Scan barcode
A review by maiagaia
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I'm rating this book and writing this review less than ten minutes after finishing the book because it has taken me months to finish it (and that's not counting a year ago when I tried to read it the first time and gave up), and I can't imagine another day of giving it real estate in my head.
Is the layout interest? Yes.
Is it unique? Yes.
Does that make a good book? God, no.
This book should have been trimmed by about 25%. Nearly every chapter and footnote ran on for far too long. Later in the book, pages are "missing" or "damaged," so we only get bits and pieces of the topic, and the book would have been better off with that effect being used earlier in the book as well.
The characters are fine enough. The narrator of sorts is an extremely stereotypical character that, while well-realized, was not interesting enough to carry a book of this length. The interesting parts of his character were pushed out of the spotlight by his recounting of every woman he fucked. I wanted more of the backstory, the fear, and the vulnerability.
There are parts of this book where the reader is supposed to feel frustrated, and it worked! Hence why it took my this long to read it. It is so bloated and self aggrandizing that I frequently put it down after only reading a handful of pages. Is this tone purposeful? I hope so because the alternative is worse. However, that makes it a miserable reading experience.
I went into this hoping and expecting to love it, and maybe if it had some MAJOR edits, I would have. Instead, I find myself on the other side wishing for a very, very different version of this story.
Is the layout interest? Yes.
Is it unique? Yes.
Does that make a good book? God, no.
This book should have been trimmed by about 25%. Nearly every chapter and footnote ran on for far too long. Later in the book, pages are "missing" or "damaged," so we only get bits and pieces of the topic, and the book would have been better off with that effect being used earlier in the book as well.
The characters are fine enough. The narrator of sorts is an extremely stereotypical character that, while well-realized, was not interesting enough to carry a book of this length. The interesting parts of his character were pushed out of the spotlight by his recounting of every woman he fucked. I wanted more of the backstory, the fear, and the vulnerability.
There are parts of this book where the reader is supposed to feel frustrated, and it worked! Hence why it took my this long to read it. It is so bloated and self aggrandizing that I frequently put it down after only reading a handful of pages. Is this tone purposeful? I hope so because the alternative is worse. However, that makes it a miserable reading experience.
I went into this hoping and expecting to love it, and maybe if it had some MAJOR edits, I would have. Instead, I find myself on the other side wishing for a very, very different version of this story.