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joshoonet's review
- 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
3.0
- The very core story of the Navidson Record is incredibly interesting and thrilling. I love the descriptions of their explorations and the uncertainty that comes with them.
- Zampanòs huge passages of discussing certain words and picking apart their meanings nearly made me stop reading, out of pure disconnection with the content. Even if it related to the core story. My god.
- Can only recommend checking out the appendixes as one goes along, they provide a more thorough understanding of the text. Although the same can't be said about the hints to other chapters. That got too confusing for me.
- LOVED the code that could be found and potentially deciphered here and there. I'm sure i missed some too.
- Overall: high concentration needed to read this, but worth it in the end. I'll keep thinking about it for a while, but won't be picking it up again anytime soon.
Graphic: Blood, Addiction, Violence, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, and Mental illness
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Alcohol, Rape, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Sexism, Death, and Drug use
Minor: Infidelity, Death of parent, Abandonment, Cancer, Car accident, and Vomit
Long, purely informative passages about the background and meaning of specific terms or topics can be skipped or skimmed. On the topic of sexual content and misogyny:reggiethebird'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, and Alcohol
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Vomit and Rape
booksaregodly's review
- 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
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
apersonfromflorida's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Drug use, Death, and Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, Drug abuse, and Rape
Minor: Vomit, Medical content, and Cancer
tristemono's review against another edition
- 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: Abandonment, Addiction, Sexual content, Drug use, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Self harm
Minor: Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death of parent, Infidelity, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Blood
addyruth17'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: Sexual content, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Animal death, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Alcohol
Minor: Car accident, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Infidelity
cosmicsapphic's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Vomit, Gore, Grief, Drug abuse, and Death
Minor: Rape
woweewhoa's review
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Body horror, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Blood
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Ableism, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Suicide, Vomit, Physical abuse, Rape, Car accident, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Minor: Homophobia and Cancer
pourrir's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
First, Danielewski really pokes fun at dense, useless academic writing by presenting the neverending footnotes, side-subjects, and haughty language as the ramblings of Zampano. It made reading the text fun, to gleefully skip past lists of fake names, books, magazine articles, and interviews that have never existed and are used only to frame the story.
Also, the formatting was used to further the suspense or the theme of each chapter perfectly, making it an engaging read. I could understand why some may not like this book, as it was challenging to follow at times (jumping back and forth through the text) but was so worth it.
Without getting into what actually happens, I really enjoyed that there was a satisfying ending (imo) to both the Navidson story and Johnny's story. At any moment I honestly expected Zampano's transcript to just end, leaving the ending even more ambiguous than it already is.
Also, filling out the content warning section of this review made me realize how messed up this book is.
Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, and Mental illness
Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Rape, and Vomit
Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, and War
lauraorourke's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
House of Leaves can only be read in physical book form. That's because the experience of reading this book is SO physical. You aren't just given a story of a house of horror. The act of reading the book itself will take you into the house, slowing you down, speeding you up, getting you lost, making you dizzy. It is that which makes this reading experience so unique, and so exciting.
House of Leaves is a multi-layered experience. In the centre is a house and a family living in that house. They discover that the inside of the house seems to be larger than the measurements on the outside. The experience of living in, and exploring that house was turned into a film, which another man spends his life trying to understand. He compiles everything he can about this film and this family, all the academic and media mentions. When he dies, a third man discovers his work, which is in fragments in an old trunk. He begins making sense of all the pieces, and putting it together, giving it order. However, regardless of the degree of separation, it seems like everyone is being haunted by this house.
My library book copy is full of post-it annotations. I found myself entirely enthralled by this book, the way it made me think and feel and reflect and fall into the house. This book is not for everybody, but I hope it's for you. Because it's nothing like other books.
(At the moment I'm rating this 4 stars. I feel like the story is 3 stars and the way the book is written is 5 stars. But I know that even the slow parts of the story (not all of it is slow!) has a purpose, and I may eventually bring this book up to a 5 star read. I have to see how long I nerd out over it, I suppose.)
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, and Murder
Minor: Cancer and Vomit