A review by miagw962
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

challenging dark 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? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

...and this great blue world of ours seems a house of leaves moments before the wind.

What a wild ride! Didn't really know what to expect with this one so kind of went into it blind. I had a feeling it would blow me away and it did to some extent (but maybe not in the way I thought it would). I've heard people discuss this book and say how life-changing it was, how disturbing, 'they couldn't have the physical book in their room while they slept' things like that. I kind of wanted to feel something so intense like that but I didn't. I just felt that this was a really well-constructed and thought-provoking story. Endlessly interesting and frustrating, it continually held my focus and kept me thinking what would happen next. I love the story-within-a-story concept and I think Danielewski did such a good job at creating such an ambiguous piece to be interpreted by many. Who really wrote House of Leaves? I'm of the house of thought that Zampano wrote all of it, even Johnny's parts. Also, I very much believe that Zampano inserted himself into the narrative in the form of
Tom. He literally refers to Tom as 'me' on page 320. I really really love that theory because Tom's relationship to Navy was so interesting.
Definitely something I need to do more research on.

Anyway, this book was just so interactive in the way that yes, you physically have to move the book around to read some parts but you also have to think really hard about what it all means. OR you don't have to think hard and just read it at face value. There are a lot of passages that critically analyse aspects of the fictitious plot that we are reading about AS YOU READ IT which was super cool and also gave me many more ideas. Overall, I just did have a great time with this book. In my opinion, it all boils down to family relationships - everything you are is related to what your parents were to you. Your relationship with your siblings also affects the way you think and act. Your relationship to your spouse and your children also fuels your actions and feelings. At every twist and turn, whether from The Navidson Record or from Johnny's perspective, it all boiled down to relationships (
Johnny has some pretty lame ideas about women but this could be argued to have come from his understanding of his mother but I won't get into that
). House of Leaves was a family drama - it wasn't perfect but it was pretty damn beautiful.
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