House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

House of Leaves is an epistolary fiction and metafiction novel focusing on a fictional documentary film titled the Navidson Record, presented as a story within a story discussed in a handwritten monograph recovered by the primary narrator, Johnny Truant. The narrative makes heavy use of multiperspectivity as Truant's footnotes chronicle his efforts to transcribe the manuscript, which itself reveals the Navidson Record's supposed narrative through transcriptions and analysis depicting a story of a family who discovers a larger-on-the-inside labyrinth in their house.

a fun and healthy challenge. i approve.

I finished the book last night but it's still on my mind this morning because I can't find the words to... summarise? Explain? Express how I feel?

It's a helluva book. Some parts were difficult to read because of how experimental it is, but I'm glad I powered through. There are beautiful quotes dotted throughout the book, and the story is hauntingly beautiful.

I've yet to come to my own conclusion about what the message behind the book is, but I have a feeling it will come to me in a slow, unsuspecting method and will blow my mind again.

Please read this book. But then again, please don't read this book.

Initially I was really excited. I have wanted to read this book for a while. It was supposedly a complicated experimental, weirdly formatted horror novel that was ‘very scary' to quote a vague memory I have of someone somewhere saying that. But sadly it wasn't that great.

First off, it really wasn't that scary. There were some parts that were scary, notably one in the beginning and one at the very end. However that was really it. The way this is told in this academic analysis of a film totally takes you out of the narrative. It not only does this in tiny snippets but also in giant pages and pages long chapters that really serve absolutely no purpose other than apparently explaining the nature of an echo for 20 pages.

But besides that, this novel was incredibly sexist. All of the female characters are described as beautiful, they mostly all fuck Johnny for some fucking reason. Vividly described sex scenes in the middle of scary passages exploring a creepy house are not only completely unnecessary and not at all adding to the plot or the vibe or literally everything, but they also show the characters to be extremely misogynistic. Not only the natator but also basically every character in this whole fucking book. It is honestly a miracle I got through it at all.

By the end reading this had become a chore because I could not leave a 700-page book unfinished when I was already halfway through. The idea was so interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the pages of passages describing the explorations and rescue attempts. However I do feel about 300 pages could have been sliced and it would legit be better. Those extra words didn't add anything to it and only made it worse.

I am highly disappointed and I would not recommend this at all.

20 000 characters are not enough to describe this book, haha.
Just experience it for yourself. Be sure to pull through even if it distracts you. It's a book you will remember for years.