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A review by happi_mess
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
dark
slow-paced
1.0
An Editor’s Nightmare
While I admire the innovativeness and the amount of research that was probably put in creating this book, I just think that this is a load of crap.
It says on the cover page that this is a novel. It read more like a thesis or an actual textbook with what happened. They said there are scraps of paper—that these are NOTES. Who takes notes like these?!
Texts in different fonts, colors, orientations filled with references and things that do not really contribute much to the story.
Oh and aside from that, we got another narrator whose importance to the story I missed (i think). And all he does is fantasize and talk about women and sex but he’s not really contributing anything helpful to the story. Cutting the pages of the original story line so he could put his life in the footnotes is something I despised. It's taking the focus away from the main story. I started to skip his parts and enjoyed the book better.
We went from whole pages. Then pages with one liners. Then pages with just one word each. Like wtf.
The tree where the paper came from to create this book is not enjoying its afterlife.
And to go into detail with EACH of character’s personality, decisions making skills, relationship to each other, even interviewing their friends—STUDYING THEM AS A WHOLE… THEY’RE NOT THAT INTERESTING. Tell me more about the house and what happened to it and give me answers. But it didn’t.
I doubt that if this happens in real life, people will not go into a legitimate academic study about the PEOPLE inside the house.
This is spoon feeding at its finest. Theres nothing left here for the imagination as EVERY LITTLE THING is not only explained but backed by ‘fake’ scientific / academic sources complete with footnotes, index, exhibits, and a glossary!!
No horror. No scared feeling at all throughout this entire mass of a book.
I was so excited to finally hold this book in my hands. I thought it would be super amazing. I think that the premise was great. The story just did not go in the direction I hope it did.
Still, the experience was something new and it was fun to turn the book in different orientations. But it does not save the lackluster story inside of it.
P.S. Another good thing here is Tom and his relationship with the kids.
While I admire the innovativeness and the amount of research that was probably put in creating this book, I just think that this is a load of crap.
It says on the cover page that this is a novel. It read more like a thesis or an actual textbook with what happened. They said there are scraps of paper—that these are NOTES. Who takes notes like these?!
Texts in different fonts, colors, orientations filled with references and things that do not really contribute much to the story.
Oh and aside from that, we got another narrator whose importance to the story I missed (i think). And all he does is fantasize and talk about women and sex but he’s not really contributing anything helpful to the story. Cutting the pages of the original story line so he could put his life in the footnotes is something I despised. It's taking the focus away from the main story. I started to skip his parts and enjoyed the book better.
We went from whole pages. Then pages with one liners. Then pages with just one word each. Like wtf.
The tree where the paper came from to create this book is not enjoying its afterlife.
And to go into detail with EACH of character’s personality, decisions making skills, relationship to each other, even interviewing their friends—STUDYING THEM AS A WHOLE… THEY’RE NOT THAT INTERESTING. Tell me more about the house and what happened to it and give me answers. But it didn’t.
I doubt that if this happens in real life, people will not go into a legitimate academic study about the PEOPLE inside the house.
This is spoon feeding at its finest. Theres nothing left here for the imagination as EVERY LITTLE THING is not only explained but backed by ‘fake’ scientific / academic sources complete with footnotes, index, exhibits, and a glossary!!
No horror. No scared feeling at all throughout this entire mass of a book.
I was so excited to finally hold this book in my hands. I thought it would be super amazing. I think that the premise was great. The story just did not go in the direction I hope it did.
Still, the experience was something new and it was fun to turn the book in different orientations. But it does not save the lackluster story inside of it.
P.S. Another good thing here is Tom and his relationship with the kids.