Rating: 
Summary: I've read it 11 times...
Review: ...well, not really, only twice, but I'd love to. Danielewski is a brilliant man, yet I refuse to believe he wrote the book. It taints the divine image I have of it. Johnny Truant is, in my eyes, the author who has brought together a book that occasionally touches reality when an Editor from some outside world adds his comments. An unbelieveable protagonist for a story. The outline is wonderful, the way everything is portrayed is amazing. I became obcessed with the book the first time I read it. I tucked dozens of note pages cluttered with sketches, notes, quotes, thoughts, and anecdotes inside the front flap of the paperback, scribbled in the margins, whatever I could. When you read it, it's like falling into an abyss.I love this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Go inside and take company with you
Review: I agreed with my two best friends that we would read this together as we were intrigued by what we'd heard and wanted someone to hold our hands as we went through it. Which is a great way to read a book btw! The thing that struck all of us is that the reader takes away from the book what s/he brings to it. Just as the hallway responds differently to each entrant, drawing out their inner frailties, each of us was affected differently by HOL depending on what was going on for us. So you can imagine reading it in NYC post 9/11 was interesting! We agreed it's superbly written in terms of the delineation of Johnny and Zampano's voices. A lot of the "scholarly stuff" and gratuitous use of foreign language quotes seem deliberately obscure and immature. I think it's a truly scary story a little over-dressed. Skipping between the Easton Ellis type narratives from Johnny and Zampano's detached voice worked really well in disorienting the reader, again creating a labyrinth. I thought the ending of Zampano's section was trite and pat, although Johnny's story by contrast is wonderfully unresolved.
All in all a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Read it anyway
Review: I was a bit intimidated by this book, but I'm so glad that I read it. Don't let all the references, indexes, and backwards lettering scare you away. It took a little getting used to, but once I did I was consumed by this book. The story (stories) is excellent !
Rating:
Summary: Book Co-Exists With Album of Author's Sister
Review: An interesting note on this novel: the book was co-released with the album "Haunted" by singer-songwriter Poe (best known for her 1995 hit "Angry Johnny," and who is, in actuality, Annie Danielewski, sister of Mark.) "Haunted" has songs that correspond with various themes and concepts in the book "House of Leaves." It's advisable that someone who reads this book also listen to the album before, after, or better yet, during. The two rely so heavily on each other for total comprehension that Mark and Annie toured the nation together at the time of their releases, alternating between song performances and narrating chapters of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Did I read a different book?
Review: After reading some of the reviews, both good and bad, I just have this feeling I read a totally different book. First of all, I thought House of Leaves was brilliant and innovative. I've never read anything like it. But my focus of this book was not the House, nor Navidson, nor Zampano, but Johnny, and his descent into insanity. The rest of the book is just allegory for what is going on with Johnny, don't you think? But the rest of the book was fascinating, freaky, occasionally scary, way too erudite and definitely too compelling to put down. Is it "classic literature"? Well, no, of course not. That's not the point. The point is to stretch the idea of the novel. But it is well-written, successfully alternating between character voices and vocabularies. It is not plot-driven, but that's not a problem if you delve into the characters created. And yes, the minor characters are not deeply developed, but the major ones are developed more deeply than many I've ever read before. My only complaint is the book doesn't tie things into a nice little package at the end, regarding Johnny. I'm still a bit miffed trying to figure out that last bit written by Johnny. I like the idea of the concept-novel, but I'm still stuck in the rigidity of having a nice ending that ties it all together. But maybe I need to change my expectation when dealing with something like this, and not the other way around. Given all this, I don't recommend this book unless you are open-minded and flexible. And have either a great vocabulary or a good dictionary.
Rating: 
Summary: House of Leaves: A Waste of Time
Review: I read some of the book reviews on House of Leaves and was interested whether or not the book was good. The reviews were very polarized so I took my chances. This book is nothing more than random stories thrown together with font changes and pages with upside-down words on them for effect. Do not waste your money on this book
Rating:
Summary: Send rubber bands. . .
Review: My only regret in purchasing this book is that I bought the paperback edition. Besides me, it has been through the hands of both of my teenagers and dozens of their friends (and their friends' parents), and the book has finally become unbound and tattered (maybe appropriately so.) This is definitely not the read for a wimp, but if you are up to the challenge it is wickedly delicious! I didn't laugh at all when an appraiser told me last month that my house is 1/4 inch larger inside....
Rating: 
Summary: Typesetting as Literature?
Review: This book was quite disappointing. I was looking for good scare, and how scared was I? Not at all. I understand why the typesetting was messed with, but I don't think it added much to the book, other than increasing my annoyance. I think better written passages would have conveyed much more. Turning a book upside down and sideways does not equate to good literature. The typesetting and footnotes are used here to spice up a fairly dull story. It's not awful awful awful, but I've read better.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, it did freak me out. Why?
Review: Incredibly enjoyable. This book is what "The Blair Witch Project" always wanted to be. It is frequently chilling and peppered with details that make the book stand out among modern haunted house tales. Worth every penny.
Rating: 
Summary: House of Tease
Review: I really really wanted to like this book. I was insanely intrigued in the bookstore after reading all the hyped-up blurbs on the covers, flipping through the artfully laid out text and the majority of postings here. But, like most things, this book doesn't live up to that hype. (In this respect as well, it warrants similar comparisons to "The Blair Witch Project".) There are moments of brilliance and creepiness, but overall it's pretty dull. Some of the layouts are cool, but several are just plain self-indulgent and frustrating to have to plough through. (This is definitely a book where skimming is allowed.) Danielewski does the correct, clever thing in never naming or explaining the exact nature or reasons for what's going on in the house. Any answer would be a letdown and leaving it up the individual's imagination is what makes it (hopefully) creepier. And he's calls it early on that he's not going to explain it. So it becomes a tedious teasing act. Overall, it's mildly entertaining, but I'm certainly glad I checked this out of the library and didn't plunk down [price] for it. I suggest you do the same.
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