I finished the book with many mysteries unsolved, but find myself drawn back to the book again to investigate further. If you’ve read the book already, you understand why this effect is probably why the book’s horror is so effective. 

At the end of the day, the story is kind of secondary to the reading experience. It’s crazy. It’s fun. It’s dark and sad and weird. Just give it a few chapters and see if it’s for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Violence, Vomit, Infidelity, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, and War

porcelainheart_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I was interested in this cult classic after reading the blurb for it on Amazon - a line of which claimed that this book was the sole inspiration for the backrooms. Having finally read this for myself, I can honestly say the blurb and description don't do this book any justice whatsoever. In fact, I think it's intentionally misleading. It makes you think you're about to read something along the lines of Coraline, where things aren't what they appear on the outside as opposed to the inside. A morbid yet whimsical story with a happy ending.

What you get instead is a slow catalogued descent into catatonic madness. It starts innocently enough, albeit dark, but progressively gets worse the more you read

and subsequently, the more Johnny reads and gets involved himself

. I see why this book has received the praise and admiration it has over the years - it captures with disturbingly accurate and horrifying clarity someone edging closer and closer towards the brink of insanity, to be finally being pushed off that edge, all at the turn of the century. It is highly recommended (and almost required) to read a physical copy of this book, especially for first-timers. The rambling passages

from both Johnny and Zampanô, directly implying that the same madness that overtook him in life has been passed on to Johnny when he began transcribing his manuscript after his death

, crossed out/destroyed sections, small details added into each section, the footnotes and end notes, and bizarre formatting all add to the oppressive feeling of complete derealization of the self, the ever-slipping grip of mental stability, and the overwhelming dread that this story won't have a happy ending. For anyone.

The lucid moments of clarity are seamlessly integrated with the slow descent into utter mental chaos, making it extremely difficult at times to tell what's real and what isn't, what really happened and what didn't happen. Many times as I read this book, I started questioning whether or not some of the personal interjections written by Johnny Truant

more specifically, the sexual encounters he seems to have with every one of Zampanô's personal readers that he manages to get in contact with

were actually fabricated by Truant for reasons that weren't clear at first. Only to learn that Truant was truthful in his admissions and fully admits where he lies about events and where he doesn't, somehow managing to keep even that ability despite his crumbling mental state.

Ingeniously enough, this book also makes you think that everything you're reading about is also real.

The Navidson Record, all the reviews and comments about the film from celebrities and movie critics, the academic talks and papers analyzing and scrutinizing mundane aspects of the film such as Will Navidson's return to the house on Ash Tree Lane towards the end, all of it immaculately detailed to the point of exceptional plausibility. It feels like this actually happened

. It lends credence to what I'm sure is a popular fan theory about the story - everything in the manuscript written by Zampanô; the film, the house, the stories and all the key players involved, occurred in an alternate reality.

The frequent discrepancies of time that are present throughout the story are more than just a side effect of Truant's obsession that eventually leads to a severe damaging of his sanity. Zampanô's madness

and consequently, his blindness

were likely caused by somehow glimpsing into this reality where a house existed in the Virginia countryside that, as he put it, constituted "

a rape of physics

" by producing rooms and hallways totally invisible to the outside world. A reality where such a house needed to be photographed and documented visually, else no one on the planet would believe it actually existed. And a house where so much evidence was compiled, it was turned into a major motion picture premiering around the world. Except that world wasn't our own.

The existence of this alternate timeline and reality, as well as a sudden rift within time itself that would make this reality cross over into our current reality, would be sufficient evidence for the manuscript's contents

especially Johnny's encounter with the band that plays at the bar in Flagstaff. Their lyrics make mention of the Five and a Half Minute Hallway referenced in Zampanô's manuscript, and they have a published copy of the very manuscript he's currently transcribing, well before he is finished with it

. The idea that something this elaborate is totally made up, by someone who possessed no post-secondary educational degrees

and who had been completely blind for well over two decades

is practically inconceivable.

If you've ever thought of what it must feel like to experience a psychotic break in real time, look no further than this book. Believe the thousands of reviews left of it on Amazon, Goodreads, Google and everywhere else that chronicles book reviews.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Blood, Death, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism and Sexual assault

ghostams's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

2.5

I really liked the ‘main’ plot, but the formatting and pacing was hard to deal with. Core concept very cool in my opinion, just not executed well for me😅

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, and Alcohol

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Drug use, Death, Murder, Violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal death, War, Sexual assault, and Cancer