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A review by adamchalmers
The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May by Mark Z. Danielewski
4.0
Let's get this out of the way: not as good as House of Leaves. No way. It has all the MZD trappings - the typography, colors, text all over the page, images - it's possibly more elaborate than House of Leaves. But the story doesn't hold up nearly as much. There's 9 different characters with their own chapters, and you only really care about 3.
And yet.
Somehow I couldn't put it down. I wanted to - I thought 'this is getting kinda boring' a number of times, but I still kept reading. Because I guess TF1 is a promise about the rest of the series. It's an introduction. Just setting up the stage.
Ultimately I can't recommend it yet - not until I know if the rest of the series keeps the promise made in TF1. But if you're already a MZD fan, then you may as well get started. Personally, I don't care if TF turns out good or bad. I just want it to be interesting. So I'll buy TF2 and probably 3, and we'll see if this goes anywhere.
And yet.
Somehow I couldn't put it down. I wanted to - I thought 'this is getting kinda boring' a number of times, but I still kept reading. Because I guess TF1 is a promise about the rest of the series. It's an introduction. Just setting up the stage.
Ultimately I can't recommend it yet - not until I know if the rest of the series keeps the promise made in TF1. But if you're already a MZD fan, then you may as well get started. Personally, I don't care if TF turns out good or bad. I just want it to be interesting. So I'll buy TF2 and probably 3, and we'll see if this goes anywhere.